2010-12-20 WikiLeaks in today's media: Cablegate coverage

The Guardian: WikiLeaks cables: 'Taliban treats heroin stocks like savings accounts'

"Head of UN office on drugs and crime Antonio Maria Costa says Afghan gangs and Taliban stockpiling drug to manipulate street price in the west.

The United Nations' drugs czar told Nato that Afghan insurgents were withholding thousands of tonnes of heroin and treating their drugs like "savings accounts" to manipulate street prices in the west, according to a leaked US cable."

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The Guardian: WikiLeaks cables: Syria believed Israel was behind sniper killing

"Assassination of Syrian president's top security aide caused anxiety among the political elite, US embassy cables reveal.

It was late in the evening of 1 August 2008 in the Syrian coastal city of Tartous when the sniper fired the fatal shot. The target was General Muhammad Suleiman, President Bashar al-Assad's top security aide. Israelis, the US embassy in Damascus reported, were "the most obvious suspects" in the assassination."

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The Guardian: WikiLeaks cables: UK businessmen 'overeducated' says Richard Branson

"Virgin chief critical of British education system during discussion of entrepreneurship at Beijing business lunch.

Perhaps it's because he left school at 15 and ran his own business while his peers were still studying. But Richard Branson believes that the British education system does not serve budding businessmen and women well, according to a US diplomatic cable."

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The Guardian: WikiLeaks cables: Bulgarian nuclear project 'dogged by safety concerns'

"German firm RWE, which owns npower, bought 49% stake in project cables claimed 'reeked of side deals'.

One of Britain's biggest energy suppliers, which wants to build half a dozen nuclear reactors in the UK, helped develop one in Bulgaria which was "dogged by ongoing serious safety concerns", according to leaked US diplomatic cables."

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New York Times: Leaked Cables Shed New Light on Ex-K.G.B. Officer’s Death in London

"Shortly after the radiation poisoning in London of a former K.G.B. officer, Alexander V. Litvinenko, a senior Russian official asserted that Moscow had been tailing his killers before he died but had been waved off by Britain’s security services, according to a cable in the trove of secret American documents released by WikiLeaks.

The Russian assertion, denied by British officials, seemed to revive a theory that the British intelligence services played a murky role in the killing — a notion voiced at the time by some in Moscow to deflect allegations of the Kremlin’s involvement in the murder."

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El País: La falta de independencia de la justicia frena el desarrollo marroquí (The lack of an independent system of justice stops development in Morocco)

"“Otros países recurren al Ejército o a la policía para controlar la política, pero en Marruecos echamos mano del sistema judicial”. (“Other countries use the army or the police to control politics, but in Morocco we use the system of justice”.)

La Justicia en Marruecos no es independiente y los magistrados son con frecuencia incompetentes. El pésimo funcionamiento del tercer poder es un "impedimento en el desarrollo del país". (The justice in Morocco is not independent and the judges are often incompetent. The terrible running of the third power stops the development in the country.)"

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El País: Berlusconi intentó evitar la investigación del 'caso Calipari' (Berlusconi tried to stop the investigation of the famous “Calipari Case”)

"El Ejecutivo aseguró al embajador de EE UU que quería "dejar atrás" la muerte de su agente en Bagdad en 2005. (The President assured to the American ambassador that he wanted to “leave behind” his intelligence agent’s death in 2005.)

Dos meses después de la muerte del agente del servicio de inteligencia militar Nicola Calipari durante un tiroteo en un puesto de control en Bagdad, la intención del Gobierno italiano era bloquear los intentos de enjuiciar a los responsables. (Two months after the death of the military intelligence agent Nicola Calipari during a shooting in a control position in Bagdad, the Italian government’s intention was to stop the attempts of putting the responsible ones on trial.)"

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El País: EE UU: "Un régimen criminal de naturaleza violenta y autoritaria" (A criminal regime with a violent and authoritarian nature)

"La diplomacia norteamericana llama nomenclatura mafiosa al poder en Minsk. (The American diplomacy uses mafia names while referring the power in Minsk.)

"Un régimen criminal de naturaleza violenta y autoritaria". Así definen los documentos hasta ahora secretos de la Embajada de EE UU en Minsk al Gobierno del presidente de Bielorrusia, Alexandr Lukashenko, en el poder desde 1994 y a quien mencionan rutinariamente como "el dictador". (“A criminal regime with a violent and authoritarian nature”, that’s how the once secret documents of the American embassy in Minsk define the government of Alexandr Lukashenko, President of Belarus, who is in power since 1994 and who is often called “The Dictator”.)"

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