US envoy assessing WikiLeaks fallout
2011-01-06 11:10
Washington - The US ambassador to Libya is in Washington discussing how he can return to Tripoli and do his job amid fallout from leaked US diplomatic cables, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also said there were other countries where a US ambassador's work was affected by the leaked documents and Washington is evaluating whether "changes" may be needed.
The State Department official stopped short of saying Gene Cretz, who became the first US ambassador to Tripoli in 36 years when he took up his post in late 2008, might have to be replaced.
US diplomatic cables disclosed by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks alleged that Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi fears flying over water, prefers staying on the ground floor and almost never travels without his trusted Ukrainian nurse.
Concerns
"Have the Libyans expressed concerns to us about WikiLeaks? Yes," the official told reporters.
"If you have a sitting ambassador whose name is at the bottom of a cable, whether he or she wrote it or not, obviously the leak of these cables has an impact on the relationship between an ambassador and the government with which he or she engages," the official said.
"One of the issues that we are evaluating is his ability to serve our interests as ambassador in light of what's happened," the official said.
He said the Libyans did not go as far as saying they preferred the United States name another ambassador in his place.
The official said Cretz was recalled for routine consultations and the issue of WikiLeaks came up while he was in Washington.
Speaking at his daily briefing, State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley said: "All I will just say is that he (Cretz) remains our ambassador to Libya. He is back here for consultations.
'Not unique to Libya'
"Part of those consultations will be reflecting on where we are in our relationship with Libya," he said.
The senior US official who asked not to be named said the relationship between US ambassadors and a number of governments have been affected by the mass disclosure of US cables from embassies worldwide by WikiLeaks.
"This is not unique to Libya," he said.
"On ongoing basis we are evaluating whether any changes will have to be made. That is something we have been doing for the last six weeks," when the leaks were first disclosed, the senior official said.
On November 28, the New York Times published the confidential State Department cables about Gaddafi, which had been released by WikiLeaks.
The cable from September 2009 describes how Gaddafi's preferences for shorter flights and accommodation on the ground floor created logistical headaches for his staff, and that the Libyan leader never travelled without a certain Ukrainian nurse at his side.
Normalisation of ties
Gaddafi had a team of nurses and "relies heavily on his long-time Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska, who has been described as a 'voluptuous blonde'," said a secret cable from the Tripoli embassy dated September 29 2009.
Cretz was named ambassador in 2008 after the United States and Libya cleared the last hurdle to a full normalisation of ties with Tripoli compensating US victims of terrorist attacks in the 1980s.
Relations between Libya and the United States have see-sawed repeatedly over 30 years. Diplomatic relations were broken in 1981 and only restored in 2004 after Libya renounced its quest for weapons of mass destruction.