Australia blames U.S. for leaks, Assange in UK jail
BRISBANE, Australia/LONDON |
BRISBANE, Australia/LONDON |
(Reuters) - Australia blamed the United States on Wednesday for the release by WikiLeaks of U.S. diplomatic cables and said its Australian founder Julian Assange should not be held responsible.
Assange spent the night in a British jail after a judge in London on Tuesday refused to grant bail to the 39-year-old. Assange was detained after Sweden issued a European Arrest Warrant for him over alleged sexual offences.
He has spent time in Sweden and was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers. The pair's lawyer said their claims were not a politically motivated plot against Assange.
"It has nothing to do with WikiLeaks or the CIA," lawyer Claes Borgstrom said.
Assange has angered U.S. authorities and triggered headlines worldwide by publishing the secret cables.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the people who originally leaked the documents, not Assange, were legally liable and the leaks raised questions over the "adequacy" of U.S. security.
"Mr Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the U.S. diplomatic communications network," Rudd told Reuters in an interview.
"The Americans are responsible for that," said Rudd, who had been described in one leaked U.S. cable as a "control freak."
CARRY ON
WikiLeaks vowed it would continue making public details of the confidential U.S. cables. Only a fraction of them have been published so far.
The latest cables, reported in Britain's Guardian newspaper, said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi made threats to cut trade with Britain and warned of "enormous repercussions" if the Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing died in a Scottish jail. He was freed in August 2009.
WikiLeaks also released cables on Wednesday that showed Saudi Arabiaproposed an "Arab army" be deployed in Lebanon, with U.S. air and naval cover, to stop Shi'ite Hezbollah militia after it seized control of parts of Beirut in 2008.
Like many of the cables, the disclosures give an insight into diplomacy which is normally screened from public view.
Assange has become the public face of WikiLeaks, hailed by supporters including campaigning Australian journalist John Pilger and British film maker Ken Loach as a defender of free speech, but he is now battling to clear his name.
Lawyer Borgstrom told a news conference the accounts provided by the two Swedish women were credible and that he saw a good chance that Sweden would eventually press charges.
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