WikiLeaks document to expose Swedish Foreign Minister as US spy

International whistleblower website WikiLeaks says it intends to publish a classified document that allegedly exposes Sweden’s current Foreign Minister as a spy for the United States. According to Swedish newspaper Expressen, which says it has seen the document in question, Carl Bildt, Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, is shown to have operated as an informant for the United States since the mid-1970s. The revelation, which is allegedly included in a classified diplomatic cable sent from the American embassy in Stockholm to the US Department of State, is likely to cause a major political crisis in Sweden and end the career of Carl Bildt, a popular politician who served as Sweden’s Prime Minister between 1991 and 1994. In an article published on Wednesday, Expressen cites an anonymous WikiLeaks source that claims Bildt “cooperated with the American government in a manner that is in direct violation of Swedish law”.



The paper also states that, according to the incriminating document, Bildt was initially recruited by US intelligence through Republican political strategist Karl Rove, who is known to have been “an old personal friend” of the Swedish politician. According to the Expressen report, WikiLeaks has decided to publicize the leaked diplomatic cable as a warning against the Swedish government, which is said to be considering extraditing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. WikiLeaks members and supporters fear that Washington intends to use Assange as a witness in the trial of Bradley Manning, a soldier in the United States Army who was arrested by US authorities in 2010 on suspicion of having leaked hundreds of thousands of classified and restricted US diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. It is also believed that the administration of US President Barack Obama intends to try Assange for allegedly conducting espionage against the United States, a charge that carries a possible death sentence. The Swedish newspaper quotes WikiLeaks spokeswoman Kristinn Hrafnsson, who refused to comment on the details of the leaked document, but promised that it would be “released soon”.