U.S. tense over WikiLeaks plan

Narayan Lakshman

Washington: There has been a palpable rise in tension at the State Department here after whistleblower website WikiLeaks revealed via its Twitter account last week that its next release would be seven times the size of the Iraq War Logs release earlier in the summer.

The hacker-founded site, whose revelations provoked a powerful backlash from the Pentagon and elsewhere in the United States administration, added that it had faced “intense pressure over [the upcoming release] for months”. The anticipated size of the upcoming release is three million documents.

Reiterating the government's objections to the releases, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said: “We continue to make clear that this is harmful to our national security.” He warned “it does put lives at risk. It does put national interests at risk”. He added that the State Department would continue evaluating the material they thought was previously leaked from government sources to WikiLeaks.

Touching on the State Department's efforts to put out messages to the U.S.' “allies and partners” around the world, Mr. Crowley acknowledged that WikiLeaks had State Department cables in its possession.

“We are prepared if this upcoming tranche of documents includes State Department cables. We are in touch with our posts around the world. They have begun the process of notifying governments that release of documents is possible in the near future,” he said. The U.S. Congress has been notified too. Mr. Crowley admitted the cables involved related to classified posts sent to and from Washington.

The cables “involve discussions that we've had with government officials, with private citizens. They contain analysis. They contain a record of the day-to-day diplomatic activity that our personnel undertake”, he said.

In a similar tone to reactions from Defence Secretary Robert Gates following earlier releases of U.S. war documents by WikiLeaks, Mr. Crowley said the State Department “decried” the exposé.

“These revelations... are going to create tension in our relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world. We wish that this would not happen. But we are, obviously, prepared for the possibility that it will,” he said.

Among the countries said to be notified about the possible release by WikiLeaks are India, Russia, Iceland, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

The WikiLeaks site noted on its Twitter site that the U.K. government had issued a notice to U.K. news editors, “asking to be briefed on upcoming WikiLeaks stories”.