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NEW! WikiLeaks Releases 1.7 million “Difficult to Find” US State Dept public documents
by Meredith Buel April 08, 2013
The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has launched a new database containing 1.7 million documents from the U.S. State Department that were declassified, but were difficult for the public to access.
WikiLeaks is calling the searchable collection the “Public Library of U.S. Diplomacy,’ bringing together diplomatic and intelligence documents that previously could only be accessed through the National Archives.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told reporters via video link from the Ecuadorian embassy in London that the documents were hidden in what he called the borderline between secrecy and complexity.
“This material that we have published today is the single most significant geopolitical publication that has ever existed,’ he said.
The database gives the public access to diplomatic cables from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, including communications sent by then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
At a media briefing in Washington, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson called the new database a public service.
“In my mind when you look at this material, 1.7 million public documents, they are not easily available. It is extremely hard to approach them even though they have been declassified. So making them available to people is basically taking the secrecy away and uncovering the stories,’ she said.
