Wikileaks
Wikileaks Reveals Super Injunction Blocking Reporting On Massive Australian Corruption Case Involving Leaders Of Malaysia, Indonesia & Vietnam
We've written about the problems of so-called super injunctions in the past (though mainly in the UK). This legal process not only keeps certain details under wraps concerning a lawsuit, but actually forbids the media from reporting on anything related to the case at all. Such a thing would be clear prior restraint and not allowed in the US, but apparently is considered legal in other parts of the world. However, Wikileaks has now revealed what appears to be a super injunction against reporting on a massive corruption case in Australia, involving the leaders of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, along with people at Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia:
WikiLeaks and other reformers has Machiavelli met his match
It's most instructive to read carefully the Stratfor emails WikiLeaks released recently. Their language and tone are alarming: both brutal and ruthless, in my view they reflect all that is wrong with a world now programmed to a rampant neo-liberal economic model that is underpinned by Machiavelli's philosophy of power.
Indians Against Democracy
A U.S. diplomatic cable released this year by Wikileaks shows a senior Hindu nationalist politician admitting that virtually all economic growth of recent years has been concentrated in the four southern states, two western states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) and "within 100km of Delhi." In another cable about Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister being groomed to be India s next PM, Hillary Clinton is revealingly blunt: "To which industrial or business groups is Mukherjee beholden?"
BJP MPs to give ‘no assets abroad’ declaration on Friday
Timor’s Ramos-Horta ‘above local politics’
East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta saw his fledgling nation's parliament as corrupt and ineffective and believed himself both "above local politics" and indispensable, leaked US memos show. American diplomats also felt Ramos-Horta had let his 1996 Nobel peace prize "go to his head" and that his global ambitions put him at odds with some of Timor's key allies, embassy cables released by WikiLeaks revealed.
Salvaging the Judiciary
Missing – 1800 smuggled cars from Subic Freeport
According to the whistle-blower WikiLeaks, Port Irene is the major entry point of virtually all converted right-hand drive vehicles being sold in the Philippines which is seriously affecting revenues of legitimate car firms. WikiLeaks said that foreign car manufacturers in the Philippines are complaining that they were enticed to invest in the Philippines with the promise of market protection such as a blanket ban on the entry of imported used cars.
Will Museveni Punish Mukula
One of the intriguing cables leaked by WikiLeaks on Uganda is where NRM Eastern Region Vice Chairman Mike Mukula vents his frustration about his party to US ambassador Jerry Lanier. In a 2009 diplomatic cable Mukula reportedly told the American diplomat that President Yoweri Museveni was grooming his son, Lt. Col. Muhoozi Kainerugaba to succeed him, favouring Banyankole politically, militarily and economically, and that he, Mukula, wants to become president in 2016.
Kufuor Cried Over Ex-Gratia Withdrawal
Wikileaks: the Emperor does have clothes on, after all…!
This time a round, that buster of secret diplomatic cable bombshells revealed that a former United States Ambassador to the backwater United Madafu (Mwalimu Nyerere pardon) Republic of Tanzania, Michael Retzer, categorically stated that the owner of what was then the Kempinski Hotel Kilimanjaro in the city subsidised the purchase of five Savile Row suits for President Jakaya Kikwete (2005).
WikiLeaks: Beyond dirty laundry
That deeper malaise, which not many commentators are interesting in reading in these documents, is the obvious fact that men and women who feature so prominently in these documents are determining, in their own small ways, the affairs of the world; they make decisions which affect lives of millions of people around the world and therefore they carry a very serious responsibility and the discharge of that responsibility has implications for their own lives, both in this world and in the Hereafter.
Rights activists demand release of suspected Maoist sympathiser
Civil rights activists Sunday demanded the early release of a Chhattisgarh resident arrested on suspicion of being a Maoist sympathiser and allegedly involved in illegal money transfer by the Essar group for the rebels - a claim strongly denied by his supporters. Journalist-activist Lingaram Kodopi was arrested Friday along with contractor B.K. Lala following recent WikiLeaks revelations that Essar was paying "protection money" to Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
Contractor behind bars
Dantewada police on Friday apprehended a contractor, who had allegedly helped the Essar Group to end a deadlock with Maoists over a pipeline issue. The breakthrough came about a year ago when reports of the corporate funding Maoists were exposed. This was before the WikiLeaks revelations of Essar Group paying Chhattisgarh-based rebels
Nigerian government to be more transparent: finance minister
Nigeria: ‘ICPC, Code of Conduct Bureau Have Failed’
Nigeria's other anti-corruption bodies, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) have failed to compliment the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Human Rights Watch has said in a 64 page analysis chronicling EFCC's performance in its almost nine years of existence.
