The administration of President Barack Obama has started briefing its allies on the next expected release of classified U.S. files by notorious online whistleblower, WikiLeaks.
U.S. diplomats around the world have started briefing America’s allies on possible sensitive revelations on how America conducts its relations with other countries, an Associate Press report said. There are speculations that the WikiLeaks release will cover private, candid assessments of leaders of other countries and their governments by the U.S. State Department.
Many fear that such a revelation can have a negative impact on some nation’s relations with America.
The Obama administration had earlier alerted the U.S. Congress about the expected release of the State Department cables, which is expected to run to hundreds of thousands. It also warned the website that the release would endanger “lives and interests,” the AP reported.
Among the countries that have already been briefed on the next WikiLeaks release are Britain, Italy, Canada, Norway, and Israel.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, through a spokesman, said his government had been advised on “the likely content of these leaks” by U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman.
Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said he was informed some cables were about his country but exactly what they are about could not be anticipated. “We’re talking about thousands and thousands of classified documents that the U.S. will not comment on, as is their custom,” Frattini told AP.
WikiLeaks had earlier said the next release would be seven times the size of its earlier leak of documents on the Iraq war. The next awaited release are diplomatic cables – internal, classified documents that includes secret communications between American diplomatic outposts and the State Department in Washington.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, “These revelations are harmful to the United States and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.”
While no one has been charged as the source of the next release, suspicion falls on U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq earlier in June and charged over an earlier leak, the AP report said.
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