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German Vice Chancellor's Chief Of Staff Fired For Spying For America
The WikiLeaks affair has claimed its first victim after Germany's vice-chancellor Guido Westerwelle sacked his chief of staff for spying for the Americans.Mr Westerwelle's chief of staff, Helmut Metzner, admitted that he gave regular information to the US embassy in Berlin, and has been "relieved from his duties," a spokesman for the Liberal Free Democrats (FDP) said in a statement. Another official in the spotlight is Swedish diplomat Johan Frisell who briefed the US on internal talks between EU ministers about the 2008 Georgia war. The Candian ambassador to Kabul, William Crosbie, has also offered to resign if future cables damage his relationship with the Afghani administration. In Italy, pressure is mounting for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to step down, after a series of revelations concerning alleged bribe-taking from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The WikiLeaks cables may also have burned the leader of the Communist Party in Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, who is said to have offered $10 million last year for one of the ruling party leaders, Marian Lupu, to defect to his side. The revelation comes in a sensitive post-election coalition-building moment. Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-12-04 |
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