Latest Wikileaks Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy's sexy 'voluptuous blond' nurse

I did not name him but others did. ‘He’ is Malaysia’s Cabinet minister who allegedly raped his Indonesian maid 3 years ago. He is a lawyer by profession and obtained his PhD from King’s College London.

In 2007 Malaysia nominated its Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage to replace the outgoing Commonwealth secretary-general, Don McKinnon, whose term would have expired in March 2008.

This minister was a strong contender for the post having once served as Foreign Minister. There had never been a secretary–general from Asia before and a Malaysian ‘victory’ was imminent. Countries in the region – Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand, also supported Malaysia’s bid.

Malaysia’s High Commission in London where the Commonwealth secretariat is based was geared up to lobby support for its candidate. Visiting Commonwealth heads of state were ready to meet this man. As part of Malaysian’s campaign, the candidate even planned a visit to London to rally support.

Then out of the blue, the nominee dropped his bombshell.

The strange thing was that hours earlier, he had been discussing the Malaysian campaign strategy with Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar at a Cabinet meeting.

The nominee’s announcement to withdraw from the race apparently shocked the Cabinet and stunned the government.

So what happened in those crucial hours from the time he finished discussing his campaign, to the time he made his personal announcement? Who did this man speak to? More importantly, who had contacted him? What was discussed that ‘persuaded’ him to withdraw his candidacy?

The proper procedure would have been for the government to announce any changes in the Malaysian Commonwealth bid. But this man did not, or could not wait.

Why?

Was he given an ultimatum or was he told that that was the best solution for all?

The reasons he gave in his sudden announcement was that he had ‘pressing duties to oversee celebrations of Malaysia's 50th year of independence’.

He said, “My responsibilities (for the Merdeka celebrations) are far more important and furthermore, it is already too late (to campaign). So it's better that I withdraw”.

Noble words indeed but they only added to intense speculation that something had cropped up that was being swept under the carpet.

Wikileaks and other cyber whispers have edged us closer to the truth and finally, the last piece of the puzzle provides us with a clue and answers those questions that were asked in 2007.

This man was allegedly accused of rape. The Prime minister at the time, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy, Najib Abdul Razak were privy to this distasteful revelation.

But true to fashion, they had to protect the ‘good name’ of Umno. And themselves.

The matter was serious enough and could have brought down a government, but no investigation was carried out to see if there was any truth in the allegation.

Perhaps, senior members of Umno already know that there are several rapists, murderers and psychopaths making up their ranks.

Justice for the rape victim was the last thing on the collective minds of these men. What mattered most was to protect Umno.

The leaders knew that under normal circumstances, the alleged rapist could have carried on with his job and play an important role in society, like nothing had happened. This is Malaysia, after all, where whitewashing is a favourite pastime.

The fact that this man had put his name up for nomination for the post of Commonwealth secretary-general complicated matters. The fact that Malaysia’s bid was going to be successful did not help.

If this man was selected as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth that March 2008 he would have to be based in London.

If the girl who was raped managed to successfully press charges or if some stubborn journalist got wind of the story and unearthed the sordid details, this man’s past and his crime, would have been exposed.

Scotland Yard or Interpol would have had to detain him and carry out investigations. The Commonwealth, Malaysia and Indonesia would have a diplomatic scandal of cataclysmic proportions. Our name would be “mud”.

So Abdullah Badawi and Najib did the next best thing. They persuaded the candidate to withdraw his nomination and blame it on “personal matters”. That way it would not tarnish the administration. They too, played their part and professed ‘shock’ at his ‘sudden’ announcement.

They must have told the alleged rapist that although they could easily protect him in Malaysia, their power and influence could not extend to the United Kingdom where the rule of law is adhered to.

But for Wikileaks and the cyberwhispers, all these rape allegations have blown out into the open.

This is the same minister who, in early 2010, warned Muslims to not immerse themselves in the Internet and told Malaysians that “….Twitter and Facebook are tools of the West that can erode Malaysian culture…”

No wonder he told us to be wary of the Internet. How ironic then that in the end it was the internet that brought about his downfall.

WASHINGTON — In what appears to be the first diplomatic casualty from the latest WikiLeaks revelations, the U.S. ambassador to Libya has returned to Washington and is likely to leave his post, U.S. officials said TuesdayAmbassador Gene Cretz, a veteran American diplomat, authored several secret cables to Washington that speculated on long-time Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's health, and described his personal proclivities, including his reliance on a "voluptuous" Ukrainian nurse

The documents are among about 2,000 that have been publicly released from a cache of more than 250,000 State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

While the Libyan government has not commented publicly on them, the leaked cables can only have complicated Cretz's task in dealing with the notoriously prickly regime in Tripoli, which the mercurial Gadhafi has ruled since a 1969 military coup.

