The WikiWeek: March 18, 2011
THE CABLES AFRICA Sierra Leonean military officials blew $1.9 million in British aid money on big-screen TVs and hunting rifles. U.S. officials helped in a corruption case against Tanzanian banking executives. Kenyan officials told U.S. diplomats that an investigation into the country’s 2007-2008 election violence would risk provoking civil war. Nigerian politician Joseph Ibori wanted ...
THE CABLES
AFRICA
Sierra Leonean military officials blew $1.9 million in British aid money on big-screen TVs and hunting rifles.
U.S. officials helped in a corruption case against Tanzanian banking executives.
Kenyan officials told U.S. diplomats that an investigation into the country’s 2007-2008 election violence would risk provoking civil war.
Nigerian politician Joseph Ibori wanted to create a “trust fund” with his stolen wealth.
ASIA
The owner of Japan’s currently imperiled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant falsified inspection records for the facility.
U.S. diplomats allege that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s party paid parliament members $2.2 million apiece for a 2008 vote. (Singh denies it.)
MIDDLE EAST
U.S. diplomats say British defense contractor BAE bribed a Saudi prince to secure a fighter jet deal.
THE NEWS
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley is fired quits after calling the Defense Department’s treatment of alleged WikiLeaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.”
The Pentagon says its own security weaknesses enabled the leaking of the WikiLeaks documents.
Mexican President Filipe Calderón is “barely on speaking terms” with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico over WikiLeaks disclosures.
A federal judge rules that Twitter must hand over its records in WikiLeaks case.
Gawker goes inside Anonymous’s war room.
Jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki praises WikiLeaks.
A Turkish newspaper says it has another trove of WikiLeaks cables on U.S.-Turkey relations. The Hindu in India also has a bunch.
The top lawmaker on the U.S. House of Representatives’ intelligence committee says WikiLeaks have been “devastating” to diplomacy.
THE BIG PICTURE
Julian Assange: WikiLeaks sparked the Arab revolt.
How the WikiLeaks documents helped reporters covering Japan’s nuclear woes.
WikiLeaks suffers the most damaging leak of them all: pictures of Julian Assange dancing.
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