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AFP: WikiLeaks cable gives Al-Qaeda a target list: US

WASHINGTON — The release by WikiLeaks of a secret list of key global infrastructure compiled by the United States is "irresponsible" as it offers Al-Qaeda potential targets, the State Department said Tuesday.

A State Department cable released by WikiLeaks revealed a secret list of infrastructure from pipelines to smallpox vaccine suppliers, which US officials feared could "critically impact" security if they were attacked.

"The release of a list of critical infrastructure that is important to our society and our economy and the economies of other countries is irresponsible," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.

"It is expressly the kind of information that is classified and deserves to remain classified and its release in essence is providing a targeting list to a group like Al-Qaeda," Crowley said.

"It's irresponsible. It's exactly the concerns we've had from the outset when we indicated very clearly that the release of this information puts lives and interests at risk."

The February 2009 State Department document released on Sunday includes undersea cables, communications, ports, mineral resources and firms of strategic importance in countries ranging from Austria to New Zealand.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke generally on Monday when asked to comment on the release of the secret cable on infrastructure sites.

"I will underscore that this theft of US government information and its publication without regard for the consequences is deeply distressing," Clinton told reporters.

"The illegal publication of classified information poses real concerns and even potential damage to our friends and partners," she warned.

Personally - and I am of course just one of millions of people - I have mixed feelings about all of this. Yes, it's good to hold the governments of countries to account and so they should be but like this? I thought secrecy and confidentiality was one of the key features of diplomacy. Sure, there are things that are released after a given number of years in any case but how wise is it to just release a whole flood of information in this manner? Not very, I get the feeling. Yes, the US is traditionally the big bad bogeyman (although it should never, ever be forgotten how it played such a big but not the only part in the liberation of Europe twice last century) in particular under Bush junior but something about this somewhere, just doesn't sit easily with me...

Most of those targets you can find on google earth or simply by doing a little research. If Al-Q wanted to hit them they would have already.

Scrat;1346130 wrote: Most of those targets you can find on google earth or simply by doing a little research. If Al-Q wanted to hit them they would have already.That's a good point, Scrat, it's not like we've been witnessing bombs going off all over the US where terrorists have identified other soft targets, ya know. The hysteria is just ridiculous, the media wants us all to feel like we're participating of an espionage movie.