Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim faces significant turbulence ahead after a leaked US State Department diplomatic cable emerged today alleging Singaporean and Australian intelligence officials’ believed Anwar had indeed engaged in the act for which he stands accused.

According to the Australian Sydney Morning Herald ’s Sunday edition dated Dec 12, the sodomy charges that have been levelled against Anwar were the result of a “set-up” job by his “enemies”.

Anwar himself knew it was a trap, yet he “walked into it anyway,” said The Sun-Herald in an exclusive based on a November 2008 cable released to the newspaper by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

The cable is one of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables between the US State Department and its embassies around the world that have been ‘dumped’ by WikiLeaks onto the Internet.

According to The Sun-Herald , the cable in question revealed that senior minister Lee Kuan Yew and Singaporean intelligence officials had told Australia's intelligence agency Office of National Assessments (ONA) that “opposition leader Anwar 'did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted'.”

azlan The document stated that the Singaporeans told ONA they made this assessment on the basis of ‘'technical intelligence’', which The Sun-Herald said is likely to relate to intercepted communications.

The ONA is also recorded as saying that Anwar's political enemies engineered the circumstances from which the sodomy charges arose.

“'ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, 'it was a set-up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway',” The Sun-Herald said citing the cable.

In an immediate reaction to The Sun-Herald report, Anwar, 63, tweeted: "Source? M'sian SB [Special Branch] ha, ha."

Anwar is charged with sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 24, at a condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.

The former deputy premier has denied the charge and described it as the BN-led government’s second attempt to derail his political aspirations.

pkr congress 281110 nurul izzah anwar He was jailed in 2000 under a similar charge, but his conviction was overturned in 2004.

Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah ( left ), meanwhile, said she the remarks contained in cable indicate merely "the sentiment of the diplomatic community."

Nurul Izzah, who is also vice-president of PKR, said it also indicates the extent of Malaysia's Special Branch community's influence.

"So for me, we will leave it at that, because we have a case that we are pursuing," the Lembah Pantai MP told reporters at a college event in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.

Anwar was supposed to have graced the event, but cancelled his appearance at the last minute.

'Incompetent politicians' fuel 'dangerous' decline

In another cable exposed by The Sun-Herald , Malaysia was described as being on a "dangerous" decline fuelled by "incompetent politicians".

The cable was one of a number of cables sent between 2008 and 2009 that detailed meetings held between senior US officials and senior Singaporen Foreign Affairs chiefs Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Tommy Koh.

NONE The trio gave US officials damning assessments of Malaysia, said The Sun-Herald .

According to one cable detailing a meeting in September 2008, the newspaper said Kausikan told US Deputy Secretary of Defence for East Asia David Sedney that there was a "distinct possibility of racial conflict" which could see ethnic Chinese "flee" Malaysia and "overwhelm" Singapore.

Ho's assessment of Malaysia in March that year, given to another US official, was also said to have been unflattering and included claims that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had been 'throwing stones' at his replacement, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.