US Ambassador Comments on New Wikileaks Release

Today, Philip Murphy, the US ambassador to Germany, published an open letter in the most widely read newspaper of the country. http://www.bild.de/BILD/politik/2010/11/28/wikileaks/hg/es-wird-auch-fue...

A few extracts from the text in English translation:

“We all need trust, at the work place and in our private lives. Loyalty – towards an employer, a friend or a partner – is the most precious good we have. Nowhere is this more the case than in the field of diplomacy: we facilitate the communication between governments to further common interests, to improve mutual understanding and to solve problems.

[...]

Wikileaks now recklessly distributes documents alleged to be highly sensitive communication classified as secret – a grave breach of trust which has put people's life in danger.

[...] The consequences are difficult to predict. It will at least be unpleasant – for my government, for those who are mentioned in the reports, and for me personally as the American ambassador to Germany.

I am sure that the friendship between the United States and Germany is going to survive this challenge.

[...]”

This open letter appeared in Bild, the German equivalent of the Sun.

Wikileaks has in the past worked together with der Spiegel, a center-left weekly magazine which has a proud history of high quality investigative journalism and source protection.