U.s. Diplomatic Cables, Leaked Documents | featured news

WikiLeaks will have to stop publishing secret cables and devote itself to fund-raising if it is unable to end a financial "blockade" by U.S. firms such as Visa and MasterCard by the end of the year, founder Julian Assange said on Monday.

A WikiLeaks computer file that allows anyone to read every word of 251,287 leaked United States diplomatic cables by typing a password made public six months ago was posted online by mistake last year, potentially endangering human rights activists and other sources who spoke to American officials in confidence.

The WikiLeaks website crashed Tuesday in an apparent cyberattack after the accelerated publication of tens of thousands of once-secret State Department cables by the anti-secrecy organization raised new concerns about the exposure of confidential U.S. embassy sources.

WikiLeaks has published a secret U.S. diplomatic cable listing sites abroad that the U.S. considers vital to its national security, prompting criticism that the website is inviting terrorist attacks on American interests.