Wikileaks Just the Facts

Wikileaks the Big Debate

Wikileaks Logo

With all the big bruhaha about Wikileaks, when the smoke clears and the idiots have all gone home, the truth is all the documents released on Wikileaks are actually old, not classified as secret and available to everyone who asks. So the question is, why is everyone so upset and calling for the head of the Wikileaks people? The answer? It's a ruse. It's just like dancing with the stars, football and American Idol. It's to keep you ignorant of what is going on. No national security secret was revealed. No foreign diplomatic exchange was hurt. Nothing, absolutely nothing and noone was harmed in releasing the Wikileaks. I repeat, nothing was actually SECRET. All the documents are still available to you right now to ask for and get on your own, without Wikileaks.

WikiLeaks has released 272 diplomatic cables from a trove of more than 250,000. The remainder are to be dribbled out in coming weeks to provide maximum impact, the website says. A number of foreign diplomats acknowledged that the release could affect some of the most sensitive ongoing global issues and relationships.

1. Many Middle Eastern nations are far more concerned about Iran's nuclear program than they've publicly admitted. According to one cable, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly asked the U.S. to "cut off the head of the snake" -- meaning, it appears, to bomb Iran's nuclear program. Leaders of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern nations expressed similar views.

2. The U.S. ambassador to Seoul told Washington in February that the right business deals might get China to acquiesce to a reunified Korea, if the newly unified power were allied with the United States. American and South Korean officials have discussed such a reunification in the event that North Korea collapses under the weight of its economic and political problems.

[Related: WikiLeaks docs reveal U.S. diplomats insulting world leaders]

3. The Obama administration offered sweeteners to try to get other countries to take Guantanamo detainees, as part of its (as yet unsuccessful) effort to close the prison. Slovenia, for instance, was offered a meeting with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions.

4. Afghan Vice President Ahmed Zia Massoud took $52 million in cash when he visited the United Arab Emirates last year, according to one cable. The Afghan government has been plagued by allegations of corruption. Massoud has denied taking the money out of the country.

5. The United States has been working to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani nuclear reactor, out of concern that it could be used to build an illicit nuclear device. The effort, which began in 2007, continues.

6. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ordered diplomats to assemble information on their foreign counterparts. Documents in the WikiLeaks cache also indicate that Clinton may have asked diplomats to gather intelligence on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's plans for Iran, and information on Sudan (including Darfur), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Iran and North Korea.

7. The State Department labeled Qatar the worst country in the region for counterterrorism efforts. The country's security services were "hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals," according to one cable.

8. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are tighter than was previously known. Putin has given the high-living Berlusconi "lavish gifts" and lucrative energy contracts, and Berlusconi "appears increasingly to be the mouthpiece of Putin" in Europe, according to one cable.

[Related: The Guardian gave State Dept. cables to the NY Times]

9. Hezbollah continues to enjoy the weapons patronage of Syria. A week after Syrian president Bashar Assad promised the United States he wouldn't send "new" arms to the Lebanese militant group, the United States said it had information that Syria was continuing to provide the group with increasingly sophisticated weapons.

10. Some cables reveal decidedly less than diplomatic opinions of foreign leaders. Putin is said to be an "alpha-dog" and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to be "driven by paranoia." German Chancellor Angela Merkel "avoids risk and is rarely creative." Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi travels with a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse.

Please visit my legal website: Nevada DUI Attorney
See me on YouTube: Shakaama Live

Zimbabwe: Still Impoverished by the IMF World Bank

US urges reforms in Zimbabwe

The US secretary of state has said that South Africa must push its neighbour Zimbabwe to undertake political, social and economic reforms, during a visit to Pretoria.

"South Africa is very aware of the challenges posed by the political crisis in Zimbabwe because South Africa has three million refugees from Zimbabwe," Hillary Clinton said on Friday after talks with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa's foreign minister.

"Every one of those refugees represents a failure of the Zimbabwean government to care for its own people and a burden that South Africa has to bear," Clinton said.

