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Hacked EU cables hailed Trump meeting as success (for Putin) Russia may have nuclear arms in Crimea, hacked EU cables warn
(about 3 hours later)
Hackers accessed the European Union’s diplomatic communications network for years, downloading cables that revealed concerns about the Trump administration, struggles to deal with Russia and China, and the risk of Iran reviving its nuclear programme, the New York Times has reported. Brussels has launched an investigation into the apparent hacking of the EU’s diplomatic communications network after thousands of cables were made public, including descriptions of Donald Trump as a “bully” and Crimea as a “hot zone” where nuclear weapons may now be present.
More than 1,100 cables were supplied to the Times by the security firm Area 1 after it discovered the breach, the newspaper said, adding that Area 1 investigators believed the hackers worked for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The dump of confidential cables on a public site lays bare the concerns of EU diplomats and officials over the Trump administration and its dealings with Russia and China.
The cables include memorandums of conversations with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Israel and other countries that were shared across the EU, according to the report. Among the reports made public was a warning on 8 February that Crimea had been turned into a “hot zone where nuclear warheads might have already been deployed”.
In one cable, the Times said, European diplomats described a meeting between the US president, Donald Trump, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Finland as “successful (at least for Putin)”. Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian territory in 2014. In public, neither the EU nor the US has suggested there is any evidence of the presence of nuclear weapons.
Another, written after a 16 July meeting, gave a detailed report and analysis of talks between European officials and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who was quoted comparing Trump’s “bullying” of Beijing to a “no-rules freestyle boxing match”. The EU’s secretariat said in response to the first report of the leak in the New York Times that it was “aware of allegations regarding a potential leak of sensitive information” and was “actively investigating the issue”.
A third, from 7 March, shows Caroline Vicini, the deputy head of the EU mission in Washington, recommending that the trade bloc’s diplomats describe the US as “our most important partner” even as it challenged Trump “in areas where we disagreed with the US (eg, on climate, trade, Iran nuclear deal)”. Much of the contents of the cables merely confirms publicly stated worries in Brussels about the Trump administration, and the descent of the world’s rules-based order, but the security breach will be a major concern.
The hackers also infiltrated the networks of the UN, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and ministries of foreign affairs and finance worldwide, the report added. According to one note, European diplomats described July’s meeting in Finland between Trump and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as “successful (at least for Putin)”.
Donald Trump In a press conference after the meeting, Trump had gone off-script. He appeared to offer the Russians the opportunity to question US intelligence agents in exchange for US interrogation of Russians indicted by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is investigating claims of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Moscow.
According to a 20 July note White House officials subsequently assured the EU that Trump’s agreement would be “nipped down”.
A second cable, detailing a discussion held on 16 July between European officials and Xi Jinping, quotes the Chinese president as comparing Trump’s “bullying” of his government over trade to a “no-rules freestyle boxing match”.
The account further quoted the Chinese president vowing that his country “would not submit to bullying” from the US, “even if a trade war hurt everybody”.
“China was not a backward country any more,” the European diplomat noted Xi as saying.
A cable in March quoted EU officials speaking of “messaging efforts” to mitigate “the negative attitude to the EU [of the Trump administration] in the beginning, which had created a lot of insecurity”.
Caroline Vicini, the deputy head of the EU mission in Washington, suggested that diplomats from member states continued to describe the US as “our most important partner”. The cable also recommended bypassing Trump by dealing with Congress.
The notes, covering three years of diplomatic activity, had apparently been posted online by hackers, where they were discovered by a company called Area 1, who passed the information on to the New York Times.
The newspaper said the techniques deployed by the hackers resembled those used by a unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
The hackers are also said to have infiltrated the networks of the UN during the months in 2016 when North Korea was launching missiles. References are reportedly made to confidential meetings of the UN secretary general, António Guterres, with leaders in south-east Asia.
European UnionEuropean Union
Donald Trump
EuropeEurope
Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin
HackingHacking
ChinaChina
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