Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former prime minister of Denmark and head responsible for his nation joining the 'Coalition of the Willing' now Secretary General of NATO is mentioned in the latest leaks on Wikileaks.org.
Judge for yourself from deep within the file '2010/02/10ANKARA302.html':
Date Classification Origin
2010-02-25 11:11 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Ankara[...]
BILATERAL EUROPEAN RELATIONS, NATO
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¶17. (C) Burns inquired about Turkey's bilateral relations with Europe. Sinirlioglu briefly recapped Turkey's unhappiness with Sarkozy. He described his country's relationship with Austria as infected by the latter's ethnic prejudice. He complained Belgium and Denmark are reluctant to suppress terrorist PKK-affiliated organizations active in their countries. Tacan Ildem added that, as part of the 2009 POTUS-brokered deal that had overcome Turkish objections to the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO Secretary General, Denmark had promised to clarify its legal requirements prerequiste to acceding to Turkey's request for the closure of Roj TV, a PKK mouthpiece. This still needed to be done, Ildem said.¶18. (C) Picking up from Ildem, Sinirlioglu recalled the ANKARA 00000302 005 OF 005 POTUS-brokered deal had included an understanding that a qualified Turk would be considered for Assistant Secretary General. Instead, he said, a German of uncompelling merit was selected. "We suspect a deal between Rasmussen and Merkel." Ildem complained high-level positions should be part of NATO reform: "We missed an opportunity with the selection of the Assistant Secretary General." Sinirlioglu added: "We let Rasmussen have Secretary General, because we trusted you."
Remember the Muhammad Cartoon Crisis? At that time Anders Fogh Rasmussen was firm in telling the Arab world how it was impossible for him to censor the cartoons - in which he was right since he was prime minister in a democracy. But how does this compute with his apparent promise to Turkey that he'd help them shut down Kurdish freedom of speech!?
Very strange. But it worked. Turkey supported him and he is now NATO chief.
Read, for example, Denmark: Kurdish TV Station Accused of Supporting Terrorism:
Roj TV, a Kurdish-language satellite television station based in Denmark has been accused of supporting terrorism by the Danish attorney-general. It may lose its broadcasting license once the case goes to trial. [...] The Danish Radio and Television Board granted Roj TV a license in 2004. Since then, the board has twice determined that the broadcasts did not violate any Danish rules. In Denmark, freedom of speech is valued highly. Many politicians and bloggers have argued that closing the station would be wrong.
While this one might not be the biggest revelation in Wikileaks - indeed some might even have been suspecting exactly something like this to have happened behind closed doors - isn't the thin red line from Cartoons over Turkey and Coalition of the Willing to NATO a bit unnerving?
