US spied on French Presidents - WikiLeaks
According to WikiLeaks' recent claims, the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on French Presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande in 2006 -12. One file (dated 2012) talks of Mr Hollande and Greece's possible exit from the eurozone; another from 2011 cites Sarkozy's determination to resume peace talks between Israel and Palestine minus America. France's Liberation newspaper published the WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation which disseminates original documents from anonymous sources and leakers. WikiLeaks works in close conjunction with a select group of news organizations to "analyze, redact and release" the cables. Julian Assange was one of the first members of WikiLeaks and is now cited as its founder.
The WikiLeaks website published its first document in December 2006 and adds 10,000 pages every day. It has 5 full-time workers (none of them are paid) and 800 occasional contributors.
The "Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta", the US Army manual for soldiers at Camp Delta, was released on WikiLeaks in 2007. Human rights groups were shocked to discover that prisoners could be denied access to the Red Cross for up to four weeks. It also revealed that inmates could earn "special rewards" for good behaviour and cooperation- such as a "roll of toilet-paper."
In 2009, WikiLeaks revealed oil trading company Trafigura's attempts to block publication of an internal study about the health effects of waste dumping in Africa. John Minton-a scientific consultant showed how that the chemical processes Trafigura used to clean the dumped gasoline would have left dangerous sulphur compounds untreated, causing multitude of health issues. Previously, Trafigura took Guardian to court to kill the article.
WikiLeaks shared US military history files, with the Guardian, The New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel of the 6-year war in Afganistan. It revealed the secret "black" operatives used to hunt down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial. It lists the toll on civilians exacted by coalition forces-144 incidents. Questionable shootings of civilians by UK troops also appear.
WikiLeaks released diplomatic cables showing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's orders to U.S. diplomats, the CIA and the FBI to spy on UN officials, including Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and World Health Organization. Washington also wanted credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers and even frequent-flyer account numbers for UN figures. The directive was given to atleast 30 US embassies too.
WikiLeaks released a classified order issued by the Supreme Court of Victoria that forbade the Australian press from covering a multi-million dollar bribery probe involving the nation's central bank and several international leaders. The order named Indonesian, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Australian government officials. The coverage was suppressed to "prevent damage to Australia's international relations..."
One of the stories which was unearthed by WikiLeaks India, was that of the connection between Bollywood and the underworld comprising mainly of Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel and Chhota Rajan.
