More USA documents get released by Wikileaks

[sees_all1]

This just in, Julian Assange is an attention [bleep].

 

edit: Lady with a lot of manly friends.

[Bloodstain]

This just in, Julian Assange is an attention [bleep].

 

edit: Lady with a lot of manly friends.

 

This was mentioned like last week. Jesus christ, he's not an attention [bleep], he's making sure that the releases get out slowly so that they all get the attention they deserve and not just glossed over. Pretty hard to ignore stuff when it's coming out everyday vs when 250, 000 cables are released all at once. Gives the media time to pick which ones they want to report on too. Hurp a durp durp

[Bloodstain]

The world's biggest pharmaceutical company hired investigators to unearth evidence of corruption against the Nigerian attorney general in order to persuade him to drop legal action over a controversial drug trial involving children with meningitis, according to a leaked US embassy cable.

 

Pfizer was sued by the Nigerian state and federal authorities, who claimed that children were harmed by a new antibiotic, Trovan, during the trial, which took place in the middle of a meningitis epidemic of unprecedented scale in Kano in the north of Nigeria in 1996.

 

Last year, the company came to a tentative settlement with the Kano state government which was to cost it $75m.

 

But the cable suggests that the US drug giant did not want to pay out to settle the two cases – one civil and one criminal – brought by the Nigerian federal government.

 

The cable reports a meeting between Pfizer's country manager, Enrico Liggeri, and US officials at the Abuja embassy on 9 April 2009. It states: "According to Liggeri, Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to federal attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put pressure on him to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer's investigators were passing this information to local media."

 

The cable, classified confidential by economic counsellor Robert Tansey, continues: "A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa's 'alleged' corruption ties were published in February and March. Liggeri contended that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that Aondoakaa's cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles."

 

The release of the Pfizer cable came as:

 

• The American ambassador to London denounced the leak of classified US embassy cables from around the world. In tomorrow'sGuardian Louis Susman writes: "This is not whistleblowing. There is nothing laudable about endangering innocent people. There is nothing brave about sabotaging the peaceful relations between nations on which our common security depends."

 

• It emerged that Julian Assange had been transferred to the segregation unit in Wandsworth prison and had distanced WikiLeaks from cyber attacks on MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and other organisations.

 

• Other newly released cables revealed that China is losing patience with the failure of the Burmese regime to reform, and disclosed US fears that Europe will cave in to Serbian pressure to partition Kosovo.

 

While many thousands fell ill during the Kano epidemic, Pfizer's doctors treated 200 children, half with Trovan and half with the best meningitis drug used in the US at the time, ceftriaxone. Five children died on Trovan and six on ceftriaxone, which for the company was a good result. But later it was claimed Pfizer did not have proper consent from parents to use an experimental drug on their children and there were questions over the documentation of the trial. Trovan was licensed for adults in Europe, but later withdrawn because of fears of liver toxicity.

 

The cable claims that Liggeri said Pfizer, which maintains the trial was well-conducted and any deaths were the direct result of the meningitis itself, was not happy about settling the Kano state cases, "but had come to the conclusion that the $75m figure was reasonable because the suits had been ongoing for many years costing Pfizer more than $15m a year in legal and investigative fees".

 

In an earlier meeting on 2 April between two Pfizer lawyers, Joe Petrosinelli and Atiba Adams, Liggeri, the US ambassador and the economic section, it had been suggested that Pfizer owed the favourable outcome of the federal cases to former Nigerian head of state Yakubu Gowon.

 

He had interceded on Pfizer's behalf with the Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau – who directed that the state's settlement demand should be reduced from $150m to $75m – and with the Nigerian president. "Adams reported that Gowon met with President Yar'Adua and convinced him to drop the two federal high court cases against Pfizer," the cable says.

 

But five days later Liggeri, without the lawyers present, enlarged on the covert operation against Aondoakaa.

 

The cable says Liggeri went on to suggest that the lawsuits against Pfizer "were wholly political in nature".

 

He alleged that Médecins sans Frontières, which was in the same hospital in Kano, "administered Trovan to other children during the 1996 meningitis epidemic and the Nigerian government has taken no action".

 

MSF – which was the first to raise concerns about the trial – vehemently denies this. Jean-Hervé Bradol, former president of MSF France, said: "We have never worked with this family of antibiotic. We don't use it for meningitis. That is the reason why we were shocked to see this trial in the hospital."

 

There is no suggestion that the attorney general was swayed by the pressure. However, the dropping of the federal cases provoked suspicion in Nigeria. Last month, the Nigerian newspaper Next ran a story headlined, "Aondoakaa's secret deal with Pfizer".

 

The terms of the agreement that led to the withdrawal of the $6bn federal suit in October 2009 against Pfizer "remain unknown because of the nature of [the] deal brokered by … Mike Aondoakaa", it said. Pfizer and the Nigerian authorities had signed a confidentiality agreement. "The withdrawal of the case, as well as the terms of settlement, is a highly guarded secret by the parties involved in the negotiation," the article said.

