WikiLeaks Cables Leaked: Aftenposten, Norwegian Newspaper, Claims To Have Full Access To All 250,000 Documents

WikiLeaks Leak? Newspaper Claims To Have Withheld Cables

A Norwegian newspaper claims to have gotten hold of WikiLeaks' purported 250,000 confidential U.S. Embassy cables, raising additional questions about the whistleblowing site's security.

According to the AFP, Ole Erik Almlid, managing editor of the Oslo-based Aftenposten, confirmed his paper had obtained unfettered access to the remaining cache of secret government documents, of which fewer than 2,000 have been released by WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

"We will not under any circumstance publish all articles on the web," he said. "We will use these documents to write journalistic articles about issues that are important for us to bring to our readers." Aftenposten officials refused to disclose further details on how editors had been able to gain early access, but noted that their strategy of publishing articles would be completely independent of both how and when WikiLeaks or other publications release them. "We have no comments on how we have gained access to the documents," Editorial Manager Ronny Ruud is quoted by Yahoo blog The Cutline as saying. "Moreover, I emphasize that we have access to all documents without any clauses or bonds. The documents will be continuously reviewed as the basis of articles by the same editorial criteria and ethical rules as the rest of the journalism in Aftenposten."

According to Norway's English news site, Views and News from Norway, Aftenposten is published exclusively in Norwegian, and as such, the WikiLeaks documents will be "subject to translation from their original English and restricting their consumption, at least initially, to readers who can understand Norwegian."

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