US embassy cables: UN seeks answers from Washington: "
United Nations official says US order to diplomats to glean intelligence on UN leadership may breach international law
The United Nations has hit back at a US spying operation targeting its leadership with a warning that any violation of its 'immunity' may breach international law.
Senior UN officials yesterday made representations to the US government about a leaked secret cable sent to American diplomats which demanded detailed intelligence on the UN leadership including forensic detail about their communications systems, including passwords and personal encryption keys.
UN officials said they were taken by surprise at the 'unusual extent and detail of the activity in the documents' which calls for 'biometric' information on 'key UN officials' and the permanent representatives of the security council from China, Russia, France and the UK.
Sources indicated a formal complaint could follow if and when more information about Washington's secret operation emerges.
Within hours of release of America's 'National Human Intelligence Directive on the United Nations', UN spokesman Farhan Haq issued a pointed statement reminding member states that the UN relies on their adherence to treaties and agreements about respecting the institution's inviolability.
'The UN Charter, the Headquarters Agreement and the 1946 Convention contain provisions relating to the privileges and immunities of the Organisation,' he said. 'The UN relies on the adherence by member states to these various undertakings.'
He noted a clause in the convention which states: 'The property and assets of the United Nations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference, whether by executive, administrative, judicial, or legislative action.'
Haq added: 'The UN is by its very nature a transparent organisation that makes a great deal of information about its activities available to the public and member states. UN officials regularly meet representatives of member states to brief them on UN activities.'
The cable was issued under Hillary Clinton's name in July 2009 and asked for credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers and even frequent-flyer account numbers for UN figures as well as 'biographic and biometric information on UN security council representatives'.
Concern at the scope of the demands was mixed with resignation at the UN's New York headquarters where one source said 'espionage does not come as a surprise here'.
Other experienced diplomats were taken aback by the level of detail demanded by Washington from its missions at the UN headquarters in New York, Vienna and Rome, and at 33 embassies around the world.
'I am surprised at just how determined America seems to be to obtain information and the array of options Washington has asked its diplomats at the UN to pursue, asking for pins and encryption codes,' said Alex Vines, a sanctions inspector at the UN until 2007 and now a foreign policy adviser at Chatham House.
He said it may be a symptom of the Obama administration's increasing need to operate through the UN after declining influence during the Bush presidency.
'The world is much more fractious than it was a decade ago, so knowing and working the UN system is much more important to the US which can no longer ignore it completely.'
Carne Ross, a former British diplomat at the UN who now runs the Independent Diplomat advisory group, said: 'The fact that the US is spying on the UN can't be a surprise. Lots of countries do it, including our own.'
He said the orders were most likely aimed at US intelligence operatives working in American missions to the UN.
'Snooping around getting people's credit card numbers is not what you want to do if you want to be taken seriously [as a diplomat] at the UN,' he said.
Speaking on the BBC Today programme, Sir Christopher Meyer, the UK's former ambassador to Washington, claimed any suggestion that the cable was asking diplomats to spy was 'a serious misinterpretation'.
'In reality this is the usual vast bureaucratic laundry list dumped by the US intelligence establishment on diplomats around the world asking them to do a number of things,' he said.
'If I was to get these instructions, one thing I would say to myself is it is not possible to get the credit cards, the biometric features or the frequent-flyer card of Ban Ki-moon or any of his staff'.
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