2011-02-05 WikiLeaks in today's media: Cablegate coverage
El País: Objetivo: matar a Osama Bin Laden (The Goal: kill Osama Bin Laden)
"Arabia Saudí propuso unir las fuerzas de seis países para capturar o asesinar al jefe de Al Qaeda, según revelan documentos secretos del Departamento de Estado de EE UU. (Saudi Arabia proposed to unify the strength of six countries to capture or assassinate the chief of Al Qaeda, according to secret documents from the State Department of the United States.)"
The Telegraph: Why Scots want to stay in the Union
"Scotland would remain part of the United Kingdom for “a generation” because of the economic crisis, the then Scottish secretary told US officials."
The Telegraph: Zardari is a numbskull, British told Americans
"British officials described Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, as “highly corrupt” and a “numbskull”, according to leaked documents."
The Telegraph: Tony Blair's fees the talk of Beijing
"When senior diplomats met in Beijing to discuss the burning issues of the day, one topic seemed to exercise them as much as any other – the size of Tony Blair’s lecture fees."
The Telegraph: The bear with a sore head and the fish that flew the flag
"When Saddam Hussein was toppled by Coalition forces in Iraq, great lengths were taken to expunge all traces of his oppressive regime."
The Telegraph: Thailand's royal pet
"An experienced diplomat should be able to greet anyone from a king to a despot, but nothing could prepare one US ambassador for the experience of meeting a military officer that happened to be a poodle."
The Telegraph: Millions in overseas aid to Africa was embezzled
"The true scale of the theft of overseas aid money by corrupt foreign regimes is disclosed in leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph. Tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been pocketed by their ministers and officials, much of it used to buy luxury goods."
The Guardian: From Palau to Mongolia, WikiLeaks cables show loneliness of distant envoys
"Away from the high-profile embassies, the longer, untold narrative of the WikiLeaks cables is often one of triviality, inconsequence, and moments of wry, Beckettian humour. The US runs 292 diplomatic missions across 175 countries, and many of them lie within a kind of diplomatic hinterland. Cables sent from the islands of the Pacific, or the steppes of Mongolia, generally reveal not the fast-paced interaction of a global superpower, but the loneliness of the long-distance diplomat."
(Image Credit: Dali Rău)