US Preps Allies for new Wikileaks Docs
Salon reports:
U.S. allies around the world have been briefed by American diplomats about an expected release of classified U.S. files by the WikiLeaks website that is likely to cause international embarrassment and could damage some nations' relations with the United States.
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman, Steve Field, said Friday that the government had been told of "the likely content of these leaks" by U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman. Field declined to say what Britain had been warned to expect.
"I don't want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked," Field said.
Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said he spoke Friday with the U.S. State Department, which told him that there would be documents regarding Italy in the leak, "but the content can't 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 said.
The governments of Canada and Norway also said they had been briefed by U.S. officials. Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on a report that it, too, had been informed.
The release is expected this weekend, although WikiLeaks has not been specific about the timing.
