WikiLeaks set to claim first victim

The American Ambassador to Tripoli has been recalled for consultations at the United States State Department and might not be allowed to return to his post because of comments about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that he included in a classified cable made public by WikiLeaks late last year.

While US officials have spoken in general terms before about the potential damage done to America's diplomatic operations by the cascade of supposedly secret cables unleashed by the whistle-blowing website, a decision not to send the envoy, Gene Cretz, back to his embassy in Libya would offer a first concrete example.

While no formal protest has been lodged, Tripoli has voiced concern to Washington about the contents of a missive sent by Cretz to Washington in September 2009 ahead of Gaddafi arriving in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. It was entitled A Glimpse into Libyan Leader Gaddafi's Eccentricities.

Known to be prickly about anything said in connection with their leader that implies disrespect, the Libyan camp might have taken umbrage at Cretz's reference to Gaddafi purportedly relying heavily on a Ukrainian nurse described as a "voluptuous blonde". Or perhaps it was the news that Gaddafi, who took control of Libya in 1969, hates flying over water and high hotel floors, but loves flamenco.

In any event, the surfacing of the cable in the New York Times, courtesy of WikiLeaks, has presented the State Department and its chief, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with a dilemma. Its officials stress that there is no question of anyone seeking to punish Cretz and insist that it remains crucial that envoys abroad remain candid in offering their (private) assessments of foreign partners.

On the other hand, the affair is threatening unnecessarily to further tangle what is already a deeply complicated, but also singularly important, relationship between Washington and Tripoli.

The White House has instructed every US Government department and agency to create "insider threat" programmes that will ferret out disgruntled or untrustworthy employees who might be tempted to leak the sort of state secrets recently made public by the website WikiLeaks.

A 13-page memo detailing the new policy urges senior civil servants to beef up cyber security and hire teams of psychiatrists and sociologists who can "detect behavioural changes". They will then monitor the moods and attitudes of staff who are allowed to access classified information.

The move is designed to prevent further embarrassing disclosures. Unfortunately, just 48 hours after being sent, a copy was leaked to NBC news, who posted it on their website.

- INDEPENDENT