The cables indicated what was long suspected by German opposition leaders who led a parliamentary inquiry into the case: intense political pressure from Washington was the reason that Germany never pressed for the arrest and extradition of 13 operatives believed to be from the C.I.A. who were ultimately charged in indictments issued in Spain and in Munich.

“I am not surprised by this,” said Hans-Christian…………..

Two senior Whitehall officials assured US diplomats that the renewal of Britain‘s Trident nuclear deterrent would go ahead, apparently contradicting then prime minister Gordon Brown‘s public statements proposing some disarmament by the UK

The following day the embassy reported that a captured colonel, Peter Oloya, held in prison in Gulu, had been shot on the orders of Colonel Charles Otema, the head of military intelligence in northern Uganda who was virtually running the war. Otema is reported to have been in daily contact with Uganda‘s president, Yoweri Museveni…
Despite US support for Museveni, the US ambassador reported widespread disillusionment with the Ugandan leader‘s 24-year rule. In October last year, Lanier wrote: „The president‘s autocratic tendencies, as well as Uganda‘s pervasive corruption, sharpening ethnic divisions and explosive population growth, have eroding [sic] Uganda‘s status as an African success story.“

US embassy cables reveal top executive‘s claims that company ‚knows everything‘ about key decisions in government ministries

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.

Russia was tracking the assassins of dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko before he was poisoned but was warned off by Britain, which said the situation was „under control“, according to claims made in a leaked US diplomatic cable.
The secret memo, recording a 2006 meeting between an ex-CIA bureau chief and a former KGB officer, is set to reignite the diplomatic row surrounding Litvinenko‘s unsolved murder that year, which many espionage experts have linked directly to the Kremlin.

Citing the WikiLeaks cables, major Pakistani newspapers this morning carried stories that purported to detail eye-popping American assessments of India’s military and civilian leaders…
An extensive search of the WikiLeaks database by the Guardian by date, name and keyword failed to locate any of the incendiary allegations. It suggests this is the first case of WikiLeaks being exploited for propaganda purposes.

The controversial claims, published in four Pakistani national papers, were credited to the Online Agency, an Islamabad-based news service that has frequently run pro-army stories in the past. No journalist is bylined.
Shaheen Sehbai, group editor at The News, described the story as “agencies’ copy” and said he would investigate its origins.

„Wenn Demokratie, dann völlige“, sagte Putin am Donnerstag, nach Gesprächen mit seinem französischen Amtskollegen Francois Fillon in Moskau. „Warum hat man denn Herren Assange hinter schwedische Gardinen gebracht?“. Man sollte zuerst unter dem eigenen Teppich kehren, sagte Putin, womit er „den Ball an seine amerikanischen Kollegen zurückgeben“ wolle.

Schlappe für das CIA-Entführungsopfer Khaled el-Masri: Die Bundesregierung muss sich nicht um die Auslieferung der beteiligten CIA-Agenten bemühen. Das Kölner Verwaltungsgericht wies eine entsprechende Klage des Deutsch-Libanesen ab.

Fünf frühere Terrorverdächtige haben vor dem Obersten US-Gericht Klage gegen das Geheimflug-Programm eingelegt, mit dem der Geheimdienst CIA nach den Terroranschlägen vom 11. September 2001 Gefangene zu Folter und Befragung außer Landes gebracht haben soll. Mit der Klage, der AFP vorliegt, wollen die Kläger das Urteil eines US-Bundesgerichts kippen

Will die Region Lateinamerika sein Wirtschaftswachstum beibehalten, muss es sich zwischen zwei Alternativen entscheiden: Entweder opfert sie ihren unerhörten Artenreichtum oder aber sie schwingt sich zum führenden globalen Anbieter von Umweltleistungen auf. So lautet die Botschaft einer neuen Studie, die Anfang des Monats auf dem 20. Iberoamerikanischen Gipfeltreffen im argentinischen Badeort Mar del Plata vorgestellt wurde.