Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said at a press conference Tuesday that U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges was to be expelled for accusing the just-retired national police commander of corruption, and speculating that his misdeeds were known to President Rafael Correa.
The Wikileaks cable, dated July 10, 2009, quoted Hodges saying that commander Jaime Hurtado Vaco had used his position "to extort cash and property, misappropriate public funds, facilitate human trafficking, and obstruct the investigation and prosecution of corrupt colleagues." The cable was published Monday by the Madrid newspaper El Pais.
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said Hodges is one of the department's most experienced ambassadors, and that the administration considers her expulsion "unjustified.". Buy cheap nike mens acg sandals 2011 He said the department had not decided whether it will reciprocate by expelling Ecuador's ambassador, or take other action.
Patino said Ecuador hopes the expulsion "will not affect the cordial relations between our two governments."
The 6,300 diplomatic cables released by the anti-secrecy website have caused turbulence for a growing list of diplomats since they began to be released last November.
Last month, U.S. ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual was forced to resign after the release of cables in which he discussed the shortcomings of the Mexican government's war on drugs. In January, Ambassador Gene Cretz was forced to leave Libya after the leak of Reebok ZigTech onlinea cable in which he speculated on leader Muammar Kadafi's health, and his dependence on a "voluptuous" Ukrainian nurse.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to sue former U.S. ambassador Eric Edelman over a 2004 cable in which he said the leader maintained eight Swiss bank accounts.
Disenchantment with the military was the focus of many speeches and chants, and participants milling about were all too ready to grumble about the generals. Buy nike running shoes online
“The military council is inexplicably slow in responding to our demands,” said Mohammad el-Qassas, a leader of the youth wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and a member of the coalition of those who organized the Jan. 25 revolution. “Protests and popular pressure must return, because they are only the real method of realizing the people’s demands.”
He reeled off a list of unaccomplished goals, including the arrest of leading members of the old government, serious trials for corrupt businessmen, the removal of university presidents appointed by former President Hosn Mubarak as well as his provincial governors.
Painted banners, hung between palm trees on the square’s south side, enumerated still more. They included the cancellation of a proposed law that would ban demonstrations, faster prosecution of those responsible for killing hundreds of protesters in January and February and trials for the Mubarak family on charges of plundering national wealth.
“Mubarak is still fishing in Sharm, as if nothing happened,” groused Hassan Ismail, 60, a housing manager. He was referring to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik, where Mr. Mubarak and his family now live — after being barred from leaving the country.
Some noted that the military had taken steps through a national referendum to bring about legislative elections planned for September and a presidential vote two months later. But to many, those actions seem driven by what the military wants. Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals black,
“People are still skeptical about how this revolution is moving forward — they want to remind the army and all forces that the revolution did not end yet,” said Shaheer George, a 25-year-old independent activist.
The chants that erupted on the square included “The people want the fall of the field marshal,” referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the military council and another Mubarak confidant.
Among the most common complaints is that the military is utterly opaque, issuing edicts from behind closed doors. Despite its attempts to reach out by making announcements via Facebook and text messages, there is no sense of popular consultation.
The mood was a notable shift from two months ago, when the armed forces were being universally hailed as the country’s saviors for refusing to fire on the crowds demanding President Mubarak’s departure. A heavy military hand in breaking up demonstrations and credible allegations of torturing arrested protesters have also chipped away at the military’s reputation.
“The army needs to be reminded that we are the ones who started this revolution, and that is why they are in power now,” said Omniya Bahgat, a 26-year-old demonstrator. “We are tired of hearing that our demands will be met later.”
The crowd on Friday appeared to number about 4,000, a far cry from the hundreds of thousands who gathered there to demand Mr. Mubarak’s ouster. But it was too dense for the cars to penetrate, and the distinctive red berets of the military police were not in sight. People also turned out in droves in Alexandria and other large cities, activists said.
In part, the smaller crowds are attributable to the fact that the various political organizations no longer share the same simple goals like overthrowing the president, analysts said. Also there is a general debate about whether it is time to abandon the protests in the square as a method of change and wait for a nascent political system to grow stronger. Fivefingers Kso-Vibram fivefingers Kso
“Tahrir Square represents the possibility of getting people mobilized — hundreds of thousands of people,” said Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst at the Ahram Center for Strategic and International Studies. “That still matters.”
Lara El Gibaly and Liam Stack contributed reporting.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may be risking a power struggle with Vladimir Putinafter an nike running shoes online, aide announced plans to oust Putin allies from some of the biggest state-owned companies a year before elections.
