Wikileaks Live Blog

Secretary of State 2009-08-17

US analysts searching for Iranian activity in Yemen.

"WASHINGTON ANALYSTS ARE INTERESTED IN IRANIAN PRESENCE AND ACTIVITIES IN YEMEN, AND POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS TO UNREST THERE, IN RESPONSE TO POLICYMAKER INTEREST.  AS POSTS' TIME AND RESOURCES PERMIT, ANY FURTHER INFORMATION ON IRAN\'S RELATIONSHIP WITH AND INTENTIONS TOWARD THE GOVERNMENT, HUTHI REBELS, AND/OR THE SECESSIONIST GROUPS IN THE SOUTH WOULD BE VERY VALUABLE, AS WOULD INFORMATION ON CULTURAL, BUSINESS, AND RELIGIOUS TIES BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES, PARTICULARLY AS IT RELATES TO THE QUESTIONS BELOW."

Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing website, has published its entire collection of diplomatic cables on the internet.

This is a decision its original media partners have strongly criticised.

The website said on Friday that the more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables could now be accessed through an internet link without a password.

"RELEASE CABLEGATE2: 251,287 US embassy cables in searchable format," said a message on Wikileaks' Twitter account.

Critics say the release could put the thousands of people named in the secret memos at risk.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports from Washington.

Embassy Beirut 2010-02-25

Saad Hariri responds to Ambassador's demarche on the danger of Syrian transfers of increasingly sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah by saying he feared that Hezbollah had "new technology". Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, dismissed the message as "Israeli propaganda".

"Hariri opined that the only way to avoid conflict in the region was to keep open the \"two windows\" of the Syrian and Palestinian peace tracks with Israel.  Doing so, he said \"would freeze Syrian thinking on weapons transfers,\" but should both windows close simultaneously, Syria would stand by Iran in a war.  If there were peace, he assessed, Syria would move toward Turkey.  Hariri recommended that Secretary Clinton telephone Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu to seek his intervention with Syria on the issue of weapons smuggling.....For his part, Speaker Berri asked the Ambassador if the U.S. message was related to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak\'s visit to Washington.  He stated that the message was "not new."  Israel received weapons from the U.S., and Hizballah received weapons from Iran, Berri declared flatly. "All this propaganda" reflected \"Israeli concern about the Iranian nuclear issue,\" he believed. "

Embassy Baku 2010-01-27

US Ambassador profiling the most powerful families in Azerbaijan, where observers note that Azerbaijan is run in a manner similar to the feudalism found in Europe during the Middle Ages.

"First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva (born Mehriban Pashayeva) is no doubt the most famous member of this clan, playing multiple roles and holding multiple titles. Aside from being the President's wife, she is President of the Heydar Aliyev Fund, which proclaims to be a humanitarian organization constructing schools, hospitals, and youth centers, among other projects. These projects provide a constant array of goodwill photo opportunities and advertisements for the First Lady, as she cuts ribbons on new schools and cultural centers. The Fund has its critics, however, who claim that it often fails to provide continued financing for the operation of these projects. Much funding seems to be geared towards efforts to explain Azerbaijan's side of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, for example in the form of books, brochures and other materials describing what they call a "genocide by Armenia" in the town of Khojali.....The Pashayev women are known to be fashion-conscious and daring, far more so than the average woman in majority- Muslim Azerbaijan. First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva appears to have had substantial cosmetic surgery, presumably overseas, and wears dresses that would be considered provocative even in the Western world (reftel). On television, in photos, and in person, she appears unable to show a full range of facial expression. The First Lady and her two daughters hosted Second Lady Lynne Cheney for dinner in September 2008. Prior to the Second Lady's arrival, while the three ladies were waiting for Mrs. Cheney's car, one Secret Service agent asked "which one of those is the mother?" Emboffs and White House staff studied the three for several moments, and then Emboff said, "Well, logically the mother would probably stand in the middle." "