WikiLeaks Emerges
Everyone has been wondering where WikiLeaks has gone. It suddenly emerged earlier this month, posting one billion words of cables sent by Henry Kissinger in the 1970s, “The Kissinger Cables.”
These cables cover the years 1973-1976 when Henry Kissinger served as Secretary of State. They were taken from the National Archives, where they had been sitting declassified by the U.S. in 1.7 million separate pdf files. There was no way to search them. Once the files were posted on WikiLeaks, they became searchable.
But the question remains, where has WikiLeaks been? The simple answer is, in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. That’s because that is where Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been holed up ever since he lost his appeal to be extradited to Sweden to face sex charges.
He sought asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy since he believes once he goes to Sweden he will be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges for leaking documents on WikiLeaks relating to the Afghan and Iraq Wars.
In December 2010, the Obama Administration empanelled a grand jury to consider indicting Assange. In the last six months, the U.S. government has told courts twice the grand jury is still continuing its investigation.
One of the charges the grand jury is investigating is the release of classified diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks. Most of these same cables were published by the New York Times on its website.
The publication of these cables at first resulted in angry denunciation by Senators Feinstein and Lieberman that the New York Times and Assange had “blood on their hands” for damaging national security.
Secretary of State Robert Gates, however, after giving the matter full reflection, concluded that the release of the diplomatic cables was “harmless.” Indeed, the posting of the Kissinger cables last week by WikiLeaks is just as harmless as the earlier posting of those cables which angered Senators Feinstein and Lieberman.
Often (if not almost always) claims of damage to national security, such as those made by Senators Feinstein and Lieberman, turn out to be overstated.
https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/pressrelease/
https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/about/
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/wikileaks-kissinger-cables/63975/
http://www.ibtimes.com/wikileaks-going-soft-its-kissinger-cables-release-1178821#
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10062
http://rt.com/usa/assange-kissinger-cables-wikileaks-500/
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