Friday, January 7, 2011

WikiLeaks

Who would expect WikiLeaks to come up in a pirate blog?

It turns out that some of the leaked diplomatic cables are about recovered (possibly) Spanish gold. Spain is claiming 15 tons of treasure recovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration. Odyssey says that the treasure came from Merchant Royal, a British ship that sunk in bad weather in 1641. Spain says that it came from the Nuestra SeƱora de las Mercedes, a Spanish navy frigate that was sunk by a British warship in 1804 during the Battle of Cape Saint Mary. the US government filed a brief supporting Spain.

Odyssey is suing the US government based on a leaked cable. This cable gave the impression that the US supported the Spanish claim in exchange for Spain's help in recovering a $20-million Pissarro painting claimed by a U.S. family that says it was unfairly obtained by the Nazis in Germany.

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