Brzazinski: Wikileaks may be an effort to harm Turkish-US ties

The release of a great many confidential US diplomatic cables concerning Turkey by online muckraker WikiLeaks may represent a conscious effort to harm Turkish-US ties, suggested former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski yesterday. "There are slightly mystifying aspects to this whole operation. I do see some strange degree of emphasis on some issues," he told German newsweekly Der Spiegel, "It's also interesting that so much emphasis is put on leaks that could be calculated deliberately to damage American-Turkish relations." But he said the leaks wouldn't lead to any sweeping changes in US diplomacy, adding that the documents are little different from reports sent by Chinese and Russian diplomats to their own foreign offices. Asked how US President Barack Obama should handle the leaks, Brzezinski said he should "relax and to carry on. His basic instincts on the large issues of foreign policy are fundamentally correct and in tune with history."