2011-09-02 WikiLeaks Notes: Latest News on #Cablegate Releases & #WikiLeaks

This is a "WikiLeaks News Update", a daily news update of stories that are obviously related to WikiLeaks and also freedom of information, transparency, cybersecurity, and freedom of expression.

Cablegate2 release
WikiLeaks' full Cablegate archive became available online, primarily due to the negligent publishing of its password in a book authored by Guardian journalist David Leigh.

Now the 251.287 US Embassy cables are also available through WikiLeaks and in searchable format at cables.mrkva.eu.
The whistleblowing organization urges the public to download and mirror the Cablegate2 archive and to continue the disclosure of the important information contained in the cables, by helping Al-Jazeera search the documents and sharing information via twitter using the hashtag #wlfind.

WikiLeaks has released a Statement on the circumstances leading to the disclosure of the archive:

…‘Every day that the corrupt leadership of a country or organization knows of a pending WikiLeaks disclosure is a day spent planning how to crush revolution and reform.

Guardian investigations editor, David Leigh, recklessly, and without gaining our approval, knowingly disclosed the decryption passwords in a book published by the Guardian. Leigh states the book was rushed forward to be written in three weeks—the rights were then sold to Hollywood.’…, the Statement reads.

…‘WikiLeaks severed future projects with the Guardian in December last year after it was discovered that the Guardian was engaged in a conspiracy to publish the cables without the knowledge of WikiLeaks, seriously compromising the security of our people in the United States and an alleged source who was in pre-trial detention. Leigh, without any basis, and in a flagrant violation of journalistic ethics, named Bradley Manning as the Cablegate source in his book.’…

Niger Parry, an independent journalist, has also published a careful analysis of the events leading to the release of Cablegate in its entirety.

On this incident, Glenn Greenwald commented, in a piece titled 'Facts and myths in the WikiLeaks/Guardian saga':
"The accidental release of these unredacted cables will receive far more attention and more outrage than the extreme, deliberate wrongdoing these cables expose."

Various important stories that WikiLeaks and #wlfind participants have uncovered in the past few days have, however, been gaining a certain amount of exposure. Below are a few examples.

WikiLeaks disclosures have prompted Iraq to investigate the massacre of an Iraqi family by U.S. troops in 2006
A cable that was recently published by WikiLeaks, consisting of a letter written by Philip Alston addressed to Condoleeza Rice, details the brutal killing of a family of 10 people, which included 2 children and 3 infants, by U.S. troops and its subsequent coverup.
The document, the AP reports, is said by some officials to be ‘reason enough for Iraq to force the American military to leave instead of signing a deal allowing troops to stay beyond a year-end departure deadline.’.

United Nations peacekeepers in Ivory Coast traded food for sexual acts with underage girls
According to a cable from January 2010, a random poll of 10 underage girls in Toulepleu by aid group Save The Children U.K. in 2009 found that eight performed sexual acts for Benin peacekeepers on a regular basis in exchange for food or lodging.

IDF uses drones to assassinate Gaza militants
An unmanned aircraft armed with missiles was used by the IDF to conduct an attack on a group of Hamas members who were standing next to a mosque in Gaza, leading to the death of 16 Palestinians who were inside the mosque as the attack occurred, a cable detailing a meeting between IDF Advocate-General Maj. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit and U.S. Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham reveals.

120 Chinese Children Disappeared in Stockholm
The disappearance of 120 Chinese children from Swedish immigration centers within a period of 18 months, in 2006 – reported in a U.S. diplomatic cable from the same year - is believed to have been managed by organized traffickers residing in several European countries.

More information on WikiLeaks latest releases is currently being compiled in the @wlfind twitter account and unveiled under the #wlfind hashtag.