Richard Giragosian: most frequently used word in U.S. foreign policy is “sorry”

December 14, 2010 - 15:10 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) held a special briefing December 14 on WikiLeaks with an analysis of the implications of the release of thousands of formerly confidential and secret U.S. State Department cables and documents.

ACNIS Director Richard Giragosian provided a brief overview of WikiLeaks, a non-profit media organization “dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public” and seeking to “provide a secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists.” Their official mission is to “publish material of ethical, political and historical significance” and to “reveal suppressed and censored injustices.”

Giragosian stressed that “this was really nothing new, as throughout history, all nations have sought to uncover the secrets of other countries. In American history, the most famous case involving the release of secrets was when Daniel Ellsberg released the “Pentagon Papers,” a detailed record of military and strategic planning during the war in Vietnam. What was different this time, however, was the sheer scale of the documents represents something new and more important, and the use of new technology (Internet, cyber security, etc.) was also something new.” In this sense, he stressed, WikiLeaks is only the platform, and not the source of these documents.”

Giragosian then assessed the implications for U.S. foreign policy in the region, with a specific focus on U.S. diplomacy toward Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan. For Armenia, the most serious disclosure was the discovery by U.S. intelligence that Armenia had transferred Bulgarian missiles and rockets to Iran, according to a December 2008 cable from the U.S. Secretary of State. Those weapons were later “recovered from militant attacks in which a U.S. soldier was killed and six others were injured in Iraq,” according to a January 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.

He also emphasized all allegations that Armenia wants “to sell Karabakh” proved groundless. “The cables demonstrate the correctness of Armenia’s foreign policy,” Giragosian said.

After Armenia’s alleged transfer of arms to Iran, then-Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte made it clear in a confidential letter to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan that Armenia must agree to allow U.S. inspectors to drop in unannounced, or the little country would face “the cutoff of U.S. assistance and certain export restrictions.” In a later January 2010 cable, the head of the Armenian National Security Service, Chairman Gorik Hakobyan, assured the U.S. that Armenia planned to comply with all U.S. demands, noting that “Armenia has a lot of problems and there is no desire to create more problems.”

Giragosian also noted that the most frequently used word in the U.S. foreign policy is “sorry”.