2011-03-23 WikiLeaks in today's media: Cablegate coverage

Next: Aondoakaa is a thug, say US officials

"Mike Aondoakaa, the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, is a thug who did the late President Umaru Yar'Adua's dirty work, a leaked US diplomatic cable, made exclusively available to NEXT, has said.

In the cable, dated December 24, 2008, American diplomats attached to the US embassy in Nigeria, also criticised the late Yar'Adua's anti-corruption fight citing his choice of people with questionable characters as ministers. The cable, classified by the then acting political counsellor, Cheryl Fernandes and endorsed by then American Ambassador, Robin Sanders, is a comprehensive biographical background check on some ministers that served under the late President. "Aondoakaa is an intelligent, politically savvy lawyer who is reputed to have done some of Yar'Adua's dirty work, including attempts to disgrace Economic and Financial Crimes Commission former chairman, Nuhu Ribadu," the US officials wrote in their dispatch to Washington. "He is considered to be a thug heavily involved in illicit enrichment and cannot be trusted. Yar'Adua keeping him on belies his commitment to the rule of law." Contacted yesterday, Mr. Aondoakaa said the assessment of him was nonsense. "Is it not the same woman who said things about the speaker, about the President?" Mr. Aondoakaa said. "The woman was just here carrying out the wish of her masters. The US doesn't have serious attachment to these cables. The Nigerian government has denied these cables. What she was saying, if she said them at all, is nonsense.""

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Next: Bola Ige's family tackles police over murder probe

"The family of the late Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, has reacted angrily to the revelation of the sloppy and unprofessional manner the Nigerian police handled the investigation into its patriarch's murder.

Muyiwa Ige, the eldest son of the late minister, who spoke on behalf of the family, told NEXT yesterday that the revelation had strengthened his family's suspicion that the police was not interested in finding his father's killers."

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The Telegraph: Hoax phone call brought India and Pakistan to brink of war

"A hoax phone call and a diplomatic gaffe by a senior Indian official brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war shortly after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, according to diplomatic cables disclosed by WikiLeaks.

In the days immediately after 10 Pakistani Lashkar e Taiba terrorists killed 166 people in Mumbai, a man pretending to be India's then External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, called Asif Zardari, Pakistan's president, to warn it was about to launch a military response."

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El País: Argelia gana peso como puerta de entrada de las drogas en España y Europa (Algeria gained importance as a gateway drug in Spain and Europe)

"Argelia sirve como un punto de tránsito para el tráfico de drogas (cannabis procedente de Marruecos y cada vez más cocaína y heroína de Sudamérica) hacia Europa. Es la principal conclusión que se extrae de un cable confidencial remitido en diciembre de 2009 por la embajada de EE UU en Argelia al Departamento de Estado. (Algeria serves as a transit point for drug trafficking (cannabis from Morocco and increasingly cocaine and heroin from South America) to Europe. It is the main conclusion to be drawn from a confidential cable sent in December 2009 by the U.S.)"

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