WikiLeaks cash-for-votes exposé rocks Parliament
Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament were marred on Thursday by repeated adjournments and uproar as a united Opposition demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following fresh disclosures alleging bribing of MPs during the July 2008 confidence vote, which the UPA-I government won by a slim majority.
Wikileaks Scandal Hits Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo
From 1954 to 1989, Paraguay was run by Alfredo Stroessner, a right-wing dictator whose regime is also blamed for torture, kidnappings and corruption. Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, became president of the small land-locked country of 6.3 million people after promising to give land to the landless and end entrenched corruption, defeating the Colorado party which had ruled for six decades.
Documenting The Financial Gains of Muammar Gaddafi and His Family
In May 2006, the US Liaison Office in Tripoli documents the extensive interests of the family of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in the Libyan economy: "The...family and other Jamahiriya [Libyan system] political favorites profit from being able to manipulate the multi-layered and regularly shifting dynamics of governance mechanisms in Libya.
Ambassador Speaks of Gazprom’s Woes in WikiLeaks
The Kremlin's ambition of turning Gazprom into a global energy titan is undermined by Soviet-style thinking, poor management and corruption, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. Leaked diplomatic cables from U.S. Ambassador to Moscow John Beyrle portray the company as a confused and corrupt behemoth still behaving like its predecessor, the Soviet Ministry of Gas.
How U.S. Distributors Bribed Israelis to Bring Goods Into Gaza
Israeli officials may have told Americans in 2008 that "they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis" (see our separate entry), but another U.S. embassy cable from 2006 indicates a possible way around the siege: bribing Israelis were bribed to accept US goods into Gaza.
Israel exposed through Norwegian newspaper
President Ben Ali’s Extended Family — The Nexus of Tunisian Corruption
In June 2008, the US Embassy in Tunis takes a full and frank look at corruption in Tunisia. It "is getting worse" and it starts at the top: "President [Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali's extended family is often cited as the nexus of Tunisian corruption....Seemingly half of the Tunisian business community can claim a Ben Ali connection through marriage, and many of these relations are reported to have made the most of their lineage."
Karzai ‘refused’ to sack minister
The Afghan leader has been defying US pressure to sack an allegedly corrupt minister for over a year, according to some of the latest diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website. Secret diplomatic records showed Ismail Khan - privately termed "the worst" by US officials - kept his job at an agency that controls $2bn in international projects.
Bashir stole billions from Sudan WikiLeaks
How Shell infiltrated Nigeria
The petrol giant Shell has thoroughly infiltrated the Nigerian government, newly leaked WikiLeaks documents show. The multinational corporation inserted its employees into every key government ministry to gain unparallelled influence in policy-making in the oil rich Niger Delta, a revelation that is only the latest chapter of Shell's deeply troubled history in Nigeria. A US embassy cable released by the WikiLeaks whistle-blower website alleges that Royal Dutch Shell's top manager in Nigeria claimed the oil company had sources inside of "all relevant ministries" involving its business.
Pfizer ‘probed Nigerian official’
US drugmaker Pfizer hired investigators to find evidence of corruption against the then Nigerian attorney-general to convince him to drop legal action against the company over a drug trial, the UK's Guardian newspaper has reported, citing leaked US diplomatic cables. Nigeria's Kano state sued the world's largest drugmaker in May 2007 for $2bn in damages over testing of the meningitis drug, Trovan, which state authorities said killed 11 children and left dozens disabled.
Bribes, lies and a plot over Bout
Offers of bribes, lies and a plot to have two United States Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested in Bangkok were part of attempts by supporters of Viktor Bout to block the alleged Russian arms smuggler's extradition, according to claims made by the US ambassador to Thailand in classified US cables disclosed by WikiLeaks. -