Swedish Paper: WikiLeaks to Reveal Swedish Foreign Minister Bildt as US 'Spy'

[Keith Millea]

Published on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 by Common Dreams

Swedish Paper: WikiLeaks to Reveal Swedish Foreign Minister Bildt as US 'Spy'

Common Dreams staff

WikiLeaks aims to release documents exposing Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt as a US spy, as part of a campaign to stop Sweden from extraditing founder Julian Assange to the United States, according to a Swedish daily.



Expressen reported on Wednesday that WikiLeaks has threatened in an internal memo to publish a diplomatic cable 'where Sweden Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is shown to have been an informant for the United States since the 1970s,' the Expressen tabloid reported on Wednesday, saying it had seen the WikiLeaks memo.
They report: "According to WikiLeaks, Bildt's original contact is political consultant Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, and someone who Bildt has openly referred to as "an old friend"."

* * *

The Local, Swedish news in english, reports:
[...] "This is going to hurt Sweden more than the debate about the Mohammad cartoons," a source with knowledge of the matter told Expressen.

As Assange enters the final stages of his legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, his colleagues at WikiLeaks have begun preparing for how to prevent the Swedish government from extraditing the founder of the whistle-blower website to the United States.

"That the Swedish government doesn't take this seriously but rather makes it easier for the American government means Sweden finds itself among the countries that don't support transparency, the rights of the individual, and human rights," the internal WikiLeaks memo reads.

"That puts Sweden and the country's reputation in great danger and the Swedish government is going to be forced to answer to global public opinion which will hold them responsible for not letting people around the world access information to which they have a right."

"WikiLeaks officials are convinced that Sweden has already made a deal with the United States that would see Assange extradited there to testify against Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of leaking thousands of classified US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. There are also fears that Assange could be arrested and put on trial for espionage against the United States"WikiLeaks officials are convinced that Sweden has already made a deal with the United States that would see Assange extradited there to testify against Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of leaking thousands of classified US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.
There are also fears that Assange could be arrested and put on trial for espionage against the United States, WikiLeaks sources tell Expressen.

"If he's extradited, we fear for his life and that's something Sweden will pay a high price for," a source said.

Among the documents WikiLeaks plans to make public is a US diplomatic report showing that Carl Bildt has served as an informant for the United States since the 1970s.
"There are secret documents that reveal that Bildt cooperated with the American administration in a way that violates Swedish law," a WikiLeaks source told the paper.
"He'll be forced to resign. It will be the end of his political career."

According to WikiLeaks, Bildt's original contact is political consultant Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, and someone who Bildt has openly referred to as "an old friend".

While WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson refused to comment on the details of the report about Bildt, she told Expressen "it's going to be released soon".

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/22-3

[Peter Lemkin]

I can't wait!..................:mexican:

[Christer Forslund]

...that Carl Bildt has served as an informant for the United States since the 1970s. ...
...that Bildt cooperated with the American administration in a way that violates Swedish law ...

Who would be surprised?

[Ed Jewett]

Given time and cracks in the minds of individuals and their society, the slow black ooze penetrates everywhere.

[Peter Lemkin]

...that Carl Bildt has served as an informant for the United States since the 1970s. ...
...that Bildt cooperated with the American administration in a way that violates Swedish law ...

Who would be surprised?

Few would be surprised, agreed...but MANY in Sweden and out would be MOST embarrassed!....to the good, IMHO. Sweden's vaunted 'neutrality' [from WW2 to present] has long been a sick joke. The Elites in Sweden were pro-Axis [secretly] during the War; after they were [secretly] pro NATO and USAs sphere of influence [read Empire]. The assassination of Palme was a joint Swedish-USA [and possibly one other countries intelligence agency] op. Norway was found to have top Police Officers colluding with the CIA in breach or Norwegian law and without telling their Parliament. Ditto Sweden's secret work with NATO - even Gladio. I'm sure the timing of this release is a last ditch attempt for Assange to save his neck and not wind up in some secret cell in the US's Gulag - but also likely the truth!

