Wikileaks speaks only to those who read what's there

[Generic Other]

I am making a point of perusing the information. A scavenger hunt of sorts. Anyone else?

Some tidbits from A CAUCASUS WEDDING

<snip>
A Dagestan wedding for Duma member and Dagestan's Oil Company chief Gadzhi Makhachev's son (His dealings in the oil business -- including close cooperation with U.S. firms -- have left him well off enough to afford luxurious houses in Moscow, Paris, San Diego) was described in elaborate detail: "The alcohol consumption before, during and after this Muslim wedding was stupendous...thousands of bottles of Beluga Export vodka (“Best consumed with caviar”)...a large collection of luxury automobiles, including the Rolls Royce Silver Phantom...legroom was somewhat constricted by the presence of a Kalashnikov carbine...There was also entertainment...a Syrian-born singer named Avraam Russo, could not make it because he was shot a few days before the wedding, but there was a “gypsy” troupe from St. Petersburg, a couple of Azeri pop stars, and from Moscow, Benya the Accordion King with his family of singers. A host of local bands, rounded out the entertainment...The main activity of the day was eating and drinking...dancing: one by one, each of the dramatically paunchy men (there were no women present)danced...he drank 120 toasts to his guests...guests were constantly plied with food and drink. The cooks seemed to keep whole sheep and whole cows boiling in a cauldron somewhere day and night, dumping disjointed fragments of the carcass on the tables whenever someone entered the room. Gadzhi’s two chefs kept a wide variety of unusual dishes in circulation (in addition to the omnipresent boiled meat and fatty bouillon).

Gadzhi’s Kaspiysk summer house is an enormous structure on the shore of the Caspian, essentially a huge circular reception room -- much like a large restaurant -- attached to a 40-meter high green airport tower on columns, accessible only by elevator, with a couple of bedrooms, a reception room, and a grotto whose glass floor was the roof of a huge fish tank. The heavily guarded compound also boasts a second house, outbuildings, a tennis court, and two piers out into the Caspian, one rigged with block and tackle for launching jet skis.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov...brought the happy couple “a five kilo lump of gold” as his wedding present.

<snip>

06MOSCOW9533, A CAUCASUS WEDDING
http://www.wikileaks.is/cable/2006/08/06MOSCOW9533.html

Anyway, as you can see it was one crazy party. I wonder which U.S. oil companies this guy has "close cooperation" with? And why does he also have a home in San Diego? And isn't all his wealth stolen from the former-Soviet state? These memos give us "little people" a chance to see behind the curtain, don't they?

Please feel free to share any interesting info you find.

[leftstreet]

1. More and more these leaks expose the reality of the Class War

Thanks for posting this

[Generic Other]

7. The Wikileaks may well be the first skirmish of the Class World War

I was reminded of Archduke Ferdinand today when I saw the pic of Prince Charles being attacked.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Exxon, they have been trying to penetrate the Caucasus for a few years.

http://www.businessweek.com/blogs/russia_oil_politics/archives/2009/07/exxon_the_chase.html

[CoffeeCat]

3. Did you read what Hillary Clinton said about China?

I'm paraphrasing, but Hillary was discussing the challenges of
dealing with a burgeoning, Chinese economy. The U.S. wants them
to provide a safety net for their people and improve on human
rights, as they prosper. Hillary comments, "It's hard to be tough
when you're negotiating with your banker."

Thought that was very compelling--although not breaking news.

Our SOS refers to China as "our banker".

[Generic Other]

6. We owe them a lot of moola!

The Treasury Department estimates that our debt to China is approximately $843 billion. That is over $10,000 in debt for the average American family.

http://www.defeatthedebt.com/understanding-the-national-debt/how-much-do-we-owe/

[Matariki]

4. Managing Preval

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPARTMENT PASS USAID FOR LAC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/01/2019
TAGS: PGOV HA KBIO
SUBJECT: DECONSTRUCTING PREVAL

Classified By: Ambassador Janet A. Sanderson, reason 1.4(b) and (d).

Summary and Introduction
-------------------------

¶1. (C) Haitian President Rene Preval has now completed three
years of his five year presidential mandate. Widely touted as
the "transitional president" poised to lead Haiti into a new
era of democracy and economic prosperity, he has had only
modest success thus far. Haiti's problems are indeed
daunting, and redressing them will take much more than a
five-year term. However, Preval's particular world view, his
personality and often indecisive and uncommunicative
leadership style, coupled with Haiti's deeply divided
political class and the devastating events of 2008, have
conspired to defer, if not derail, forward movement here.

