Caught on tape: When politicians speak the truth ‘off record’

The Egyptian politicians whose frank exchange of views about Ethiopia’s new dam on television has caused an international incident joined a long list of public figures who have been severely embarrassed after assuming that microphones had been switched off.
The phenomenon has become so common that it has a name: ‘a microphone gaffe.’ This happens when someone, usually a politician, but anyone whose opinions are judged to matter, is caught saying things that they would never dream of stating in public.
It is always entertaining when this happens. It shows that what people really think is rarely what they say in public.

This did not happen before microphones were invented. But in today’s world, of 24/7 television, smart phones, the Internet and social media, anyone in public life must always assume that someone is listening, and waiting for comments that will annoy, shock, amuse or just make them look stupid. Surprisingly they do not.

Prominent people still gossip, accuse and generally contradict everything they claim to stand for in public, and are then horrified when their comments become headline news.

Wikileaks
The publication by Wikileaks of tens of thousands of emails, from politicians, diplomats, business leaders, military officers and others, showed that emails are as dangerous as microphones.

Inexplicably these people, who were mostly well educated and intelligent, behaved as if their emails were strictly private, like letters, when they knew that they could be sent around the world instantly to millions with the flick of a computer mouse.

In the mid-1980s Ronald Reagan, then US President, joked before a radio interview: “My fellow Americans I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” The Russians were not amused.

In 1993 John Major, the British Prime Minister, thought that the cameras had stopped rolling when he confided to a television reporter that some of his Cabinet colleagues were ‘”bastards’” whom he would “’crucify”. He also said he thought his colleague was ‘’a wimp’” and did not know how to win an election.

Another British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, also spoke too frankly when he thought he was not being recorded. In April 2010 Brown was in Rochdale, in the north west of the UK, during the General Election campaign.

He had just been challenged on his immigration policies by Gillian Duffy, a 65 year old local woman. Brown dealt with her courteously but, after he thought a radio microphone had been turned off, exploded. Mrs Duffy was “a bigot”, Brown said. When his comments were broadcast Brown crumpled and had to issue a grovelling apology.

During the Presidential campaign in 2000 George Bush dismissed a reporter from the New York Times as “a major league asshole”. In 2006, Bush did it again, when he greeted Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, with a patronising “Yo Blair.” This confirmed what many people in Britain felt; that Bush treated Blair like a pet poodle.

Another exchange in 2006 between Bush and Blair, which both thought could not be heard, was also recorded and broadcast, to their great embarrassment. They were at a G8 summit in St. Petersburg , in Russaia. Bush told Blair he hoped the UN would “get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit “ (This was a reference to Syria’s influence over and support of Hezbollah in the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon).
In 2006 during an official meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin was caught praising a senior Israeli politician for raping his employees.

In 2008 it was the turn of veteran US politician Jesse Jackson to make an idiot of himself. He dismissed Barack Obama in what he thought were private comments: “See, Barack’s been, ah, talking down to black people on this faith-based... I want to cut his nuts off... Barack, he’s talking down to black people.”

Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy soon become the next high-profile victims when they were heard discussing the merits of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in a supposedly private moment at the G20 summit in Cannes in 2011. “I cannot stand him. He’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama. The US president responded by saying: “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.” But it is not only politicians who reveal that what they say in public is often very different from their public views.

Sports gaffes
Sports commentators have a habit of revealing themselves to be foul-mouthed and prejudiced. In 2004 Ron Atkinson, a former top football manager who had become of one of the UK’s top sports pundits, described one of Chelsea’s black players in a stream of expletives. Atkinson did not know he was being recorded. It ended his commentating career.
Two other British sports presenters, Richard Keys and Andy Gray, also lost their jobs when their nasty jokes about a female referee were broadcast.

The Wikileaks stories offered fascinating insights into what politicians, diplomats, spies, military officers, business leaders and others really think of each other and other countries.

Africa inclusive
Embarrassment was universal. No country escaped.
Eritrea was one African country that was especially battered. The US ambassador to Eritrea, Ronald McMullen, detested the country and its leaders. In one cable he wrote: “Things are getting worse and worse in Eritrea. The regime is facing mounting international pressure for years of malign behaviour in the neighbourhood ... The economy continues to sink; exports for 2008 totalled only $14m ... ‘He is sick,’ said one leading Eritrean businessman, referring to President Isaias Afewerki’s’ mental health.

‘The worse things get, the more he tries to take direct control – it doesn’t work.’”
Congo was savaged by diplomats. Uganda was criticised by diplomats for its attitudes towards homosexuals and its corruption. Kenya, too, was condemned for its corruption. Zimbabwe was almost beyond help. None of these comments were meant for public consumption – which is why they were so widely read, and appreciated.

