"Obsolete system keeps our secrets safe"

What America used modern technology to protect and keep - and lose in the Cablegate scandal - Serbia keeps in several "safe-rooms", daily Blic writes. The content of the rooms at the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade is "protected by WW2 era, obsolete technology", says the newspaper. "Obsolete system keeps our secrets safe" But in the wake of the massive disclosure of U.S. diplomatic digital documents, it would appear that the lack of modern technology involved is what's keeping Serbian confidential diplomatic reports safe. The Serbian MFA still uses the long-abadoned crypto-telegrams to encrypt confidential messages. The diplomatic correspondence uses "open and closed" cables, along with top secret ones which undergo encryption, the government sources told the daily unofficially, and assured that this protection is “absolute”. The former Serbian ambassador in Prague, Aleksandar Ilic, explains that encrypted cables usually contain analyses of current events, or mention conversations with other diplomats. and that the protection is not used "because of some great secrets they contain", but rather because of “good form, so that not everyone could read them". “Above all, I was surprised by the low level of everything that has been published (by WikiLeaks). What I came across during my diplomatic service, the cables from my colleagues, foreign ambassadors, and the published cables from the previous period, for example from the Stalin era, are on a much higher level of language and analysis. Primarily, there were no insults, and usually they were brilliant sociological, political and historical analyses. Something is happening to the level of diplomatic communication,” Ilic said. Analyst Dusan Janjic, however, told the newspaper that Serbia's public was "completely uninformed about key questions of the state and politics”. Asked what those were, Janjic was confident that they would come up as WikiLeaks cables are gradually being published. “The latest example is that we are not informed about that will be negotiated with Pristina, and that we found out the name of the person leading our team ten days after the world did. Our public doesn’t know that it was actually Serbia, with Moscow, who blocked the negotiations with Martti Ahtisaari in 2006, and here it was presented as if Ahtisaari was unilateral, i.e. on the Albanian side, and we never got the answer why the (Kosovo) Vienna negotiation process was terminated,” this analyst was quoted as saying. He also expressed his dissatisfaction with "us knowing nothing about Serbia's role in resolution wars regarding the Ahtisaari proposal (for Kosovo's supervised independence) that started in 2006 and lasted until the (unilateral) declaration of Kosovo's independence. We know nothing about negotiations over the South Stream pipeline," said Janjic, and asserted that "it seems Russians, too, are poorly informed about that." Janjic also expects that leaked U.S. diplomatic cables dating from Montenegro's independence referendum in 2006 and from September last year to be interesting. Janjic said the West saw a serious u-turn in Serbia's policy then, as the energy agreement was reached with Russia, and the two countries fought for Kosovo together. Finally, this analyst says there are two cables from November and December of 2008, and guesses that the government, Kosovo, and "stories about Serbia's military neutrality" might be described.

"Obsolete system keeps our secrets safe"

But in the wake of the massive disclosure of U.S. diplomatic digital documents, it would appear that the lack of modern technology involved is what's keeping Serbian confidential diplomatic reports safe.

The Serbian MFA still uses the long-abadoned crypto-telegrams to encrypt confidential messages.

The diplomatic correspondence uses "open and closed" cables, along with top secret ones which undergo encryption, the government sources told the daily unofficially, and assured that this protection is “absolute”.

The former Serbian ambassador in Prague, Aleksandar Ilić, explains that encrypted cables usually contain analyses of current events, or mention conversations with other diplomats. and that the protection is not used "because of some great secrets they contain", but rather because of “good form, so that not everyone could read them".

“Above all, I was surprised by the low level of everything that has been published (by WikiLeaks). What I came across during my diplomatic service, the cables from my colleagues, foreign ambassadors, and the published cables from the previous period, for example from the Stalin era, are on a much higher level of language and analysis. Primarily, there were no insults, and usually they were brilliant sociological, political and historical analyses. Something is happening to the level of diplomatic communication,” Ilić said.

Analyst Dušan Janjić, however, told the newspaper that Serbia's public was "completely uninformed about key questions of the state and politics”.

Asked what those were, Janjić was confident that they would come up as WikiLeaks cables are gradually being published.

“The latest example is that we are not informed about that will be negotiated with Priština, and that we found out the name of the person leading our team ten days after the world did. Our public doesn’t know that it was actually Serbia, with Moscow, who blocked the negotiations with Martti Ahtisaari in 2006, and here it was presented as if Ahtisaari was unilateral, i.e. on the Albanian side, and we never got the answer why the (Kosovo) Vienna negotiation process was terminated,” this analyst was quoted as saying.

He also expressed his dissatisfaction with "us knowing nothing about Serbia's role in resolution wars regarding the Ahtisaari proposal (for Kosovo's supervised independence) that started in 2006 and lasted until the (unilateral) declaration of Kosovo's independence. We know nothing about negotiations over the South Stream pipeline," said Janjić, and asserted that "it seems Russians, too, are poorly informed about that."

Janjić also expects that leaked U.S. diplomatic cables dating from Montenegro's independence referendum in 2006 and from September last year to be interesting.

Janjić said the West saw a serious u-turn in Serbia's policy then, as the energy agreement was reached with Russia, and the two countries fought for Kosovo together.

Finally, this analyst says there are two cables from November and December of 2008, and guesses that the government, Kosovo, and "stories about Serbia's military neutrality" might be described.