2011-08-01 WikiLeaks Notes: Latest News on #Cablegate Releases & #WikiLeaks

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression. All the times are GMT.
New Cable(s) were released today.

05:45 PM Julian Assange is scheduled to appear at the Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas on September 30, for an hour-long discussion titled ''WikiLeaks has not gone far enough''.
The appearance is likely to happen via live video link although, if possible, Julian will travel to Australia. 1 , 2

05:10 PM Free Bradley Manning rally today in Minneapolis, outside Senator Klobuchar's Office. For more information :
Free Bradley Manning Minneapolis on facebook.

04:30 PM A U.S. embassy official was told of a bribe to revoke Rio Tinto’s mining licences for the Simandou deposit in 2008, according to a report of The Times on a U.S. State Department cable, where it can be read :

"A contact at the International Finance Corporation in Washington DC said that someone had paid $US7 million to someone in the presidency as a bribe to get the Rio Tinto contract cancelled. After the contract was terminated, the $US7m cheque bounced."

The cables describe the Guinean government as ‘chaotic and highly dysfunctional’ and Moussa Dadis Camara as illogical and suspected of substance abuse. Details of a strange encounter between a Rio Tinto executive and Dadis are also part of the reports, as well as threats against Rio Tinto’s personnel :

"Misidentifying the Rio Tinto executive as a disreputable diamond dealer, Dadis proceeded to upbraid the executive for 20 minutes, shouting that he was a traitor while standing just a few inches from his face, surrounded by guards with machineguns."

"The six or seven ministers, including the Prime Minister, who were standing next to the Rio Tinto executive, never attempted to inform the President of his mistake. Dadis finished his outburst and stormed away. Immediately after, all of the ministers and government officials in attendance reportedly laughed heartily about the incident but the executive did not share their amusement."

"Information gathered from multiple sources suggests a chaotic and highly dysfunctional government. Dadis's erratic behaviour and paranoia, coupled with the camp's undisciplined environment, will likely pose significant challenges in the months ahead."

10:30 AM Diplomatic cables reveal the U.S. was in contact with military forces involved in the 2008 coup against Bolivia’s first indigenous president Evo Morales.

Federico Fuentes writes, for Green Left Weekly :

With coup plans well underway, the article reported that US embassy officials met with four retired generals and a security representative from the Santa Cruz prefecture on September 2.

Three days later, the US embassy’s head of military affairs spoke with high ranking active military officials based in Santa Cruz to “plan the handing over of military units to paramilitary groups”.

The aim was to “create the sensation that the government had lost control of the Armed Forces”, a scenario outlined in US embassy cables issued only months prior.

04:20 AM The CIA station chief who ran operations in Pakistan during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and guided operations during WikiLeaks releases resigns. Some reports say due to illness, others due to tense relations with ISI counterparts.