State Dept: New Wikileaks Release Could Cost Lives
The BBC reports:
The plan by whistleblower website Wikileaks to release millions more classified US documents will put lives at risk and damage national security, the state department has warned.
A spokesman said it would do harm to US international relations if the leaks contained diplomatic cables.
The Pentagon said US military interests could also be damaged.
The Wikileaks website said the US authorities were afraid of being held to account.
The state department spokesman, PJ Crowley, said the release of confidential communications was "harmful to our national security. It does put lives at risk. It does put national interests at risk".
Mr Crowley said that diplomatic cables involved discussions with governments and private citizens, and their release could erode trust in the US as a diplomatic partner.
"They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world," he said.
"When this confidence is betrayed and ends up on the front pages of newspapers or lead stories on television or radio, it has an impact," Mr Crowley said.
He said the state department had known for some time that Wikileaks had obtained some of its classified documents.
He said Congress had been warned of the impending leak and that US diplomatic missions around the world had begun notifying other governments that it could happen within days.
"We wish this would not happen, but we are obviously prepared for the possibility that it will," he said.
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