 

Aondoakaa expressed astonishment at the claims in the US cable when approached by the Guardian. "I'm very surprised to see I became a subject, which is very shocking to me," he said. "I was not aware of Pfizer looking into my past. For them to have done that is a very serious thing. I became a target of a multinational: you are supposed to have sympathy with me … If it is true, maybe I will take legal action."

 

In a statement to the Guardian, Pfizer said: "The Trovan cases brought by both the federal government of Nigeria and Kano state were resolved in 2009 by mutual agreement. Pfizer negotiated the settlement with the federal government of Nigeria in good faith and its conduct in reaching that agreement was proper. Although Pfizer has not seen any documents from the US embassy in Nigeria regarding the federal government cases, the statements purportedly contained in such documents are completely false.

 

"As previously disclosed in Pfizer's 10-Q filing in November 2009, per the agreement with the federal government, Nigeria dismissed its civil and criminal actions against the company. Pfizer denied any wrongdoing or liability in connection with the 1996 study. The company agreed to pay the legal fees and expenses incurred by the federal government associated with the Trovan litigation. Pursuant to the settlement, payment was made to the federal government's counsel of record in the case, and there was no payment made to the federal government of Nigeria itself. As is common practice, the agreement was covered by a standard confidentiality clause agreed to by both parties."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-cables-pfizer-nigeria

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35TbGjt-weA

 

 

 

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/telesur091210.html

 

 

Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera: The empire, in the name of diplomacy, is committing third-class espionage -- lamentable for a serious country, and lamentable and decadent for an empire. The reason [for making the WikiLeaks cables available] is to show the public the quality of an empire which -- there's no doubt about it -- is entering into a gradual, but increasingly rapid, political decline.

[Bloodstain]

 

 

Interpol have issued an international arrest warrant for the former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, who fled Croatia as WikiLeak cables exposed corruption allegations against him.

 

As Ian Traynor reported, according to cables from the US Zagreb embassy Sanader, the centre-right politician who stood down suddenly as prime minister in summer last year, features in several of the corruption cases currently terrorising the Croatian political class.

 

A friend of Sanader Jerko Rosinsaid, said on state-run today that the former leader was on a foreign business trip and would cut it short to return home.

 

But Croatian police issued warrant for Sanader and sent it overnight to Interpol. Police also searched his home, AP reports.

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-cables-croatia-pm-corruption

http://www.interpol.int/public/data/wanted/notices/data/2010/48/2010_55748.asp

 

 

 

 

Also lol, China joins Russia in taking pot shots at USA, wonder if that will change if damaging cables about them get released

It was an editorial in Beijing Daily, the official Party mouthpiece of the Beijing city leadership, criticizing the Nobel Peace Prize as a "tool of Western values and ideology," and snidely suggesting that this year's prize be given instead to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

 

 

 

Here's part of its translation of what the paper said:

 

quote:

If we want to talk about someone who is now a figure in the global spotlight, then who, if not Julian Assange? The founder of the Wikileaks website has been the subject of a worldwide manhunt by Western nations led by the United States, and all because he wanted to release a number of secrets that could not be spoken. Based on what we know, Assange, who was arrested in London on December 7, will have to face a two-year jail term . . .

 

Assange's misfortunes tell us that the freedom of speech that America advocates is not an absolute freedom, that it is a matter of kind and degree, and that it has its limits. Ordinarily, if you say vicious things about the American government, talk about its problems, or even openly critical the American government, this is nothing very remarkable. But this time Assange has dared expose the truth, airing out before the world a number of things and remarks that the American government wouldn't dare make public, make transparent or share with others — and this has stepped over the line of America's freedom of expression. And the worldwide manhunt [for Assange] is no surprise.

 

 

The writer Clay Shirky warned this would happen. In a prophetic article on Monday he predicted the kind of argument repressive regimes would use following the US's approach to WikiLeaks.

quote:

 

Democracies have a process for creating such restrictions, and as a citizen it sickens me to see the US trying to take shortcuts. The leaders of Myanmar and Belarus, or Thailand and Russia, can now rightly say to us "You went after Wikileaks' domain name, their hosting provider, and even denied your citizens the ability to register protest through donations, all without a warrant and all targeting overseas entities, simply because you decided you don't like the site. If that's the way governments get to behave, we can live with that."

[Furah]

Less ironic than an anonymous group fighting for freedom of information.

Actually they're fighting against censorship.

[sees_all1]

Less ironic than an anonymous group fighting for freedom of information.

Actually they're fighting against censorship.

 

Fighting against censorship by basically censoring their targets.

[Bloodstain]

Less ironic than an anonymous group fighting for freedom of information.

Actually they're fighting against censorship.

 

Fighting against censorship by basically censoring their targets.

