WASHINGTON – U.S. diplomats have been asked by Washington to gather detailed financial data on their foreign counterparts, including the kinds of information usually sought by spies, according to diplomatic cables made public on Sunday.
The cables, part of a massive release of secret U.S. dispatches by the activist website Wikileaks, show that U.S. diplomats have been asked to gather foreign diplomats’ credit card, frequent flier numbers and iris scans, as well as information on their internet identities and the telecommunications networks they use.
The activities are laid out in dispatches that describe how the diplomats must fulfill their obligations under a previously undisclosed program called the “National Humint Collection Directive.” In the intelligence world, “Humint” is an abbreviation for “human intelligence.”
U.S. intelligence agencies often have assigned intelligence agents to work overseas under diplomatic cover. But if foreign governments became convinced that all U.S. diplomats function as spies, it could put at risk their ability to conduct normal diplomatic activities and increase the odds that they could be expelled for espionage, a retired diplomat said Sunday.
Wikileaks released the cables in advance to five U.S. and European news organizations, which began reporting their contents online on Sunday.
The cables, dating from the Bush administration in 2008 into the Obama administration in 2009, also show the State Department had a keen interest in the activities of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and his staff.
A cable from July 2009 instructs U.S. diplomats to gather personal information on United Nations officials, including cell phones, pagers and faxes; internet and intranet handles; e-mail addresses; credit card account numbers; frequent flier account numbers and work schedules.
It asked diplomats to pass on to the intelligence community the “plans and intentions” of UN officials on key issues, including Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. Diplomats are also asked to seek “biographic and biometric” information on North Korean representatives to the United Nations.
Wayne E. White, a former senior official in the State Department’s intelligence arm, said some of the activities of diplomats described in the cables are routine, such as gathering information on foreign officials’ biographies, tastes, family life, work schedule and contact information. The State Department wants to know what it can about the activities and even personal tastes of key officials, he said.
But detailed financial information, such as credit card numbers and frequent flier identification numbers, “strikes me as odd,” White said.
The disclosure that U.S. diplomats have been seeking such information “could upset a number of foreign governments,” he said.
Philip J. Crowley, the chief State Department spokesman, disputed that there has been a blurring of lines between diplomats and spies.
“Our diplomats are just that, diplomats,” he said. “They represent our country around the world and engage openly and transparently with representatives of foreign governments and civil society. Through this process, they collect information that shapes our policies and actions. This is what diplomats, for our country and other countries, have done for hundreds of years.”