Interpreter,monks — US ‘sources’ bared

While nations across the world are now going through the cables with a fine toothed comb to pick up clues to stem leaks,an initial survey points to several Indian nationals and prominent persons in neighbouring countries who were sharing views or information with the US.

One of them is an Indian Chinese language interpreter — also an official at the Indian Embassy in Beijing — who in October 2009 shared details of a meeting between Premier Wen Jiabao and PM Manmohan Singh on the margins of the East Asia Summit in Thailand. While the official has not been named,there are enough clues in the cable to pinpoint his identity. The official whose identity has been marked as ‘strictly protect’ in the cable told the US that contrary to negative media reports,the meeting was productive and the two leaders shared a friendly rapport.

Another cable of December 2005 tells the tale of a senior MEA official sharing details of a secret Indian military base in Tajikistan. Then MEA Joint Secretary (Eurasia) Jaimini Bhagwati told US officials that India was operating a military outpost in Tajikistan that offered a good ‘listening post’. This information was also marked ‘strictly protect’ in the cables.

The cables also reveal the good understanding between US and UK on India affairs,including the sharing of an MEA briefing on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s India visit that was given to London in confidence.

A cable from March 2005 describes a meeting with a protected ‘Sonia loyalist and Congress spin master’ — Rajiv Desai — who shares his opinion that Congress would emerge as the winner in Bihar and Jharkhand polls. “Desai was also confident that Mrs Gandhi would successfully disassociate herself from the more tawdry aspects of recent events,while insisting that Jharkhand Governor Razi was incapable of taking such a dramatic step on his own. Now that the Congress leadership has focused on Jharkhand and Bihar,he maintained,it will end the situation quickly,” the cable reads.

Another cable from November 2009 ‘exposes’ a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist who was in touch with Indian intelligence officials and was trying to ‘moderate’ the Maoists.

The most serious leaks,however,are in the China cables that reveals a plethora of people that were in touch with the US embassy. This included monks in Tibet,businessmen and small time shop owners in Lhasa and Chinese intellectuals who shared their often contrarion view of Beijing with US officials.