Berisha lambasts Withers and Assange

Berisha spoke today about the U.S. embassy cables published on WikiLeaks that are making the headlines in all major televisions and newspapers in Albania. He said that ambassador Withers’ cables were just a mirror of the daily press in Albania. He also dubbed Julian Assange as the Lupin of modern times, but said that that his esteem for the current U.S. ambassador Alexander Arvizu was very high and the relations with the American government are on their best terms. Yesterday another member of Berisha’s cabinet, the Transport Minister Sokol Olldashi, questioned the authenticity of the cables and accused WikiLeaks of tampering with them. He denied all charges of having close ties with the criminal underworld and releasing inmates from prisons for elections purposes, but did not mention any legal actions toward filing lawsuits for libel and slander against WikiLeaks for damaging his reputation.

The denial of the allegations from Albanian government officials comes as no surprise. In twenty years of post-communist era the top officials in this country are used to denying everything that implicates them in cases of graft and corruption, even when these cases are taped and there is bulletproof evidence of their involvement in them. And yet, the Albanian government is considered frighteningly corrupted by western standards.

A.Kola