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Ethiopia began diverting water from the Blue Nile on May 28 to make way for the construction of the 6000MW Renaissance Dam. Egypt remains opposed to the project. Thus on June 3, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi invited leaders of parties allied to the Muslim Brotherhood to a consultative meeting to chart a way forward on the issue.
It had been planned that the meeting would be recorded and aired the following day to the Egyptian public that is anxious about the effects of the dam but at the last minute it was decided that the meeting be aired live. Unfortunately the participants were not told of the change so they let out their hearts uninhibited. Below is the transcription .

Ge Saad Al Katatni (Chairman, Freedom & Justice Party): I say loud and clear that all options are available to us, and that we will support all the options, but we must move gradually: If diplomacy fails to change the situation, we shall resort to international law, and if this is unsuccessful, we shall resort to any option one can imagine in order to protect our water security, because for us, water security is a matter of life and death.

Younes Makhioum (Chairman Al-Nour Party): We in the Al Nour Party believe that the Egyptian agreement to the building this dam would be a dangerous strategic mistake, because Ethiopia – and Israel and the US, which are behind it, would use it as a lethal bargaining chip to pressure Egypt. We should use bargaining chips. For example, 35% of the Ethiopians belong to the Oromo people.

They have a thing called Oromo Liberation Front. The domestic Ethiopian front is very weak and fragile. We could also support the Ogaden National Liberation Front. This would constitute a means to pressure the Ethiopian government. If all these attempts fail, we may resort to our intelligence agencies in order to destroy any dam that undermines Egypt’s security, because some experts have said that building this dam is tantamount to a declaration of war against Egypt.

Sheikh Hassan Al Shafe’I (Al Azhar Scholar): I remember that the Foreign Minister of Ethiopia came to Egypt, and mocked the Egyptian people. He said the Nile does not have wings and cannot fly to Israel. But the Egyptian people know, like any other people would know, that the Nile might have some subterranean “wings”, through pipelines under the Red Sea. This is entirely possible. Many countries import water through pipelines.

Ayman Nour (Chairman, Ghad Al-Thawra Party): I don’t know whether this is something that should be said or not, but like some of my colleagues said, there are many political rivalries in Ethiopian society. Some changes are anticipated there.
We do not need an Embassy in Ethiopia. What we need is a task force that will deal with politics and intelligence. We should play a role in all aspects of Ethiopian reality. I think this would be much less costly than other options to fend off the danger.
We should interfere in their domestic affairs. The Ethiopian newspapers say that Egypt has no military option. They say that Egypt does not possess the capabilities – no airplanes, no missiles, and that Sudan would not allow this. Indeed Sudan’s position is nauseating. It is much weaker than it should be. But we could leak intelligence information. We could leak that Egypt is trying to buy planes for aerial refueling, and so on. Even if this is unrealistic, it would bring results on the diplomatic track.

Muhammad Anwar Essmat Al-Sadat (Chairman, Reform and Development Party): We should be aware of the influence of Egypt’s national soccer team in Ethiopia. Our national team was champion of Africaand has tremendous influence. The same is true with regard to Egyptian art. We have great influence. We could also use the Egyptian churches and Al-Azhar. Some people talked about the possible military operation.
Practically speaking, this is difficult. We’d be criticized for something like that. We should form an axis with Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti. This is a job for the intelligence agencies. They will resolve this from within. We have the right to do this. There are a hundred ways of doing this indirectly when we lose hope.

Magdy Ahmed Hussein (Chairman, Islamic Labour Party):I am very fond of battles - with the enemies, of course – with America and Israel. But this battle must be waged with maximum judiciousness and calm.
Even though this is a secret meeting, we must all take an oath not to leak anything to the media, unless it is done officially by Sister Bakinam. We need an official plan for popular national security, even if we … Ok, fine. The principals behind what I’m saying are not really secret … Our war is with America and Israel, not with Ethiopia. Therefore, engaging in a war …. This is my opinion….

President Mohammed Morsi: (President of Egypt): This meeting is being aired live on TV….
Magdy Ahmed Hussein (Chairman, Islamic Labour Party): I am not presenting a secret plan or anything. All the countries do what I am saying and what has been said by others.
All countries with regional interests do that. I say to the Egyptian people: No one can turn off your water supply – unless they want to turn the Egyptians into the world’s most extremist people. Imagine what these people would do if its water were turned off. What would 80 million of us do to Israel and America if our water were turned off.

President Mohammed Morsi: (President of Egypt): We have a lot of respect for the Sudanese people in the north and the south, and we respect their decisions, and the same is true with regard to the Ethiopian people. We are not about to start any aggression against anyone whatsoever, or affront anyone whatsoever. But we have very serious measures to protect every single drop of the Nile water – every.