WikiLeaks to publish 1.7m new US documents

The controversial website WikiLeaks was Monday publishing more than 1.7 million US diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s, its founder Julian Assange revealed here. The whistleblowing website has collated a variety of documents including cables, intelligence reports, and congressional correspondence and was releasing them in a searchable form. Assange has carried out much of the work from his refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London, and told the media here that the records highlighted the "vast range and scope" of US influence around the world. Assange has taken refuge in the tiny diplomatic mission for nine months as he seeks to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he denies. WikiLeaks sent shockwaves around the diplomatic world in 2010 when it released a set of more than 250,000 leaked sensitive and secret US cables. The new records, dating from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, have not been leaked and are available to view at the US national archives. They include many communications which were sent by or to then US National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Many of the cables, which WikiLeaks has called the "Public Library of US Diplomacy" (PlusD), are marked NODIS (no distribution) or Eyes Only, while others were originally marked as secret. Top-secret documents were not available, while some others were lost for the period including 1975 and March and June 1976, said Assange. The WikiLeaks founder took political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy last June after losing his battle in the British courts against extradition to Sweden. Ecuador granted him asylum in August last year, but the UK has refused to allow him safe passage out of the country, sparking a diplomatic deadlock. Assange founded the WikiLeaks website that enraged Washington and many other countries by releasing cables and war logs relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in one of the biggest security breaches in US history.