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The embassy cable questioning the mental health of Cristina Kirchner has been leaked at a sensitive time in US-Argentinian relations. Photograph: Leo La Valle/EPA Hillary Clinton has questioned the mental health of Cristina Kirchner and asked US diplomats to investigate whether the Argentinian president is taking medication to help her "calm down". The US secretary of state painted Kirchner as a volatile and emotional leader who suffered from "nerves and anxiety" , according to a secret cable sent to the US embassy in Buenos Aires.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was very curious about the personal traits of Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the way she worked alongside her husband, the late former President Néstor Kirchner. This curiosity led to a request by the department's Bureau of Intelligence Research to ask for a more complete profile of the so-called "first couple." On December 31, 2009, the bureau, identified as the INR / OPS, sent a cablegram to the US Embassy in Buenos Aires asking for information on Fernández for the report. Among the queries that were asked concerned her "health and mental state," "her political vision," and her work routine. The request for this information came just days after a visit to Buenos Aires by then recently designated Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela.
WikiLeaks cables show the Central Intelligence drew up information wishlist. Photograph: Getty Images The US state department's wishlist of information about the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and other senior members of his organisation was drawn up by the CIA , the Guardian has learned. The disclosure comes as new information emerged about Washington's intelligence gathering on foreign diplomats, including surveillance of the telephone and internet use of Iranian and Chinese diplomats. One of the most embarrassing revelations to emerge from US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblowers' website WikiLeaks has been that US diplomats were asked to gather intelligence on Ban, other senior UN staff , security council members and other foreign diplomats – a possible violation of international law.
<img class="size-large wp-image-36508 aligncenter" title="Army in Ethiopia" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2010/12/army-660x440.jpg" alt="" width="660" height="440" /> It was an off-hand compliment during a January 2007 dinner meeting between Abu Dhabi crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, plus staff, and then-U.S. Central Commander boss General John Abizaid. But Al Nayhan’s jocular praise, as reported in WikiLeaks’ trove of leaked diplomatic cables, is a rare admission that the United States played a central role in the disastrous December 2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, a move that ultimately emboldened the very Islamic extremists the U.S. and Ethiopia had hoped to squash. “The Somalia job was fantastic,” Al Nahyan interjected between discussions of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the prince’s desire to buy Reaper drones for his air force.
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