Jakarta embassy asks for $100,000 for its Facebook page , Turkish airbase used as refuelling stop for US rendition flights and the latest WikiLeaks news and views

6.15pm: Another Turkey story: US feared Turkish military backlash in 'coup plot' arrests

US diplomats in Turkey feared that a wave of arrests of senior military officers last year over an alleged plot to topple the country's Islamist-rooted government could trigger an "unpredictable military reaction", according to a leaked diplomatic cable. About 200 active and retired Turkish military officers, including former chiefs of the air force and dozens of generals and admirals, went on trial in December on charges of "attempting to topple the government by force" as part of a plot dubbed Sledgehammer. Turkey's military, which has overthrown three governments since 1960 and put pressure on an Islamist-led government to step down in 1997, has denied such a plot existed. But a cable sent from the US embassy in Ankara after the arrests last February reveals fears of a threat to Turkish democracy. "Some knowledgeable embassy officers see this latest step as a more serious provocation that could trigger some type of unpredictable military reaction. We will see," stated the cable, which was classified as confidential by the-then US ambassador to Turkey, James Jeffrey

That's it for today. More tomorrow.

5.30pm: KanariLeaks has launched, calling itself a WikiLeaks for the Canary Islands. [Update: As Pesado in the comments pointed out, kanarileaks.org was redirecting to a domain registration page soon after I posted this. It now appears to lead to a KanariLeaks site, however, one with much more of a WikiLeaks look to it than before.]

2.15pm: The latest newspaper to get access to the WikiLeaks cables appears to be Finland's Helsingin Sanomat. It has a story today that US ambassador to Nato, Ivo Daalder, warned that Finnish membership of the military alliance would not be well recieved by Russia. Here is a link to a Google translation.

12.30pm: More You ask, we search. Ben Quinn has a story on one US embassy and its Facebook page:

The US embassy in Jakarta made a request for $100,000 in funding to boost its Facebook fans to one million weeks before Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia.

A cable sent in February by US diplomats in the Indonesian capital described itself as "already the leading US Mission in the World on Facebook with nearly 50,000 'fans', and one of the leading missions using Twitter, YouTube and engaging local bloggers to promote USG [US government] messages and information."

"We are uniquely positioned to use these tools to amplify key topics and themes to support the upcoming visit by President Obama," it added. The embassy described itself in the cable as "on the forefront of Public Diplomacy 2.0."

Requesting the $100,0000, the cable said that the embassy could boost its Facebook fan page membership to one million in 30 days in a country it described as one of the fastest-growing Facebook markets in the world.

But it is unclear if it reached the target – with or without the money.

By April last year, the total number of Facebook fans of the US Embassies and consulates in Indonesia was 161,000, according to an interview given by the embassy team behind the page.

The cable set out how the money was to be spent, including increasing advertising on Indonesian online portals and elsewhere, as well as generating interest in the presidential visit by offering Facebook users the chance to win a "golden ticket" to meet Obama:

If the White House approves, we could invite fans to post why they should meet President Obama, and in doing so, use our social media platform to connect fans to the visit, as well as build excitement beforehand and follow-up coverage afterwards

The embassy's suggestion that it should also team up with a television show subsequently came to fruition. On a national television show, three Facebook fans of the Jakarta embassy won "educational trips" to the US to visit places that were said to have played a part in Obama's life – this was the embassy's suggested alternative prize if the White House did not give its blessing to meetings with Obama for competition winners.

12.15pm: Aftenposten, the Norwegian newspaper, has a story looking at the US belief that what it saw as weaknesses in China's export controls that could make it easier for countries that had an illicit nuclear weapons programme to get some of the necessary parts.

In Norwegian that's Kina lekker til Iran som en sil or, via Google Translate, China to Iran leaking like a sieve.

From a 2008 cable published by Aftenposten:

China in recent years has taken some positive steps to curb ballistic missile-related proliferation, and we have seen some limited improvements continue over the past year, particularly in regard to sales by some state-owned enterprises to Iran. Despite indicators that Chinese authorities are gradually adopting more responsible export control policies, Chinese firms over the past year have sold ballistic missile-related items - mostly metals and other raw materials - to Iran, Pakistan, and to a lesser extent, North Korea, and marketed sub-MTCR-class ballistic missile systems and technology to a growing range of customers. Such activities are indicative of Chinas uneven track record in enforcing its missile-related export controls.

Cables published by the paper also show US diplomats monitoring exports to Iran from many more countries, including Taiwan and South Africa.

11.15am: The CEO of Germany's leading satellite manufacturer has lost his job following further revelations from the cables.

Berry Smutny, CEO of OHB-Technology, first appeared on this blog on 5 January for saying, according to US diplomats, that France was "the evil empire stealing technology and Germany knows this". But that's not, at least directly, why he was fired. There was a second cable release in which he described the European satellite project Galileo as "a stupid idea that primarily served French interests".

It may help to add here that OHB-Technology, which until yesterday Smutny headed, is one of the companies working on it.

10.25am: Good morning. Stories from the cables today:

• Turkey let US use airbase for rendition flights

Turkey allowed the US to use its airbase at Incirlik in southern Turkey as part of the "extraordinary rendition" programme to take suspected terrorists to Guantánamo Bay, according to a US diplomatic cable. Turkey's involvement in the controversial programme was revealed in a cable dated 8 June 2006, written by the then US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson. The cable described Turkey as a crucial ally in the "global war on terror" and an important logistical base for the US-led war in Iraq. "The Turkish military had allowed us to use Incirlik as a refuelling stop for Operation Fundamental Justice detainee movement operations since 2002, but revoked this permission in February of this year. We understand OSD [office of the secretary of defence] and JCS [joint chiefs of staff] have been discussing whether to approach Turkey to seek to reverse this decision," the cable said

• 'Baby Doc' Duvalier's possible return to Haiti concerned US

The US expressed its concern about the possible return of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier to Haiti as far back as 2006, when the country was about to hold elections, according to a confidential US diplomatic cable. Five years on, US fears have materialised with the shock return of the former dictator last night. Duvalier, who was toppled from power in 1986, returns at a time when Haiti is struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake and amid a fraught election campaign

• TNK-BP boss predicted break-up of Russian joint venture