Wikileaks: Phil.

[safeorigin]

Foreign Office slams WikiLeaks
By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 15:15:00 12/15/2010

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Foreign Affairs has joined the WikiLeaks-bashing, warning that the online whistle-blower's disclosures "may inhibit candid exchanges between diplomats and government officials rather than facilitate them."

DFA spokesman J. Eduardo Malaya issued the warning in an interview Wednesday, noting "relations among and between countries are often highly nuanced and sensitive."

"The disclosure of classified information is a crime in most jurisdictions and disclosure on a massive scale is most alarming," Malaya told the Inquirer.

According to Malaya, "these documents are internal to another government (the US government) and inasmuch as gentlemen are not supposed to snoop on each other's mails, it is best to reserve one's judgment on their contents for the time being."

Contrary to published reports, Malaya said there were "no formal consultations (with the US Embassy in Manila on the leaked memos from the mission) other than the heads-up and alerts the embassy gave when the WikiLeaks disclosures started."

Earlier, he said the foreign office was closely monitoring the developments as he also stressed the need to verify the authenticity of the leaked US Department of State documents.

Malaya called on the media to be responsible when releasing Philippine-related documents once these became available on the WikiLeaks website. He said there was no point in asking the press to withhold information.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakin...kiLeaksForeign


out of curiosity...

China, US perceive GMA as good leader
By Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) Updated December 16, 2010 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - China and the United States perceived former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as a good leader because she had shown being in control, leaked diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Beijing to Washington showed.

Online whistle-blower WikiLeaks leaked the diplomatic cable “Progress in the Philippines, but More Needed” detailing discussions on Southeast Asia between Eric John, then US deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP), and two senior Chinese diplomats. The leaked cable was dated March 5, 2007.

Hu Zhengyue, then China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs director general for Asian Affairs, discussed with John his country’s efforts in dealing with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.

“Beijing sees President Gloria Arroyo as a good leader because she has shown that she is in control.”

DAS John agreed President Arroyo has stabilized Philippine leadership and enacted strong fiscal and economic policy, but stressed that Beijing and Washington must encourage Manila to continue working hard to promote transparency and good governance, according to the leaked diplomatic cable.

John also cited what he saw as successful US-backed counter terrorism in Mindanao.

Hu observed that China’s and US initiatives in the Philippines are complementary even if the two powers are “working from different directions.”

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx...CategoryId=63:

kaya pala...

[uls]

look for the one where Australia called the Phils. a basket case

[tidus1203]

And how the US believes GMA is a good President cause she is under control... Although a lot of nations says the Philippines is very corrupt...

[uls]

the leaked cables were during the Arroyo admin

the US wants its allies to have stable govt

GMA's grip on power is perceived as stability

the US knows the Phils. is corrupt

but as long as the Phils. serves the interest of the US, corruption can be overlooked

[uls]

Assange is out on bail

[marg]

look for the one where Australia called the Phils. a Basket case

Yup, Basket case nga and mga SQUAKINGS Walang ginawa kundi mag Basketbol.

[uls]

Philippines a 'basket case' and Timor a 'burden'
http://www.theage.com.au/national/ph...214-18wsw.html

December 15, 2010
AUSTRALIA'S top diplomats consider our neighbourhood deeply troubled. They describe China's leadership as ''nervous, paranoid and uncertain'' but "running rings'' around Japan. Thailand is unstable, the Philippines a "basket case" and East Timor a "burden".

The candid judgments of some of Australia's most senior and experienced diplomats are contained in the United States' record of the secret Australia- US political-military talks held between senior officials of both countries in Canberra in October 2008.

Foreign Affairs Department deputy secretary David Richie warned that Australia faced a ''troubled neighbourhood … including an increase in illegal immigration from Indonesia … continuing political instability in Thailand; the 'basket case' of the Philippines; the continuing 'burden' of providing security and development assistance to East Timor; problems of bad governance in many of the Pacific Island states''.

During the exchange, the department's first assistant secretary for north Asia, Graham Fletcher, gave a broad political overview of China.

