WikiLeaks releases list of global sites ‘vital’ to US
WikiLeaks has divulged a secret list of key infrastructure sites
around the world that the United States believes could pose a critical
danger to its security if they come under terrorist attack.
The newly released diplomatic cable threatens to be the most
explosive yet out of many divulged by the whistle-blowing website that
have heaped embarrassment on Washington and caused anger around the
world.
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The secret list includes key infrastructure sites around the
world whose loss or attack by terrorists could “critically
impact” US security. Photo by AP |
A February 2009 cable from the State Department asked overseas US
missions to list infrastructure and key resources around the globe
“whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security
and/or national and homeland security of the United States”.
It lists undersea cables, key communications, ports, mineral
resources and firms of strategic importance in countries ranging from
Austria to New Zealand. One item mentions smallpox vaccines in Denmark.
According to the diplomatic cable, the request was aimed at updating
a list of “critical infrastructure and key resources located abroad,”
notably so as “to prevent, deter, neutralize or mitigate the effects of
deliberate efforts by terrorists to destroy, incapacitate or exploit
them.”
Former British Defence and Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said in
The Times of London that WikiLeaks had made no credible effort to
establish whether the list could assist extremists.
“This is further evidence that they have been generally
irresponsible, bordering on criminal. This is the kind of information
terrorists are interested in knowing,” he was quoted as saying.
The release will add to the political storm engulfing WikiLeaks and
its 39-year-old founder Julian Assange, who broke cover on Friday to say
in an online chat that he had boosted security after receiving death
threats.
The website is already battling to secure its avenues for financial
donations online, and has been hop-scotching across servers and legal
jurisdictions to evade a total shutdown.
Assange’s British lawyer, Mark Stephens, expressed concern on Sunday
that a legal pursuit of Assange in Sweden had “political motivations”.
Stephens, in comments to the BBC, also warned that WikiLeaks had
secret material in reserve, which he likened to a ‘thermo-nuclear
device’, to be released if it needed to protect itself.
The Dawn |
