WikiLeaks shrugged off the jailing of its editor-in-chief by publishing a new tranche of secret diplomatic cables yesterday, heaping more embarrassment on the US and some of its closest allies.
After Julian Assange spent his first night behind bars as a remand prisoner in London, his Web site revealed Washington had branded Australia’s ex-prime minister Kevin Rudd as a “mistake-prone control freak” and that the British government was relieved when its Scottish counterparts freed the Lockerbie bomber.
The pressure on WikiLeaks has been steadily mounting, with key sources of funding choked off and Assange having been refused bail.
However, after vowing that it would not be silenced, the site showed its ability to ruffle feathers was unimpaired with its latest revelations.
Rudd, now Australia’s foreign minister, tried to laugh off the confidential assessment by the US embassy in Canberra that he made foreign policy blunders.
Rudd frustrated colleagues by being a “control freak” who was “obsessed with managing the media cycle rather than engaging in collaborative decision making,” extracts of cables published by the Sydney Morning Herald said.
While he was prime minister, he also “deeply offended” Australia’s closest ally in 2008 by aggressively pushing for a meeting with then-president George W. Bush in Washington, only to cancel two days later, the papers showed.
Rudd said the US, not Assange, was to blame for the leak of cables, saying it had a problem with its diplomatic security.
“When you’ve got a quarter of a million cables pecking around out there, and on top of that you have people who have had access in the US system to these sorts of cables in excess of 2 million people, that’s where the core of the problem lies,” Rudd told commercial radio.
There were also potential red faces in Britain whose then Labour government publicly distanced itself from the decision by the devolved Scottish government to free the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi last year.
However, dispatches from the US embassy in Tripoli showed that Britain faced threats from Libya of “dire consequences” if al-Megrahi — who is suffering from cancer — died in a Scottish prison.
Among the threats were the cessation of all British commercial activity in Libya and demonstrations against British facilities.
The dispatches also showed the British ambassador in Tripoli “expressed relief” about al-Megrahi’s imminent release.
“They could have cut us off at the knees,” Vincent Fean, the British ambassador, is cited as saying.
And there were also revelations in connection with US ally Saudi Arabia, as cables painted a picture of a buzzing party scene inside princes’ mansions in Jeddah replete with alcohol, drugs and sex.
While Swedish authorities insist the rape case against Assange has nothing to do with WikiLeaks’ revelations, his detention in London added further pressure on the site as its sources of funding are being throttled.
Visa suspended all payments to WikiLeaks on Tuesday, the day after its rival MasterCard Worldwide took a similar step. The banking arm of the Swiss post office has also closed a WikiLeaks account set up by Assange.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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