Thaindian News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) – Wikileaks on Wednesday released a classified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) memorandum that postulates of the hypothetical circumstance that foreign countries viewed the U.S. as an exporter of terrorism.

The whistle-blower group released the memo a day after it announced that it would distribute a classified document originating from the CIA. The memo discusses a hypothetical situation, in where the United States is seen by other foreign powers as an exporter of terrorism. The report looked at a number of cases where U.S. citizens have propagated acts of terror, unbeknownst to the U.S. government, and concluded that foreign perceptions of the U.S. as an exporter of terrorism in combination with U.S. double standards in relation to international law would lead to noncooperation of rendition requests by the U.S. and possibly secret rendition operations inside the U.S. by foreign governments.

The memo noted the history of some Irish-Americans providing financial support to violent wings of the IRA, and said that the organization, which disbanded its violent activities in 1997, received most of its financial support from U.S. Irish-American funding. It used this as an example of a possible action taken by al-Qaeda funders operating from within the U.S. to conduct terrorist attacks and fund those who seek to harm Americans. It continued, saying that the widespread use of social networking such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and other sites like it, enables radical clerics and terrorists to influence Americans from outside America’s physical borders.

The impact on foreign relations, the memo predicted, would be catastrophic. “Foreign regimes could request information on U.S. citizens they deem to be terrorists or terrorist supporters, or even request the rendition of U.S. citizens,” the classified document detailed. “U.S. failure to cooperate could result in those governments refusing to allow the U.S. to extra terrorist suspects from their soil, straining alliances and bilateral relations.” It also postulated that in extreme cases, U.S. refusal to cooperate with foreign governments in extradition requests could lead to some governments secretly extracting U.S. citizens from U.S. soil for interrogation and imprisonment.

A U.S. official commented on the leak, confirming its authenticity, MSNBC reported. The official commented, saying that the paper isn’t “exactly a blockbuster.” CBS News’ National Security Correspondent David Martin said that the memo is something that would typically end up in the op-ed column, and the only mystery is why it’s classified ‘Secret’. The memo is labeled “SECRET//NOFORN”, which classifies it as a Secret level classification and that foreign operatives are not allowed to access it.

The memo was released under a ‘CIA Red Cell’ directive, which was charged by the Director of Intelligence, currently former Lt. General James R. Clapper, to commission “out-of-the-box” approaches to intelligence that will “provoke thought and offer an alternative viewpoint on the full range of analytic issues.”

The information within the memo doesn’t immediately appear damning to U.S. public image or national security, but it’s still unclear how Wikileaks got hold of the memo. It’s suspected that Army Soldier PFC Bradley Manning leaked over 91,000 documents relating to the War in Afghanistan, a leak that embarrassed the U.S. Government and is the largest leak in U.S. military history. However, the CIA memo doesn’t appear to be related to the War in Afghanistan. It’s unknown whether the U.S. government believes the CIA memo came from a different source, or if they believe that it was in fact leaked by PFC Manning.