WASHINGTON - THE US State Department expressed concern on Friday that secret diplomatic cables might have been leaked to the WikiLeaks website in addition to a mass of military files on Afghanistan.
'There were a handful of cables that came out among this tranche of (92,000 military files published online), maybe five or six,' State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
'So that infers that, yes, there may well have been some State Department cables in whatever was transmitted to WikiLeaks,' he said. 'We can't verify that.' 'Do we have concerns about what (State Department documents) might be out there? Yes, we do,' Mr Crowley said.
'When we provide our analysis of situations in key countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, we distribute these across the inter-agency, including to military addresses,' Mr Crowley said, adding that some are classified documents. 'So is the potential there that State Department documents have been compromised? Yes,' Crowley said.
He said the State Department had the same interest as the US military in protecting sources it uses for information about what is happening in the world and for formulating policies. 'If those sources are compromised, we lose valuable information and sources. In many cases, human sources can be put at risk,' Mr Crowley said.
He said he does not believe the State Department has determined what documents might have been downloaded and potentially leaked, but expressed hope that WikiLeaks would not release any further documents it might have. He said the State Department had sent messages to WikiLeaks - apparently to find out if it has additional documents and prevent them from being published - but had received no reply. -- AFP
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