2011-08-13 WikiLeaks Notes: Latest News on #Cablegate Releases & #WikiLeaks

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.
- New Cable(s) were released today.

10:10 PM Join the upcoming global dinner party in support of Bradley Manning, on the weekend of September 9th and 10th. Learn how you can host a dinner party by visiting bradleymanning.org.

09:45 PM Julian Assange spoke to newspaper Star about the riots that took place in the UK this week.

"Great Britain has turned itself into an Orwellian 1984 during the last decade, yet all those cameras and anti-terror laws could not prevent this recent chaos", he said.
"The naive public often is ready to sacrifice its privacy, and laws safeguarding basic freedom and rights in exchange for safety, guaranteed by the state. Now it is clear that governments cannot keep their promises."

According to Julian, the British government is currently paying the price "for creating a society that denies young people both responsibility, trust and proper challenges. It is time to rethink rather than restrict things even more. The real problems, which led up to the riots, can only be solved by the whole community, not the government or police."

09:17 PM Murder as foreign policy: assassination of Syrian General could have been an inside job.
An analysis of the information contained in U.S. State Department cables regarding Syrian President al-Assad's brother Mahir al-Assad's possible role in the assassination of General Muhammad Suleiman.

08:00 PM Christine Assange has been honored with the Toastmasters’ Golden Gavel award for great achievements in public speaking, in recognition of her public support for her son Julian.

In the past few months Christine has spoken publicly in several occasions, such as last month’s Splendour in the Grass festival, where she headed a panel on internet control and secrecy, or her speech in front of the High Court of London back in December, where she addressed the media after it was decided her son was to be released on bail.

Christine’s advice on how to speak in front of large audiences: ‘Try to just get the truth out as simply and as honestly and with as much heart as possible.’

07:15 PM ‘Brazilian media is in service of the U.S.’, cables show.
During a meeting in 2005, Jewish leader in São Paulo Abraham Goldstein promised U.S. Ambassador John Danilovich a ‘positive’ press coverage of Israel, prior to the Summit of South American and Arab Countries.

The cables also reveal how prominent figures of the Brazilian media provided U.S. diplomats with information on Brazil's 2010 elections and other political and economic issues in the country in several occasions.
For instance, a conference organized by Piauí’s Governor Wellington Dias that was attended by U.S. representatives who requested information concerning on the implementation of infraestructures to facilitate the exploitation of natural resources by U.S. monopolies in Piauí, the second poorest state in the Brazilian Northeast region.

06:30 PM A Dominican diplomat in Hong Kong, Casado Alcántara de Cheung, is accused of human trafficking in a diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks and made public by Noticias SIN.

Cheung is accused of having sold Dominican visas for approximately $10,000, which reportedly allowed between four to twenty individuals of Chinese nationality into the Dominican Republic each week.

Upon their arrival in the country, a large number of females is said to have been trafficked as ‘lovers’ to men of the Dominican elite.