Wikileaks: Australia FM (Kevin Rudd) says US to blame, not Assange

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

Australia's foreign minister has said the US is to blame for the release of thousands of diplomatic cables on Wikileaks, not its Australian founder, Julian Assange.

Kevin Rudd said the release raised questions about US security.

Mr Rudd said he did not "give a damn" about criticism of him in the cables.

=snip=

In an interview with Reuters news agency, Mr Rudd said: "Mr Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorised release of 250,000 documents from the US diplomatic communications network. The Americans are responsible for that."

Mr Rudd, the former prime minister who was replaced by Julia Gillard in June, added: "I think there are real questions to be asked about the adequacy of security systems and the level of access that people have had to that material. The core responsibility, and therefore legal liability, goes to those individuals responsible for that initial unauthorised release."

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11945558

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Could the open letter to Gillard actually be having an impact?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9709224">Open Letter To Australian PM Julia Gillard Asking Her To Condemn Unlawful Threats Against Assange

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4646082">Chomsky signs Australian letter of support for Assange

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x532990">Author Of Open Letter Written To Australia's PM Defending Assange & Signed By Chomsky Speaks To BBC

Interesting Opinion piece on this: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/12/201012612391753644.html">WikiLeaks and US security

[cowcommander]

1. Miss me yet?

:fistbump:

[Matilda]

5. Thanks, Kev.

I think his instincts are better than Gillard's on this issue.

[EFerrari]

2. Finally!

[snagglepuss]

3. Rudd is right on the mark. The US is responsible that Manning got his hands

on the cables. Every official mentioned in the cables should be demanding that head's roll in the agencies responsible for maintaining the security of classied material. Talk about misplaced anger.

[Kali]

6. also responsible for the whole culture of fear

that classifies all communication as secret, and thus allows EVERY action to be hidden from the citizens

[Overseas]

9. I agree. Over 800,000 people had access to Top Secret cables.

Over 2 million had access to the secret classification below that level.

[Swagman]

4. well done Kevin Rudd ! The former Chief Judge of the Family

Law Courts The Hon Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC has come out slamming Sweden over these 'rape' claims and how they handled it as well as saying the Prime Minister Julia Gillard doesn't seem to understand the law.

[Poll_Blind]

7. If true, this is very good news for Assange/WikiLeaks. Australians have been...

...upset about the possibility of Assange being extradited to Sweden and then sent to the U.S. to receive God knows what punishment under a law from 1917.

This put them in a very strange position: Either support a citizen who has helped release damaging documents against the U.S. (and the Australians are close allies) or let one of their own citizens get caught up in a sort of queer and shadowy rendition sequence, which they are none to keen on either. I can't remember who but there was a public movement to protest should the Australian government give up Assange. Many Australians feel like it would set a dangerous precedent for themselves.

If this really is Rudd's (and therefore the government's) official position, it means they're going to protect him as an Australian citizen on the principle of it. Which is at least "good" if not "great" news for Assange, and also a smack at the Joe Lievermans & Eric Holders over here who would have other plans for him.

Now, it could absolutely be a trap, too. The ties between the Australian and American governments have been very close and it's one of the few countries whose governments have (apparently) been very much in lock-step with the U.S./Israeli world view.

So, interesting news and thank you for posting!

PB

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Turborama.

[roamer65]

10. Remember Gough Whitlam.