PARIS (AP) — The U.S. State Department said Thursday that WikiLeaks did inform it of the impending release of hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables but stressed that it was in no way cooperating with the anti-secrecy group whose actions it said threatened national security and the safety of confidential informants.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the group had told the department it intended to continue to release classified documents over the strenuous objections of the United States.
“We have made clear our views and concerns about illegally disclosed classified information and the continuing risk to individuals and national security that such releases cause,” Nuland told reporters accompanying Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to an international conference on Libya in Paris.
“Wikileaks has, however, ignored our requests not to release or disseminate any U.S. documents it may possess and has continued its well-established pattern of irresponsible, reckless, and frankly dangerous actions,” she said. “We are not cooperating with them.”
WikiLeaks said Thursday that its massive archive of unredacted U.S. State Department cables had been exposed in a security breach which it blamed on its one-time partner, Britain’s Guardian newspaper. It said it had warned the State Department about the breach.