UPDATE: WIKILEAKS

U.S. warns Britain over new WikiLeaks revelations that will 'expose corruption between allies'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:26 PM on 26th November 2010

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• Claims 'serious enough to cause major embarrassment'
• U.S. diplomats face being kicked out of countries in backlash
• David Cameron briefed over what to expect by U.S. Ambassador
• Allegations 'include U.S. backing of Kurdish terrorists'
• Files could damage relations with allies, says U.S.
• Corrupt politicians expected to be named and shamed

Blowing the whistle: Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks (pictured earlier this month), is said to be preparing to release more sensitive documents

The U.S. is warning allies including Britain to brace themselves for the expected release of more sensitive documents on the WikiLeaks website.
American diplomats are believed to have briefed officials from six countries to prepare for more secrets to be revealed by the whistle-blowing site this weekend.
Prime Minister David Cameron has been briefed over the contents of files that are expected to include reports from U.S. diplomats on corruption within foreign governments and among world leaders.
The allegations are serious enough to cause major embarrassment, sources say.
And it has been claimed that backlash by some upset nations may lead to U.S. diplomats being expelled.
The next release is expected to include thousands of diplomatic cables reporting corruption allegations against politicians in Russia, Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations.
But there were no specifics reported as to the nature of the corruption allegations or which governments are involved.
However, according to the UK-based Arabic daily newspaper al-Hayat, the WikiLeaks release includes documents that show Turkey has helped al-Qaeda in Iraq.
They also allege that the U.S. has supported the PKK, a Kurdish rebel organization that has been waging a separatist war against Turkey since 1984, the Washington Post reported.
Details of the expected leaks are understood to have been revealed to Britain, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Israel.

Expose: Wikileaks' posts on its Twitter page showing how the U.S. government, in anticipation of an imminent expose, is briefing its allies on what to expect

In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron was personally briefed by the U.S. ambassador to the UK over what to expect in the leaks.
A Downing Street spokesman today declined to discuss the nature of any confidential communications which may have been obtained by WikiLeaks.
But he said: 'Obviously, the Government has been briefed by U.S. officials, by the U.S. ambassador, as to the likely content of these leaks.

‘These revelations are harmful to the U.S. and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world’

'I don't want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.'
The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv warned the Israeli foreign ministry that some of the cables could concern U.S.-Israel relations, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz claimed.
WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed earlier this week that its new release would be seven times larger than the nearly 400,000 Pentagon documents related to the Iraq war which it made public in October.
The U.S. State Department confirmed it has begun notifying foreign governments and it fears serious diplomatic fallout over the expose, which is expected next week but could arrive sooner.
'These revelations are harmful to the United States and our interests,' spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
'They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.'
Past releases by WikiLeaks, founded by Julian Assange, an Australian-born computer hacker, contained sensitive information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the U.S. government had said compromised national security and put some people at risk.

‘HA HA, I HIT THEM'’: THE EXPOSES THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

Until now Wikileaks had published two batches of classified files.

The first was about the war in Afghanistan and gave a grim picture of the day-to-day struggle against the Taliban and the frustrations of trying to train the Afghan police.

The second covered the period in the occupation of Iraq between 2004 and 2009 and contained revelations that America failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, rape, torture and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.

The information also revealed that more than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents - U.S. and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

In addition, the logs claim that in one incident a British rifleman shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the streets.

Before the June exposes, the whistleblowing service shocked the world with the publication of a video in April showing American soldiers laughing as a helicopter strike kills around a dozen civilians in Baghdad. 

In the 17-minute black-and-white footage, pictured above, from an Apache helicopter gunsight, the crew can be heard discussing the carnage as if they were playing a video war game.

One soldier can even be heard shouting: 'Ha, ha, I hit 'em.' Another says: 'Look at those dead b******s.'

WHO IS JULIAN ASSANGE AND WHAT IS HIS WEBSITE WIKILEAKS ABOUT?

 WikiLeaks was set up in 2007 by journlaist and computer programmer Julian Assange.

The Australian, whose parents met at a protest against the Vietnam War, says he wanted to allow whistleblowers to publish sensitive materials without fear of being identified.

Mr Assange, pictured below at a press conference in July following his first major expose, says his website's complex setup is designed to ensure that information sent to it is anonomysed before it is passed on to the web servers.

Its servers are spread all over the world and do not keep logs, so governments cannot trace where the information is being sent and received from.

Even so Wikileaks encourages donors to post the material to them on CDs to its Iceland base, over encrypted internet connection or from netcafes.

The service, which also runs a network of lawyers to defend its publications and sources, claims that none of its informants have been traced so far.

Adding to this intrigue, Mr Assange's legal team have recently been busy arguing over an international arrest warrant which has been issued for the WikiLeaks boss by Swedish prosecutors over allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

The allegations, which the 39-year-old has repeatedly denied, relate to two women he met while on a visit to Sweden in August.

Mr Assange’s London lawyer Mark Stephens, has said the claims were 'false and without basis’.

Generals on both sides of the Atlantic are still furious over the last set of 400,000 classified documents which covered the war in Iraq, the biggest military leak of all time.
They detailed what Wikileaks founder Julian Assange called 'compelling evidence of war crimes' by the U.S. led coalition and the Iraq government and sparked calls for a full inquiry.
Should Wikileaks go ahead with its promise, it will be the third time it has published such information in the face of opposition from military top brass around the world.

MYSTERY OF ASSANGE ‘LIFE INSURANCE’ TWEET

WikiLeaks is urging the public to download a mysterious ‘insurance’ file said to contain information to be released if Julian Assange is killed.

In a Twitter post today (pictured below) the whistleblowing service published a link to the Pirate Bay file sharing site with the comment: 'Now is a good time to download some ‘history insurance’.

The giant file, nearly 2GB in size, is said to contain thousands of secret U.S. documents aimed at embarrassing the nation’s government, and potentially causing harm to the United States’ relations with allies.

The file has been around since this Summer and is heavily encrypted.

In the event of Mr Assange’s death (or some other unspecified reason), the secret key would be released — exposing the documents to all who have downloaded and obtained the key.

It is uncertain why Wikileaks is now urging users to download the file, but it just may be that they’re soon planning to release the key.

The first batch was about the war in Afghanistan and gave a grim picture of the day-to-day struggle against the Taliban and the frustrations of trying to train the Afghan police.
The second covered the period in the occupation of Iraq between 2004 and 2009 and contained revelations that America failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, rape, torture and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.
The information also revealed that more than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents - U.S. and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.
In addition, the logs claim that in one incident a British rifleman shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the streets.
The information will almost certainly have come from the Bradley Manning, the dissident U.S. army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked the first tranche, some 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in Afghanistan.
Adding to the controversy is the international arrest warrant which has been issued for Mr Assange by Swedish prosecutors over allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.
The allegations, which the 39-year-old Australian has repeatedly denied, relate to two women he met while on a visit to Sweden in August.
Assange’s London lawyer Mark Stephens, has said the claims were 'false and without basis’.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333213/U-S-warns-Britain-allies-expect-embarrassing-WikiLeaks-expose-days.html#ixzz16Ohs8RaV