[Christer Forslund]

... MANY in Sweden and out would be MOST embarrassed!...

Some people ARE embarrassed that Bildt IS Foreign Minister of Sweden, his Party voted for, and liked.

...WikiLeaks have begun preparing...
...
...an attempt for Assange to save his neck and not wind up in some secret cell...

If this is the last chance - why tell the press etc. about it beforehand? The air is leaving the ballon... When WikiLeaks releases, there will be little air left.

...the timing of this release...

The release of anything from WikiLeaks during the coming weeks, will be drowning in all kind of "news" about the new Crown Princess, born this morning.

[Magda Hassan]

Bildt Hired as War Hawk

He of course denies it, but the facts speak for themselves.

He knew what they were doing. Carl Bildt's claim that his lobby group formed to discuss Iraq after Saddam Hussein is debunked by the very man who recruited him: Randy Scheunemann.

Randy Scheunemann is a name that should be well known in neocon circles in the US. He was campaign manager for McCain in the 2008 elections and has strong ties to the Project for the New American Century, the most far right of all think tanks, where one openly advocates preemptive nuclear strikes against Russia.

Scheunemann says of Bildt:

'We recruited Carl Bildt to help promote the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein. We weren't an international advisory council as Bildt's been claiming.'

Carl Bildt was recruited by CLI - the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a group of ultraconservative war hawks with connections to the US weapons industry. Bildt has claimed that the group formed to innocently 'discuss' Iraq after Hussein, a topic that was ignored until it was clear an invasion would in fact take place.

'I discussed the matter with Carl Bildt', says Scheunemann. 'He was absolutely aware that our goal was to turn domestic and international opinion to support the invasion. Carl Bildt wrote a few articles for that specific purpose.'
Bildt's Golden Opportunity

People at the head of the CLI say that Carl Bildt saw his involvement with the group as a golden opportunity to further his career. And CLI chairman Bruce Jackson admits he wanted to help Bildt along.

Bildt's press secretary Christian Carlsson states that Carl Bildt has no comments on Scheunemann's statements.

But Bildt's blog reveals a bit more.

As a direct response to Anders Jonsson who asked if he supported the invasion of Iraq to further his career, Bildt wrote:

'However - if the truth now be told - the deputy secretary of the UN probed my interest in being the general secretary's special representative in Iraq. But by then I'd already lost a close friend and an acquaintance in Iraq, and as the father of small children, I felt I had a duty to decline.'

How about everyone else - the additional million or more - who perished in that horrific bloodbath, Carl Bildt? Are we to believe you only realised the consequences of the invasion after the fact? For that's clearly what you want us to believe.

But we don't believe it.
http://rixstep.com/1/20130827,00.shtml

[Magda Hassan]

Our Man Bildt (1)

A look into the affairs of Sweden's minister for foreign affairs. Part one.
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DUCKPOND (Rixstep) Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt seems to never be out of the news. Bildt's repeatedly denied talking with representatives of the US about Julian Assange. Bildt's been described in the US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks as 'a medium size dog who believes he's a big dog'.

This article series takes a look at the man and what he's been up to.

January 2012

Massive demonstrations were held in Sweden in the middle of January this year against Carl Bildt and his friends at Lundin Oil. Here's a picture from Sergels Torg in downtown Stockholm.



Most of the protesters are from countries in the 'horn of Africa' where Lundin Oil had interests.

The reason people demonstrated is there have been tens of thousands of people tortured, butchered, and murdered in that area, an estimated 150,000 - 200,000 forcibly driven from their homes - and all in the name of Lundin Oil and their business partners. And Carl Bildt was a member of the board of directors of Lundin Oil (now renamed Lundin Petroleum) 2000-2006.