Medvedev this week will try to dismiss several government officials from state enterprises, including Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin as chairman of OAO Rosneft, the largest Russian oil company, Arkady Dvorkovich his chief economic aide, said yesterday. Sechin has worked with Prime Minister Putin in several capacities since the two were colleagues at the St. Petersburg mayor’s office in the first half of the 1990s.
Putin, 58, a former KGB colonel, kept power as prime minister after selecting Medvedev, 45, in 2008 to succeed him as president because of a constitutional ban on three consecutive terms. With 12 months left before the next presidential vote, it’s still uncertain which of the two men will run and Medvedev’s move may cause the biggest rift between them yet.
“This risks triggering a war between the elites,” said Alexei Mukhin, director of the Moscow-based Center for Political Information, a research group. “It will mean a real conflict with Putin.”
Aside from Sechin, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin should also give up his post as chairman of the supervisory board of VTB Bank, Russia’s second-largest bank, Dvorkovich said.
St. Petersburg Connection
Transportation Minister Igor Levitin should be replaced at the biggest Russian airline OAO Aeroflot and Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, while First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov should leave his job at Russian Agricultural Bank, known as Rosselkhozbank, he said. Kudrin and Zubkov are also associates of Putin from his hometown St. Petersburg.
There’s “no conflict” between Medvedev and Putin, who agree on the need to “improve the efficiency of governance,” according to Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman.
“The subject of replacing officials with independent directors has long been on the agenda,” he said by phone yesterday. “It is another matter, in the context of carrying out the instructions of the head of state, how we’ll monitor the implementation of state directives in those companies where the government is the majority shareholder.”
The president’s move to confront Putin allies who remain dominant in the government shows that he has decided to assert himself, said Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent political analyst in Moscow.
‘First Independent Move’“This is a major development which marks the first independent move by Medvedev touching the interests of influential members of Putin’s team,” he said. Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals black, white
Medvedev and Putin showed public discord last week over the U.N.-sanctioned military intervention in Libya. The president, who has spearheaded Russia’s efforts to improve ties with the U.S. and Europe, rebuked the prime minister for likening the allied campaign to a “crusade.”
A lawyer also from St. Petersburg, Medvedev has tried to widen Russia’s investment appeal beyond energy to help accelerate economic growth to 10 percent from last year’s 4 percent rate and match the pace of its BRIC rivals.
The president on March 30 announced that independent directors may replace ministers and other officials by mid-year as part of a plan to improve the investment climate. A proposal to cut a social tax for businesses, also part of Medvedev’s 10- point program, may cost the budget as much as 800 billion rubles ($28 billion) of revenue, Putin said yesterday.
‘No Textbook Solutions’“There are no textbook solutions and we will have to labor quite a bit to find” any, Peskov said. “We don’t yet know from which sources” to make up for the lost revenue.
Foreign direct investment is at an “unacceptably low level,” the president said on March 21. He has sought to lure capital by promoting Moscow as a financial center and creating a private equity fund to allow the government to share risks with foreign investors and help “modernize” the economy.
“Minority investors should see Medvedev’s move as a positive if there is a sweeping change at Rosneft and if these state companies become better managed and more transparent as a result,” said Dmitri Kryukov, founder of Moscow-based hedge fund Verno Capital, which manages about $140 million.
Sechin and the other officials will fight to keep their state company jobs, which give them financial opportunities beyond those provided by government salaries, said Mukhin of the Center for Political Information.
Searching for clashes within Russia’s elite is like “looking for a nonexistent black cat in a dark room,” said Peskov, Putin’s spokesman.
This “has become a favorite pastime for analysts,” he said. “Replacing officials with independent directors and lowering the social tax are coordinated positions.”
‘Show His Authority’Medvedev wants to win a second term in 2012, Dvorkovich said last year. Putin also hasn’t ruled out running for the top position again. Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals black, white
If the decision to remove Putin’s allies from state companies is implemented, it would show that Medvedev intends to carry out his free-market policies and is an independent politician, said Masha Lipman, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
“This can be interpreted as an attempt to show his authority,” she said. “This would be a very important step weakening people who are very strong players, who are powerful by virtue of being close to Putin.”
Medvedev, who in his first year in office pushed through a constitutional change extending the presidential term to six years from four, and his team would be able to challenge the political and economic interests of Putin’s associates, said Oreshkin.
“He could show a completely different side,” he said. “The closer the elections come, the more aggressively he is acting.”