Melbourne, December 09: Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has blamed Washington for the “grossly irresponsible” release of secret US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks website.
Rudd said on Wednesday that Julian Assange, the Australian citizen who founded the controversial website, was not to blame for the leaks.
“Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the US diplomatic communications network. The Americans are responsible for that,” Rudd told Reuters.
“I think there are real questions to be asked about the adequacy of their security systems and the level of access that people have had to that material over a long period of time,” the former premier pointed out.
“The core responsibility, and therefore legal liability, goes to those individuals responsible for that initial unauthorized release.”
On Tuesday, Assange was booked by British police in London on a Swedish arrest warrant issued in the wake of rape allegations against the Australian national.
He has voiced sharp criticism against Canberra, accused the Australian government of “disgraceful pandering” to the US and putting the powers of the government fully at the disposal of the United States.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard had earlier called Assange’s release of the cables “grossly irresponsible.”
Over the past two weeks, WikiLeaks has released thousands of classified messages by US envoys around the world out of more than 250,000 such cables it has received.
The US says it is determined to hold people responsible for the leak of secret American documents by WikiLeaks.
——–Agencies