Background

Nils Daniel Carl Bildt is blue blood. Nobility. And not just any old nobility either - his blood line goes back to at least the 1400s. The clan were originally from Denmark, then migrated to what then was part of Norway. Sweden later annexed that area, and so the Bildts became Swedish nobility instead.

Carl Bildt was born in Halmstad, the same town Roxette's Per Gessle hails from. He's the son of bureau director Daniel Bildt and association secretary Kerstin Andersson-Alwå. He has a younger brother Anders.

Carl Bildt did his early education at the Östermalm high school Östra Real which dates back to the 1600s.



Carl Bildt got on the telly at the ripe age of 17. When the country was in turmoil because of a nationwide teachers strike, Bildt - then chairman of the student council - 'broke' the strike by organising classes led by the students themselves.

Two years later at the ripe age of 19 and when Sweden as Europe in general was again in turmoil and the university students had 'occupied' the student union - leading minister for education Olof Palme to try unsuccessfully to talk with them - Carl Bildt got out there to organise the opposition.

Carl Bildt joined the conservative party 'Moderaterna' (then 'Moderata Samlingspartiet') when he graduated from high school, and did his military service as personal assistant with the peacetime Swedish defence staff agency Försvarsstaben, entered the university, and became political secretary for the 'Right Wing Students' and from there led the opposition to the occupation of the student union.

Carl Bildt became vice chairman of the conservatives' student association in 1971, chairman in 1973, but surprisingly never completed his academic studies. Instead he became political secretary for the conservatives ('Moderata Samlingspartiet') and collaborated closely with party leader Gösta Bohman. (Carl Bildt was later to marry Bohman's daughter.)

Olof Palme and the social democrats lost the election in 1976, the first time in a very long time they didn't retain power. A government was formed by spurious oppositional parties and Carl Bildt was called in to help organise things. Bohman and the others began to speculate about Carl Bildt's future and the remote possibility he would someday be prime minister of Sweden.

Carl Bildt ascended even more in the years of the wobbly oppositional government, appointed 'expert' in a number of areas and by parliament itself regarded as an expert in international politics.

Trip to Washington

A Soviet submarine washed up on the shores of Sweden in the early 1980s, causing a considerable international incident. Olof Palme was again prime minister and he was busy trying to sort things out with the 'Big Bear'. Carl Bildt chose this time to travel to the US to discuss 'international politics' with the CIA. Palme wasn't happy about it.



The 'Russian submarine scares' began shortly afterward. The tabloids were full of double page spreads of murky photos of the Swedish archipelago where submarines (or perhaps Loch Ness monsters) could be seen as shady blotches. Carl Bildt repeatedly urged his country to take a tougher stand against Soviet aggression.

Of course it later emerged that the whole thing was a 'frat boy' stunt by the CIA and NATO to shift Swedish public opinion out of legendary neutrality and into the arms of the US. The international arm of the US Republican Party had already made contact - Fredrick Reinfeldt was one of their 'future prospects'.

Marriage & Power

Carl Bildt married conservative party leader Bohman's daughter Mia in 1984 and took over party leadership two years later, the same year Olof Palme was assassinated. Carl Bildt was able to form a government of his own following the elections in 1991.

Carl Bildt set about privatising the country, selling government interests, and initiating and completing the process whereby Sweden would join the EU. Carl Bildt also began the project to build the Öresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark.

The social democrats again took power in 1994, but Carl Bildt was the one who signed Sweden's treaty for induction into the EU on Korfu 23 June, and shortly after became an EU 'mediator'. Bildt and friends again lost in the national elections of 1998, so he resigned his post as leader of the conservatives.

Carl Bildt was appointed mediator by the UN for the wars in Yugoslavia in 1995, and on 14 December that same year became the first 'High Representative' for the office in Bosnia charged with carrying out the peace treaty. By 1999 he was Kofi Annan's special representative in the Balkans, and he continued in that role until 2001.

