India braces for WikiLeaks exposure
29 Nov 2010
New York: India was one amongst several countries briefed by US diplomats about potentially damaging revelations from a trove of secret diplomatic cables published in the public domain by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.
The 250,000 cables from US embassies around the world include private, candid assessments of foreign leaders and governments and hold the potential to damage Washington's credibility as a diplomatic partner.
The first set of 226 documents posted on the WikiLeaks website on 28 November includes at least 22 documents that have an India connection.
While these documents cannot be said to contain anything explosive it is being surmised that subsequent releases may contain material that can potentially impact Indo-US relations.
The 250,000 documents, including 15,652 cables classified 'Secret', are mostly from the previous three years, with the earliest dating back from December 1966 and the most recent from February 2010. They contain confidential communications between 274 US embassies around the world and the US Department of State.
''We have reached out to India to warn them about a possible release of documents,'' State Department spokesman PJ Crowley informed media organisations. ''We do not know precisely what WikiLeaks has or what it plans to do. We have made our position clear. These documents should not be released,'' Crowley said.