A senior State Department official said that the WikiLeaks revelations were not the only reason for Cretz's return, noting the frustrations of U.S.-Libyan ties.

"It's a complicated relationship, and WikiLeaks just added to that complication," said the official, who requested anonymity because no announcement has been made on Cretz's status.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that Cretz had returned to Washington for consultations. "One of the issues to be discussed will be, you know, when he goes back," Crowley said.

Current and former American officials have bemoaned the WikiLeaks disclosures' potential impact on Washington's foreign policy. Sources are less likely to approach American diplomats with sensitive information if there is a risk it will end up in the public domain, they say.

Already, there are anecdotal reports that foreign leaders have circumscribed meetings with U.S. envoys, insisting in some cases that note-takers or other American staff be excluded.

"Obviously, this has been a difficult period for a lot of U.S. diplomats," said David Mack, a retired State Department official who served in Libya and traveled there recently, where he was told the storm from Cretz's leaked reports would blow over.

U.S. ambassadors and other diplomats are expected to report frankly on political and social conditions in the countries where they are posted, including such sensitive matters as the health and personal habits of leaders. But until WikiLeaks, those cables didn't become public until decades later, if at all.

"Diplomats in the field owe the governments that send them there the right to expect both accurate reporting and candid assessments," Mack said. "And if the WikiLeaks affair makes that less likely, diplomacy will suffer."

Cretz, who in November 2008 became the first U.S. ambassador to Libya since 1972, wrote in a leaked September 2009 cable, entitled "A Glimpse Into Libyan Leader Gadhafi's Eccentricities," that "Gadhafi relies heavily on his longtime Ukrainian nurse, Galyna . . . who has been described as a 'voluptuous blonde.'"

"He also appears to have an intense dislike or fear of staying on upper floors, reportedly prefers not to fly over water, and seems to enjoy horse racing and flamenco dancing," reported the cable, written as the Libyan leader prepared to travel to New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly.

Gadhafi "has been described as both mercurial and eccentric, and our recent firsthand experiences with him and his office, primarily in preparation for his UNGA trip, demonstrated the truth of both characterizations," Cretz wrote.

Another cable, written three months earlier, reported that rumors of Gadhafi's suffering from cancer were "unreliable," but that the leader had hypertension and was a borderline diabetic.

"Gadhafi was described as 'a hypochondriac,' who insisted that all examinations and procedures be filmed and then spent hours reviewing them with physicians whom he trusted," the ambassador reported.

A series of cables from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli described a dramatic standoff over the fate of Libya's 11.4 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which can be used to fuel nuclear weapons. Shipment of the material out of Libya for disposal in Russia was halted at the last minute.

One cable quotes Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam, as saying the shipment was held up because the Libyan regime was "fed up" with the slow progress in U.S.-Libyan relations. The highly enriched uranium eventually left Tripoli on Dec. 21, 2009.

Cretz, a native of Albany, N.Y., served in numerous Middle East and South Asia postings, including India, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt and Israel, where he was the deputy chief of mission from 2004 to 2007, according to his State Department biography. He speaks Dari, Urdu, Arabic and Chinese.

Watts/News

Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy speaks at the UN in 2009.

Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy has long been known to be a little strange, but a secret cable sent in September 2009 expands the portrait of a bizarre despot.An all-female security force. A lecher for blond nurses and Flamenco dancing. A fear of flying over water.

Headlined "a glimpse into Libyan Leader Khadafy's eccentricities," the cable says he won't travel without his 38-year-old Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska, described as a "voluptuous blond" with whom he may be having an affair.

He is "particularly enthralled" by horse racing and Flamenco dancers.

Khadafy fears heights and "must stay on the first floor of any facility" - which is why he wanted to pitch a tent in New Jerseywhen he visited the UN last year instead of staying in a Manhattan hotel.

He also cannot climb more than 35 steps, hates to fly over water and won't fly for more than eight hours at a time.

The cable notes that Khadafy brought only one female bodyguard with him to New Yorkand suggests his all-female security force is "beginning to play a diminished role."

- Saudi King Abdullah suggested to White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennanthat the U.S. track detainees freed from Guantanamo Bay by surgically implanting electronic chips in them.

It is commonly done with horses and falcons, the King said in a March 2009 meeting.

"Horses don't have good lawyers," Brennan told him.

- The cables show Washington struggling to parcel out the freed Gitmo detainees.

Slovenia was offered the chance to meet President Obama if it would take in a prisoner, while Kiribati, a tiny South Pacific island, was offered millions of dollars to take in Chinese Muslim detainees, The New York Times reported.

The wheedling even reached Brussels, which was told that taking in prisoners could be "a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe."