EXCLUSIVE: Top secret files reveal pleas for US to intervene in Scottish referendum

TOP secret US cables today reveal the Scotland Office attempted to pressure the White House to intervene in the independence referendum.

By BEN BORLAND

The embarrassing revelation is included in an extraordinary cache of documents obtained by this newspaper following a three year legal battle with officials from the US State Department.

The files - which run to hundreds of pages - show that Washington followed the Scottish independence debate in remarkable detail from the day the SNP first won power in 2007.

Other disclosures include: 

- Gordon Brown's belated intervention was seen as an attempt to distance Labour "from the unpopular UK Government ahead of 2015 UK elections"

- US officials kept tabs on American citizens who spoke out in favour of separation

- Alex Salmond was a "breath of fresh air" but noted for his "anti-war" politics, while Nicola Sturgeon was described as a "forceful politician"

- US observers expected Spain and other European nations to "place serious obstacles" in the way of Scotland's accession to the EU

- business leaders privately expressed deep misgivings about the SNP's independence plans

Using the US Freedom of Information Act, the Scottish Sunday Express asked the State Department for any documents relating to the independence referendum in January 2012.

Finally, after many transatlantic emails and phone calls, the Central Foreign Policy division traced 60 documents - 22 were released in full and 19 were released with some information censored.

A further 14 documents have been "kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy", while the final five are still under review.

The most controversial revelation is contained within a "sensitive but unclassified briefing", dated February 15, 2013.

It reveals that Marisa Plowden, the Head of Internal Politics at the US Embassy in London, met with somebody from the Scotland Office to discuss a new Whitehall report on independence.

The briefing states: "Scotland Office contacts stressed that this policy paper, more than some others they will release, has an international dimension.

"They suggested the US could be asked, by the press, if we would recognise the rest of the UK as a legal successor state. 

"[Political officers] recommend we not alter our talking point that the referendum is a domestic political issue.

"If pressed, we could say the question of recognition is a hypothetical one, and we don't engage on hypothetical questions."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/550089/Top-secret-files-reveal-pleas-for-US-to-intervene-in-Scotland-independence-referendum