But by then he was on the board of directors of Lundin Oil.

Medals, Honours, More Power

Carl Bildt can hold his own with the best of them - with the stuffy old apparatchiks who used to review troops from the Kremlin on international workers day.

• He's been a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of War Sciences since 1989.
  
• He's the recipient of the Belgian Order of the Crown, Estland's Pro Terra Mariana Cross, Finland's Order of the White Rose, Luxembourg's Order of the Oak Crown, the Norwegian Order of Service, the German Order of Service, grand officer of Latvia's Order of the Three Stars, admiral of Britain's Order of St Michael and St George, and is admiral of the French Honorary Legion.
  
• He received the Swedish king's medal of the 12th size (with chain) on 6 June 2003 with the motivation 'for truly outstanding political accomplishments', the second highest honour that can be bestowed on a Swedish citizen.
  

But it's Carl Bildt's reach and influence which are scary. Bildt is a board member for:

• Apen Italia (Rome)
  
• European Policy Centre (Bruxelles)
  
• Centre for European Reform (London)
  
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (London)
  
• Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (close ties with Bush administration)
  
• RAND Corporation (Arlington Country VA, Santa Monica) (1st ever outside US)
  
• Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences
  

Bildt is also a member of:

• Bilderberg Group (since 2006)
  
• International Democrat Union (chairman 1992-1999)
  
• Trilateral Commission (founded by David Rockefeller)
  
• Council of Centre for the study of Terrorism and Political Violence
  

Bildt also sat on the board of directors of the Russian investment company Vostok Nafta (based today in Bermuda) who control the Russian state gas company Gazprom. Bildt also was on the advisory committee of East Capital.

Bildt's portfolio of stock in Vostok Nafta was reported to the Swedish parliament's constitutional committee. Bildt sold the stock two months later.

The Swedish general secretary for Amnesty International criticised Bildt's interests in Gazprom, but Bildt again avoided controversy by promising to divest all his interests in the corporation.
I don't have blood in my veins - I have oil in them.
- Adolf Lundin
We're not political. We can't interfere with domestic affairs.
- Ian Lundin
You are enhancing the conflict by engaging in oil investments.
- Gerhart Baum, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan to the UN
I'm always watching over my shoulder. To see if someone's following me. Someone might be out to do me harm for what I wrote in my book. I don't know if that's the case, I haven't received any tangible threats. But you can't be too careful.
- Kerstin Lundell

One: Introduction | Two: Lundin Oil | Three: Block 5A | Four: Persson & Schibbye | Five: Media Outcry | Six: Questions | Seven: Bibliography
http://rixstep.com/1/20120214,00.shtml

[Magda Hassan]

Board Members at Lundin, Big Shots at Bildt

Oil, gas, MENA, Bildt, and their connections. By Lisa Röstlund and Leo Lagercrantz.

Yesterday Aftonbladet traced Carl Bildt's career from crook to hero in his role in Ethiopia.

Today we can reveal that several of his colleagues at the MFA are or have been involved in raw materials corporations with business in countries accused of crimes against humanity.

At the same time, these same people have had an enormous influence on Swedish foreign policy.

The scandal with the Lundins and Carl Bildt is a soap opera that's been ongoing for more than ten years.

Aftonbladet can today reveal that more MFA executives than merely Carl Bildt have or have had interests in raw materials corporations in countries criticised for crimes against humanity.

This at the same time they exercise an enormous influence on Sweden's foreign policy.

Today Aftonbladet will also scrutinise how parts of Sweden's security policy is managed by an institute in Nacka, The Institute for Security and Development Policy is mainly financed by Bildt's foreign office.

Aftonbladet learned that the institute manages affairs with controversial states such as North Korea and Burma and functions as a hub in the so-called transatlantic link: security policy between Europe and the US.

Svante Cornell

Svante Cornell is the head of the ISDP.