¶2. (C) That being said, Preval remains Haiti's indispensable
man. Legitimately elected, still moderately popular, and
likely the only politician capable of imposing his will on
Haiti - if so inclined - Preval's role over the next 18
months is critical. Dealing with Preval is a challenge,
occasionally frustrating and sometimes rewarding. He is wary
of change and suspicious of outsiders, even those who seek
his success. Managing Preval will remain challenging during
the remainder of his term yet doing so is key to our success
and that of Haiti. We must continue to find creative ways to
work with him, influence him, and encourage him to recapture
the activism of his first year in office. Until he does,
political change and economic progress, so necessary to
Haiti's future, is likely to be incremental at best.

read more

[Generic Other]

5. We act like everyone is a puppet that we need to control

Still, an interesting portrait of a world leader.

[Matariki]

8. Top secret critique of Canadian television ;-)

SUBJECT: PRIMETIME IMAGES OF US-CANADA BORDER PAINT U.S. IN INCREASINGLY NEGATIVE LIGHT


¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
has long gone to great pains to highlight the distinction
between Americans and Canadians in its programming, generally
at our expense. However, the level of anti-American melodrama
has been given a huge boost in the current television season
as a number of programs offer Canadian viewers their fill of
nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious
deeds in Canada while Canadian officials either oppose them
or fall trying. CIA rendition flights, schemes to steal
Canada's water, "the Guantanamo-Syria express," F-16's flying
in for bombing runs in Quebec to eliminate escaped
terrorists: in response to the onslaught, one media
commentator concluded, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that
"apparently, our immigration department's real enemies aren't
terrorists or smugglers -- they're Americans." While this
situation hardly constitutes a public diplomacy crisis per
se, the degree of comfort with which Canadian broadcast
entities, including those financed by Canadian tax dollars,
twist current events to feed long-standing negative images of
the U.S. -- and the extent to which the Canadian public seems
willing to indulge in the feast - is noteworthy as an
indication of the kind of insidious negative popular
stereotyping we are increasingly up against in Canada. End
Summary.

"THE BORDER" -CANADA'S ANSWER TO 24, W/O THAT SUTHERLAND GUY
--------------------------------------------- ---------------

¶2. (SBU) When American TV and movie producers want action,
the formula involves Middle Eastern terrorists, a ticking
nuclear device, and a (somewhat ironically, Canadian) guy
named Sutherland. Canadian producers don't need to look so
far -- they can find all the action they need right on the
U.S.-Canadian border. This piece of real estate, which most
Americans associate with snow blowing back and forth across
an imaginary line, has for the past three weeks been for
Canadian viewers the site of downed rendition flights, F-16
bombing runs, and terrorist suspects being whisked away to
Middle Eastern torture facilities. "The Border," which
state-owned CBC premiered on January 7, attracted an
impressive 710,000 viewers on its first showing -- not
exactly Hockey Night in Canada, but equivalent to an American
program drawing about eight million U.S. viewers. The show
depicts Canadian immigration and customs officers' efforts to
secure the U.S.-Canadian border and the litany of moral
dilemmas they face in doing so. The CBC bills the
high-budget program as depicting the "new war" on the border
and "the few who fight it." While the "war" is supposed to
be against criminals and terrorists trying to cross the
border, many of the immigration team's battles end up being
with U.S. government officials, often in tandem with the
CIA-colluding Canadian Security and Intelligence Service
(CSIS).

read more

Oh, I can't leave this gem out:
"Episode two expands on this theme, featuring the arrival of an arrogant, albeit stunningly attractive female DHS officer, sort of a cross between Salma Hayek and Cruella De Vil."

[Generic Other]

9. Surrender pronto or we bomb Toronto!!

OMG. This is too funny!

[Generic Other]

10. I had dreams about Wikileaks and witches last night

I think I dreamed about wiccanleaks.

[Bragi]

12. A WikiLeaks joke

I am reminded of a joke I saw last week:

A webmaster runs into his boss's office: "I can't believe how traffic to our new mens' incontinence website has spiked in the last week."

"That's interesting" says the boss: "Remind me, what the name we finally picked for that site?"

"It's called LeakyWiks."

(Well, I thought it was funny.)

[Norrin Radd]

11. kr

[Generic Other]

13. Anyone read any new interesting stuff from Wiki?

I read that Cuba and Venezuela are the Axis of Mischief.

That Chavez sells a tortilla product at a restaurant for 1/4 the regular price.

That Lieberman and the UAE talked of a branch campus in Dubai for the University of Connecticut.

When do we get to see more stuff?

I want to peek at the corporats next!