 

It's basically an internet sit in/protest

[Furah]

Less ironic than an anonymous group fighting for freedom of information.

Actually they're fighting against censorship.

 

Fighting against censorship by basically censoring their targets.

It's hardly censoring them.

[Dupin]

Today's NY Times claims Anonymous, by becoming involved in a serious, political issue, is becoming mature.

 

I lol'd.

[Alg]

It's basically an internet sit in/protest

Yeah, that's totally what DDoS attacks are.

[Bloodstain]

It's basically an internet sit in/protest

Yeah, that's totally what DDoS attacks are.

 

Professor of informatics at the university of Oslo called it just that two days ago. Is is pretty much a virtual sit in.

 

 

Anyway, why the hell is Anon getting so much coverage? BACK TO THE ACTUAL WIKILEAKS

[Bloodstain]

Today's NY Times claims Anonymous, by becoming involved in a serious, political issue, is becoming mature.

 

I lol'd.

 

anyone who takes Anonymous seriously is lulz worthy.

 

Or who thinks NYT is anything but a gov't mouth, although that's why it's funny that they say they're becoming mature

[Bloodstain]

Looks like the CIA created a "honeypot" wikileaks mirror at wikileaks.psytek.net, presumably to see who is downloading the leaksbut they screwed up the anonymization. A quick Google reveals who's behind psytek.net. Wonder what other mirrors they set up, but with better cloaking? Here's a related Reddit thread. (via Len Sassaman)

 

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/10/cias-honeypot-wikile.html

[magekillr]

Ron Paul is a crazy whackadoodle on every issue except for foreign policy and our empire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDp1izlMQT0

[Dupin]

Ron Paul is a crazy whackadoodle on every issue except for foreign policy and our empire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDp1izlMQT0

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Now, I wonder if there was anything negative about him in the documents.

[Zierro]

Today's NY Times claims Anonymous, by becoming involved in a serious, political issue, is becoming mature.

 

I lol'd.

 

Now I'm depressed.

[Bloodstain]

Amazing documentary on Wikileaks & Assange starting from his hacker days in Australia, lots of great interviews and stuff

http://svtplay.se/v/2264028/wikirebels_the_documentary

[Furah]

This absolutely disgusts me.

 

The now infamous Wikileaks recently released a cable from Afghanistan revealing U.S. government contractor DynCorp threw a party for Afghan security recruits featuring trafficked boys as the entertainment. Bacha bazi is the Afghan tradition of "boy play" where young boys are dressed up in women's clothing, forced to dance for leering men, and then sold for sex to the highest bidder. Apparently this is the sort of "entertainment" funded by your tax dollars when DynCorp is in charge of security in Afghanistan.

 

DynCorp is a government contractor which has been providing training for Afghan security and police forces for several years. Though the company is about as transparent as a lead-coated rock, most reports claim over 95% of their budget comes from U.S. taxpayers. That's the same budget that DynCorp used to pay for a party in Kunduz Province for some Afghan police trainees. The entertainment for the evening was bacha bazi boys, whose pimps were paid so the boys would sing and dance for the recruits and then be raped by them afterward. That's your tax dollars at work -- fighting terrorism and extremism in Afghnistan by trafficking little boys for sex with cops-in-training.

 

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/wikileaks_reveals_us_tax_dollars_fund_child_sex_slavery_in_afghanistan

[Bloodstain]

^ Posted a couple pages back, but really [bleep]ing depressing. [bleep] private security companies

[Skeptical]

^ Posted a couple pages back, but really [bleep]ing depressing. [bleep] private security companies

 

They're not "private security companies". In the case of Blackwater, they are not only mercenaries, but Christian warriors who are in it to help people. I'm not kidding, either.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary/dp/1560259795

[Bloodstain]

^ They are glorified mercenaries, I was just trying to use neutral wording :razz:

[Skeptical]

^ They are glorified mercenaries, I was just trying to use neutral wording :razz:

 

Ah.

 

Why would you feel the need to do that?

[Junkmutt]

Although I think it is great that stuff like ^^^^^ get's uncovered I do wish that some things weren't put up that compromised military personnel. Other than that, I'm fine; this will make a nice section in a history book in the future.

[Bloodstain]

^ They are glorified mercenaries, I was just trying to use neutral wording :razz:

 

Ah.

 

Why would you feel the need to do that?

 

I've learned that no matter how despicable the person/company/whatever, there's always someone willing to stick up for them -.-

[Furah]

Although I think it is great that stuff like ^^^^^ get's uncovered I do wish that some things weren't put up that compromised military personnel. Other than that, I'm fine; this will make a nice section in a history book in the future.

In reference to the cables, nearly every one of the cables released so far were first released to mainstream news organisations. Wikileaks then published the ones that those news outlets requested. On top of that the cables were redacted as journalists deemed appropriate. The US was also given an opportunity to help prevent compromising those people too, but they declined.