Washington, February 26: Former President George W. Bush has canceled a scheduled appearance Saturday, saying through a spokesman that he doesn’t want to speak at the event that also includes an address by the founder of WikiLeaks.
Bush accepted an invitation six months ago to speak to the YPO Global Leadership Summit in Denver on Saturday. But this week he learned that Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, was recently invited to address the same summit. The Denver Post reported that Assange appeared at the conference Friday by video link.
In recent months, WikiLeaks — with the help of a number of mainstream media news organizations — has published scores of U.S. government documents that were classified.
“The former president has no desire to share a forum with a man who has willfully and repeatedly done great harm to the interests of the United States,” Bush spokesman David Sherzer said.
The conference is for young CEOs and business leaders.
Bush was scheduled to give a closing keynote speech Saturday morning to the Young Presidents’ Organization, according to the group’s website, which still listed him as a speaker Friday afternoon. The summit is an annual conference of more than 2,000 business leaders from 75 countries.
Bush’s withdrawal is the first public inkling that the former president has given about his views on WikiLeaks.
The organization has publicly released more than 200,000 confidential diplomatic cables in the name of transparency in government. The cables provide insight into U.S. diplomatic efforts in various countries. A U.S. serviceman who is accused of leaking the material is in jail. But American officials have been stymied about how to handle Assange, an Australian citizen.
The U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed Assange’s Twitter account, as part of an investigation that could lead to espionage charges.
–Agencies