Post your favorite State Department cable here.

[JackRiddler]

Please post cables from the Wikileaks release, which are now in the public domain, that you think are important. Include a brief comment if you wish.

.

2007: Yemen, US, appear to have cooked up a miniature Gulf of Tonkin incident, announcing that a downed US drone spy plane was actually Iranian!

The cable is at http://213.251.145.96/cable/2007/04/07SANAA473.html

Cable 07SANAA473 wrote:
S E C R E T SANAA 000473

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/31/2017
TAGS: PREL MASS YM
SUBJECT: (S) UNMANNED USG AIRCRAFT WASHES ASHORE, OFFICIAL
MEDIA REPORTS DOWNED IRANIAN "SPY PLANE"

REF: STATE 32641

Classified By: CDA NABEEL KHOURY, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

¶1. (S) On March 27, Yemeni military officers discovered an
unmanned USG reconnaissance aircraft (Scan Eagle) that had
washed ashore on the Arabian Sea coast in the province of
Hadramaut. The President's Office immediately protested the
incident to CDA and requested an explanation. Initially
unaware of any USG operations in the area, Post learned after
further inquiry that the reconnaissance aircraft belonged to
the U.S.S. Ashland, which had been patrolling as part of
CTF-150, 60 nautical miles off the Yemeni coast. The
aircraft had crashed in international waters on March 17 and
had not been recovered.

¶2. (S) On March 28, CDA spoke with President Saleh (who was
attending the Arab League summit in Riyadh) via telephone and
confirmed that the aircraft belonged to the U.S. Navy. He
assured Saleh that the plane crashed performing routine
reconnaissance near the ship and had not been operating in
Yemeni territory. CDA also met separately with Interior
Minister Rashad Alimi and Ammar Saleh, Deputy Director of the
National Security Bureau, and presented both with general
information on the aircraft.

¶3. (S) President Saleh expressed doubt as to the plane's
actual mission, but promised CDA that the ROYG would not
"turn this into an international incident" and would instruct
government officials not to comment. On March 29, official
and pro-government media sources reported that the Yemeni
military had shot down an Iranian "spy plane" off the coast
of Hadramaut, after communicating with "multinational forces"
in the region. Independent daily Al-Ayam (largest
circulating independent newspaper), quoted an unnamed Yemeni
military official as confirming that the plane belonged to
the American government, but would not comment on whether the
plane was shot down or discovered after crashing.

¶4. (S) Comment: President Saleh clearly believes the
unmanned aircraft had been performing reconnaissance in
Yemeni territory when it crashed. He could have taken the
opportunity to score political points by appearing tough in
public against the United States, but chose instead to blame
Iran. No doubt focused on the unrest in Saada and our
support for the transfer of excess armored personnel carriers
from neighboring countries (reftel), Saleh decided he would
benefit more from painting Iran as the bad guy in this case.
End Comment.
KHOURY

[JackRiddler]

1. 2009-02-24 Khartoum: Sudan blames US for aerial bombing attacks that killed 88.

09KHARTOUM249 2009-02-24 10:10 2010-12-06 21:09 SECRET//NOFORN Embassy Khartoum

O 241054Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3064
S E C R E T KHARTOUM 000249

NOFORN
DEPARTMENT FOR AF A A/S CARTER, AF/SPG, NEA/IPA, ISN/CATR,
NSC FOR MGAVIN AND CHUDSON

EO 12958 DECL: 02/24/2019
TAGS ETTC, MASS, PARM, PGOV, PREL, SU

SUBJECT: SUDAN COMPLAINS OF “PROBABLY AMERICAN” BOMBING
ATTACKS IN EASTERN SUDAN

REF: A. KHARTOUM 120 B. KHARTOUM 107 C. KHARTOUM 82 D. KHARTOUM 59

Classified By: CDA Alberto M. Fernandez for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

¶1. (S) CDA Fernandez was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on the morning of February 24 by Americas Department head Ambassador Nasreddin Wali. Wali said that he had sensitive and worrisome information to relate to the Charge. Reading from hand-written notes in Arabic and referring to a large dog-eared map brought in for the occasion, Wali said that there had been two air attacks on Eastern Sudan in January and February. In the January attack, 43 people were killed and 17 vehicles destroyed. This occurred near Magd, in the Gebeit region of Red Sea state, “the Northern part of an area known as Oku” (phonetic). It is roughly at the latitude of 17 degrees and longitude of 33.5, according to Wali.

¶2. (S) The second attack occurred on February 20 at Bir al-Mansurab (latitude of 17 degrees and longitude of 34, according to Wali). The second attack was 15 kilometers from the site of the January attack. In the February attack, 45 Sudanese were kalled and 14 vehicles destroyed. Both attacks occurred 150 kilometers deep inside Sudan, not near any international border.

¶3. (S) Wali said that “we assume that the planes that attacked us are your planes.” He said that Sudan has had “tight cooperation” with the United States on security matters and any concerns that the USG has about security related issues can be raised within the context of bilateral diplomatic and intelligence relations between the two countries. He added that “Sudan would like to have clarification about this matter. We protest this act and we condemn it. Sudan reserves the right to respond appropriately, at the right time, in a legal manner consistent with protecting its sovereignty.”

¶4. (S) Comment: This complaint by Sudan comes on the heels of the Embassy being tasked by Washington to demarche Khartoum on weapons smuggling issues possibly involving Iran and Hamas (reftels a-c). So it is easy for the regime to assume that the demarches and these kinetic incidents are somehow connected. The initial attack is already the object of gossip by elements of Sudan’s political elite, even outside the tight confines of the regime’s inner circle (reftel d). CDA had already scheduled an Emergency Action Committee meeting on February 24 to discuss the Embassy’s security posture in the runup to the March 4 ICC announcement and this latest news is an additional concern in a very volatile political environment. Embassy requests Washington guidance on what - if any - formal response should be given to the Sudanese. And should this potentially explosive story somehow leak to the sensationalistic Sudanese press, it could very well turn our security situation here from bad to worse. End comment.
FERNANDEZ