"The elite, led by Hu Jintao, likely would retain control until 2012, when Hu would turn over the reins to one of his hand-picked successors,'' Mr Fletcher forecast. "While China might look impressive externally, its internal politics were characterised by nervousness, paranoia and uncertainty. Nonetheless, there were no major challenges to the ruling elite in the near term.''

A senior US defence official for east Asia, David Sedney, said that the US analysis matched Australia's view that there was no threat to China's rulers.

"[Sedney] noted that the Chinese leadership was absorbed with domestic stability, and, while China had achieved success in achieving economic and political stability, there were cracks in the facade.''

The department's then senior official for south-east Asia, Peter Woolcott, described the political situation in many countries in Australia's neighbourhood as ''messy'', and cited "significant problems in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Burma''.

"The situation in Indonesia - Australia's most important regional partner - was 'as good as it gets','' Mr Woolcott said. "[President] Yudhoyono … whom Australia wanted to see re-elected, had provided first class co-operation on counterterrorism.''

Mr Woolcott described China's diplomatic efforts in south-east Asia as ''impressive'', adding that "while most countries wanted a US presence as a hedge, they were comfortable with China's approach''.

''Japan's presence, by contrast, hardly registered, in part because it declined to invest political resources, such as visits by senior officials,'' Mr Woolcott said. At this point Mr Fletcher interjected, saying the Chinese were ''running rings around Japan'' in south-east Asia.

Mr Ritchie suggested that Japan was hampered by the legacy of the Second World War.

Australian Defence Department deputy secretary Stephen Merchant agreed, observing that ''Japan lacked the capacity to deliver, despite having some forward-leaning senior officials''.

Dissatisfaction with Japan's performance also featured in discussions between US under-secretary of state Bill Burns and Department of Foreign Affairs secretary Michael L'Estrange in Canberra in April 2009.

The leaked US record of the discussion notes Mr L'Estrange ''expressed frustration at the difficulties Australia had experienced getting Japan to co-operate on counterterrorism'' partly because of ''the constant turnover of ministers in Japan''.

But when both Mr Burns and Mr L'Estrange were joined by Japanese deputy foreign minister Kenchiro Sasae at a later meeting, both avoided criticism of Japanese diplomacy while the Australian and Japanese representatives ''lauded'' President Barack Obama's stewardship of the war in Afghanistan.

All sides agreed that control of the Pakistan-Afghan border was the key. In a comment that reflected analysis from the Office of National Assessments, Mr L'Estrange said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency was ''a complex hydra that was playing both ends against the middle''.

[Monseratto]

Very interested to see what the US diplomats think our Student Council residing in Malacanang.

[niwde11]

^^ nakikiramdam pa ang US sa mga yan hehehe. but i am sure they have doubts also.:D

[uls]

at around the time wikileaks released those candid diplomat communications, Assange claimed that he has in his possession a hard drive that contains 5GB of data that can bring down a big US bank and will release the data soon

everyone knows it's Bank of America

that's why BAC stock price fell in November



BAC gets back by stopping payments to wikileaks

Bank of America Suspends Payments to WikiLeaks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/bu...html?src=busln

In a sign of the increasing tensions between WikiLeaks and the corporate world, Bank of America has said it will no longer help process payments for the organization, which released a huge cache of secret State Department cables in late November and has threatened to “take down” a major United States bank with another data dump.

“Bank of America joins in the actions previously announced by MasterCard, PayPal, Visa Europe and others and will not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for WikiLeaks,” the bank said in a statement issued on Friday. “This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments.”

but wikileaks also gets back at BAC

http://twitter.com/wikileaks

after twitting this:

Bank of America bans ALL transactions to WikiLeaks http://is.gd/iW0Jl receive better interest: http://wikileaks.ch/support.html 8:06 PM Dec 17th via web

wikileaks twits this:

We ask that all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America. 8:09 PM Dec 17th via web

and this:

Does your business do business with Bank of America? Our advise is to place your funds somewhere safer. 8:13 PM Dec 17th via web

Assange said he will release the data in Jan. 2011