The main sponsor is the foreign office which gives the ISDP SEK ten million in grants per year.

According to Aftonbladet's sources, the ISDP is Carl Bildt's baby and the finances are described as Bildt's petty cash.

When Aftonbladet meet Svante Cornell, he describes the institute as a 'think tank' whose purpose is to help the understanding of countries from the eastern borders of the EU to east Asia.



Svante Cornell also runs the consultancy CCC, Cornell Caspian Consulting, which he and his father, former top diplomat Erik Cornell, founded in 1997. According to tax records, the company are engaged in 'consultant operations specialising in political and economic issues and problems in Turkey, Southwest Asian Caucasus, and central Asia'.

Their website used to have pictures from the year 2000 when Cornell was part of a PR campaign and rode a motorcycle with a barrel of oil in a sidecar along the road between Azerbaijan and Turkey where the pipeline was planned. In the picture he's seen with Turkish gendarmes and Azerbaijan's president Heydar Aliyev, the dictator who took power in 1992 through a military coup and won 99% of the votes the year after. Heydar Aliyev described Cornell at the ISDP website as a 'hero' and a 'great politician'.

'You are crazy but you are heroes! You are great adventurers but also great politicians!'
- Heydar Aliyev to Svante Cornell on 22 August 2000

'It's a long story how I ended up here. It started with an idea that came up during a conference in Washington DC. The Clinton administration were very positive to the pipeline. They knew these countries were harshly regulated by Russia and an important part of that was control of the energy. The pipelines were first and foremost a political security issue - a matter of binding those territories closer the west', says Svante Cornell.



Cornell says one should call him an independent academic, as he is portrayed in an article where he argues for Azerbaijan being the target of a media campaign about human rights in connection with the Eurovision song contest in Baku.

'I never worked for an oil company. My own company pulls in $3000-$4000 per year. I've worked for other companies such as Telia Sonera, RVE, SCB, and a German gas company.'

Last year Carl Bildt set up a group of about 30 academics with connections to his foreign office. He called the group the 'Strategic Council', and Svante Cornell is a member. But Cornell denies having any special relationship with Bildt.

'Mostly we meet at conferences.'

The name Svante Cornell turns up five times in the WikiLeaks Cablegate files.



According to a report from the US embassy in Baku, Cornell worked with the plans for the trip by Mehriban Aliyeva, wife of the dictator, to Washington DC in 2006.

Cornell says that information is only partly correct.

'It's not true that I helped plan the visit. But I remember her visit and I remember meeting her.'

Jonas Hafström

Jonas Hafström was a member of the board of Lundin's Vostok Nafta in 2001. At the same time, he was head of the consular section at the ministry of foreign affairs. When the media found out about this, foreign minister Anna Lindh was forced to ask for his resignation.

Today he's Sweden's ambassador to the US, appointed by Bildt himself.

And he tells us through his secretary that he's not interested in commenting this article.

Sven Hirdman

Sven Hirdman is a retired ambassador, but until the end of last year had retiree assignments from the MFA. Today he's honorary chairman of the Lundin corporation Rusforest where he was ordinary chairman 2006-2011. The company own forest and sawing mills in Siberia.

Torbjörn Törnqvist

Torbjörn Törnqvist, sometimes called Sweden's most secretive billionaire, is chief owner of the fourth largest crude oil trader in the world, registered on Cyprus: Gunvor Group. He made his fortune in a mere ten years.

In February 2007 the Swedish government appointed Torbjörn Törnqvist as honorary consul in Geneva. The cabinet announced at the end of 2011 that Torbjörn Törnqvist would continue in that capacity.

The decision was made by Carl Bildt.

Embassy cables leaked by WikiLeaks in 2010 reveal that the US wondered about the relationship and strong position of Torbjörn Törnqvist and Gunvor with the Russian government.

'As with GUNVOR, the company is rumoured to be one of Putin's sources of undisclosed wealth.'



