WikiLeaks releases 349 cables on Lybia

The cables come from different US embassies around the world, most were created between 2006 and 2010 during US normalisation with Lybia.  Some date back as far as 1986.

Wikileaks: Israeli Corruption At Gaza Checkpoints

U.S. businesses allege that corruption by Israeli officials at Karni crossing is impeding their access to the Gaza market. As of late May 34 shipments of American goods, amounting to nearly USD 1.9 million dollars, have been waiting three to four months to cross into Gaza. U.S. distributors assert they are being asked to pay "special fees" which amount to as much as 75 times the standard processing fee as quoted by GOI officials. According to one major American distributor, corruption extends to Karni management and involves logistics companies working as middlemen for military and civilian officials at the terminal.

Abuse of human rights goes with corruption. Israel lovers have to admit that Israel is like any other corrupt middle eastern regime. How do you want an occupation regime that defies UN resolutions and human rights to be moral?

Assange: Many Arab Officials Have Close CIA Links

In his second interview with AlJazeera, Assange, increasingly fearful of a US cabal against him and his organization, is threatening to unveil sensitive information that a careful editing of the cables would normally not unveil, naming Arab leaders with CIA links and Arab countries that operate torture prisons for the CIA.

I think Assange right now is entitled to any means at his disposal to protect himself and his organization. What our leaders do behind our back is our business especially when it contradicts what they say in public. Diplomacy certainly uses secrecy but it is not a tool for secrecy in democratic governance. Secrecy is merely a feature of the business but it is not a goal. And we are increasingly seeing great disparities between private and public political discourse as well as an unhealthy amount of secrecy as worrying tendencies in actual western democratic governance.

Moreover, I am not surprised by the revelations about Arab states. Any Arab with a critical mind knows this and without any doubt can list the countries with close CIA links and CIA torture chambers. Bin Laden was a close CIA ally and foreign Saudi policy in general is 100% aligned with the US.

However, I am concerned about what we as Arabs (the people, not the governments) can and will do with these revelations. I am mostly distressed by the amount of silence in the Arab press and especially in the Lebanese press surrounding Al-Akhbar's revelations about Lebanese officials' collaboration with Israel and the US* against legitimate Lebanese resistance to Israeli invasions while telling us a different story publicly (this reaction from a Lebanese blogger close to Saudi Arabia's lebanese allies is an example).

Palestinians have suffered from this irresponsible conduct by Arab governments and Politicians. Our standing in the world and estimation of ourselves as people and nations are the first victims of this autocratic attitude by Arab governments which is in contrast with the political sympathies and affinities of the people in Arab countries.

*Unfortunately I was not able to link to the original story in Al-Akhbar because their website was down for more than a week following the publication of the first Wikileaks cables which were very damaging to Saudi Arabia and its March 14th allies in Lebanon.

Frost Interviews Assange

The interview is on AlJazeera English website. It is a good interview. It brings a lot of nuances on the Assange case, nuances the print media weren't able to achieve.

The Palestinian cause does not need Julian Assange's accuser

It is reported that one of Julian Assange's accuser will be headed to Palestine on behalf of a religious charity to work for peace and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis.

The Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people have had enough people working on behalf of Palestine's enemies, parading as friends of Palestine, and/or narcissistic people trying to make good publicity for themselves. Palestinians should ignore the 'help' of this person.

Update: It seems that this person has canceled her travel for now to Palestine.

Lebanon Wikileaks Documents Expose Deep Strife And Treason At The Heart Of The Current Lebanese Government

The US cable is one of several that have been published in Beirut by the leftwing al-Akhbar newspaper which has apparently been leaked as part of the WikiLeaks cache obtained by the Guardian, the New York Times and three continental European publications.

Al-Akhbar has highlighted contacts between the March 14 movement led by the current prime minister Saad al-Hariri, the US and the Saudis, prompting denials or defensive reactions from those named.

Marwan Hamadeh, the Lebanese minister of communications, warned the US charge d'affaires of the risks involved after Hezbollah indicated it would see any action against the telecoms network as "equal to an Israeli act of aggression".

Hamadeh also reported interference with Lebanese mobile communications by Syria and Israel.

...Lebanon's defence minister, Elias Murr reported in other leaked documents as telling US officials that the (Lebanese) army would not involve itself in a future Israeli attack on Lebanon...

Source: The Guardian via Al-Akhbar

The Naked Truth: Wikileaks And The US

This is the first installment in many leaks to come for the next 10 days or so...

There is nothing really new in this first installment,  for the people who are not blinded by US propaganda and bad western complacent journalism, in the latest leaks from Wikileaks.

Here is a short summary:

1. The Guardian quotes the leaks saying that Arab leaders are urging the US for a strike on Iran. Well actually, they might add 'Some' and we know who are these Arab leaders (Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, mainly)

2. Le Monde quotes one cable relating a meeting between US and Israeli officials on Iran: Israel is pushing the US for a harsher stance on Iran arguing that the politics of engaging Iran is simply buying time for Iran and is asking for GBU-28 bombs capable of reaching Iranian bunkers.  These bombs will be given to Israel, by the US, in May 2010.

3. The documents reveal also that Saudi donors remain chief financiers of terror groups like Al-Qaida.

4. Angry Arab is publishing on his blog information from cables relating to Israel, Lebanon and the Middle East.

5. The US is conducting a covert war in Yemen: ''One cable records that during a meeting in January with General David Petraeus, then US commander in the Middle East, Yemeni president Abdullah Saleh said: "We'll continue saying they are our bombs, not yours."

3. The US and the UK know that Pakistan's nuclear capacity might have ended up in the hands of small hostile groups

7.Suspicions over Afghan leaders' corruption...well that's really old news...and to be for such a long time at the stage of suspicions and do nothing is irresponsible...

8. The US is critical toward allies' military operations and leadership in Afghanistan (especially the UK)...When things go wrong, blame others...

9. The 'diplomatic' cables label Putin as an 'Alpha-dog', Karzai as 'paranoid', and Ahmadi-Nejad as 'Hitler'...

10. Ghaddafi is always accompanied by a 'voluptuous Ukrainian blonde nurse'...

11.  Spying on the UN...

12. Other items are related to the 'special relationship' with the UK:

They include high-level allegations of corruption against foreign leaders, harsh criticisms and frank insights into the world of normally- secret diplomacy.

Among literallyscores of revelations which may cause uproar, some will be particularly dismaying in Britain. They include:

• Highly critical private remarks about David Cameron and George Osborne's "lack of depth", made by Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, to the US ambassador.

• A scornful analysis of UK "paranoia" over the US-UK so-called special relationship. It is suggested that "keeping HMGthe British government "off-balance" about itthe relationship might be a good idea.

• US shock at the rude behaviour of Prince Andrew when abroad.

• Secret US military missions flown from a UK base, which Britain alleged could involve torture.

• A plan to deceive the British parliament over the use of banned US weapons.

AND MORE...

Special Democracynow.org

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Wikileaks and the Afghan war

There are many lessons to be learned from the recent leak of secret reports on the Afghan war. One of them should be that nobody will be out of reach of Wikileaks now. The very idea is somehow liberating...Big brother has been defeated by a smart little brother operating in a different direction to spread information, embarrass those who lie to us by hiding and customizing information to rule the masses ...
I hope Julian Assange will deliver one day some truth on that paradigm of misinformation that is the HIT...