The week that was via Wikileaks
...A paranoid and weak individual unfamiliar with the basics of nation-building and overly self-conscious that his time in the spotlight of glowing international community has passed. – US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry on Afghan president Hamid Karzai
... Gordon Brown lurches from political disaster to political disaster... – Robert Tuttle, then US ambassador to Britain, in July 2008
[He believes that] his 18 doctorates give him the authority to suspend the laws of economics. – US diplomatic assessment of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe
. . . a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgment . . . – US ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray on the country's prime minister and opponent of Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai
[After other businessmen complained about having to pay bribes to Kyrgyzstan's president's son] Prince Andrew took up the topic with gusto... 'All of this sounds exactly like France'... at this point the Duke of York laughed uproariously; the prince looked like he was just getting started. [When the prince slammed British anti-corruption investigators] his mother's subjects seated around the table roared their approval... the crowd practically clapped...[and when he let loose another 'zinger'] castigating 'our stupid British and American governments' [for their lack of planning] there were calls of 'hear, hear' in the private brunch hall. – US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Tatiana Gfoeller on the wit and wisdom of Prince Andrew