An adviser to Jacob Zuma, the South African president, told Al Jazeera that Zuma was keen to see reforms implemented in Zimbabwe.

"[Zuma] is very prepared to engage as far as he can in order to resolve the problems and the challenges that are faced by the Zimbabwean people, because every negative thing that happens in Zimbabwe has a direct impact on South Africa," Lindiwe Zulu said.

"He would like to speed up the process as quickly as possible," she said, adding that Zuma would soon travel to Zimbabwe to hold talks with members of the government in Harare.





Changes sought


The US government is looking for Zimbabwe to pick up the pace of political reform so that donor countries have sufficient incentive to release aid to Harare.

Washington has maintained sanctions against Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president and his closest aides.



The US government has said that the lifting of sanctions is contingent on reforms being implemented by Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the government it shares with Morgan Tsvangirai, a former opposition leader who is now the country's prime minister.

But Mugabe, who has been president of Zimbabwe since 1980, has said that Western sanctions and interference have caused the economic crisis in his country.

Clinton’s appeal on Friday comes amid efforts by the US government to build better relations with South Africa, which came under strain when the Bush administration was in power.

"I know that the [South African foreign] minister and I are interested in making sure that our two countries not only lead but demonstrate the kind of co-operation that results in positive results for the people of the world," she said.

Clinton later went to HIV/Aids treatment centre in Cullinan, east of Pretoria, where she held talks with Pakishe Aaron, South Africa’s health minister.

"We have to make up for some lost time, but we are looking forward," Clinton said, in reference to what Washington called delays by the former South African government in addressing the health crisis. - Al Jazera

My Solution to Zimbabwe

I think the international community should setup a relief fund in south Africa. Since the South African president "Jacob Zuma, is very prepared to engage as far as he can" I'm sure he wouldn't mind a fund setup in his country. But instead of a fund being setup just for handing out food, it should be for basic needs first yes, but also for training the Zimbabweans for farming, engineering, city planning, city administration, mining and industry. This fund needs to prepare them with the necessary capability to return to their country and run it autonomously. Supposedly this is what the peace corps was set in place for, but I doubt they would go to such lengths. Usually the peace corps is comprised of 22 year old hippie kids, fresh out of college, with the propensity to not bathe.

Mugabe took his country by surprise when he ousted the white settlers, which I see nothing wrong with, but instead of preparing his country for rulership, he was taken control of by the IMF World Bank

The IMF and World Bank have been empowered by the governments which control it (led by the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Germany, France, Canada, and Italy -- the "Group of 7," which holds over 40% of the votes on their boards) with imposing economic austerity policies in the countries of the so-called "Third World" or "global South." Once Southern countries build up large external debts, as most have, they cannot get credit or cash anywhere else and are forced to go to these international institutions and accept whatever conditions are demanded of them. None of the countries has emerged from their debt problems; indeed most countries now have much higher levels of debt than when they first accepted IMF/World Bank "assistance."

While most would demonize Robert Mugabe, once I heard he was dealing with the IMF, I knew the man didn't have a chance. Without even looking at the history, I'm sure they have him over a barrel, the likes of which he can't recover from. If Zimbabwe were smart [it's just an expression mind you, I have heard they were the most educated population once] they would offer terms of exile for Mugabe and his party, with all of the wealth he could take with him, with the condition that he never return and that the IMF seek their retribution from him, and not Zimbabwe.

If you want to see a rich country taken into abject poverty, go look up the story of Venezuela. A lot of people cannot get over the racial factor of Zimbabwe. I know that is myopic of them, that's why I present the case of Venezuela. If it could happen to white people, it can happen to anyone. Anyone who deals with greedy corporate banking is in a world of hurt. The European countries obviously are not the great humanitarians they portray themselves to be. This is the oldest trick in the book. It's simply the modern colonialism.

Please visit my legal website Nevada DUI Attorney
See me on YouTube at Shakaama Live