When Aftonbladet attempted to contact Törnqvist, the consulate in Geneva referred us to the offices of Gunvor Group, where a secretary told us Törnqvist was in a meeting. The only way for journalists to reach him is via FAX.

'If he feels like answering your questions, he'll get back to you', the secretary told us.

But is FAX really the only way to reach Sweden's honorary consul?

'Unfortunately yes. That's a corporate policy.'

So we faxed our questions, but as of last night he still hadn't replied.

http://rixstep.com/1/20130826,01.shtml

[Magda Hassan]

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt acussed of corruption

artedenoli / 2 days ago

Editor's Note: According to the Aftonbladet investigation, the deal between KREAB and Georgia consisted of providing international support to the Saakashvili regime. Task that Bildt, for his part, has served both as Sweden's Foreign Minister and in his blogging and Tweeter. KREAB is a company significantly composed by, and strongly associated to, the Swedish main government party the Moderates (right-wing conservatives). [1] This is the political party of Carl Bildt and Frederik Reinfeldt. According to the Swedish article in Wikipedia, the company, which original full name is "Creative Information" has offices in a variety of countries, in cities such as Washington DC, Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Beijing, Bryssel, Canberra, Copenhagen, Dubai, Frankfurt, Helsingfors, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Jeddah, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Milano, New York, Oslo, Paris, Riyadh, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, and Tokyo. /Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli.

Above: Professors' Blog translation of screen-still from Aftonbladet.se. Swedish original in References down below

Excerpts from the Aftonbladet article: [2]

News 2014-09-10
Georgian ex-minister: "Carl Bildt is corrupt"
Aftonbladet reveals secret transfers to KREAB
Carl Bildt acquired Georgian government as a customer for PR firm Kreab and has since supported the President Mikheil Saakashvili politically.
Now Aftonbladet reveal that transfers totaling SEK 20 million was made by the regime to KREAB in just one year.
- Bildt is corrupt, says Georgi Chaindrava, ex-minister of Saakasjviliregeringen.
As previously told by Aftonbladet, the PR firm Kreab, closely associated with the Moderates, got a contract with Saakasjviliregimen in 2006. Responsible for recruitment was the then President of KREAB, Carl Bildt.
Kreab role was to help the Georgian regime with contacts with politicians and the media, that the regime's "story would be told in the media in a way that was good."
Aftonbladet can now reveal the secret documents were stamped by President Saakashvili as "top secret."
It is about fourteen transfers totaling 4.5 million Georgian lari, representing more than 18 million SEK, from the Georgian government to KREAB from December 2006 to December 2007.
Transfers are signed by then-Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nugaideli and goes through Belgian ING Bank Georg Danell, then Brussels Manager at KREAB.
A letter from Danell to the Prime Minister in 2008 also shows that KREAB under the contract would be paid a fixed monthly amount of 1 million dollars and additionally additional amount for "special projects".
Such was commissioned in January and February 2008 during the presidential election, which was accused of being fraudulent.
In addition to private, unofficial visits, Bildt as foreign minister made ​​fourteen official visit to the small republic.
Bildt has also extensively supported Mikhail Saakashvili. After the Swedish ambassador Hans-Gunnar Adén reported suspected fraud in the 2008 elections, he was sent home to Sweden. Bildt blogged "The result of the election can not be put in question." Later, international election observers reported been in consensus with Aden, on that irregularities occurred during the election.
Georgi Chaindrava was a Member of Parliament and during two rounds minister in the government of Georgia, later conflict resolution minister under President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2008.
The ex.ministers claims:
"Bildt is corrupt"
References
[1] Wikipedia article on Kreab, Swedish version. Retrieved 10 September 2014, 19.13 PM

[2] "Georgisk Lisa ex-minister: "Carl Bildt är korrupt", Aftonbladet, 10 Sept 2014


http://professorsblogg.com/2014/09/10/sw...orruption/