Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Norwegian Newspaper Say it Has All of WikiLeaks' Diplomatic Cables

by Amar Toor on December 23, 2010 at 11:35 AM

julian assange posts bail
A Norwegian newspaper claims it has obtained roughly 250,000 of WikiLeak's classified diplomatic cables, although it's not exactly clear how it gained access to the documents. Ole Erik Almlid, managing editor of the Oslo-based daily Aftenposten, confirmed to CNN that his publication had indeed gotten hold of the entire file, but would not say how it had done so, or, more importantly, whether or not WikiLeaks had even sanctioned the leak.

"We were at first surprised when we got all the documents, but now we have put a lot of resources into going through all these documents and we have published several articles already," Almlid said. "We can publish this material when and how we want. But we have no intention of publishing all the documents just to publish them. We will only publish the actual documents for the articles that we publish."

Until now, WikiLeaks has been "dumping" the cables on a gradual, piecemeal basis, and only to a handful of major newspapers, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and Germany's Der Spiegel. If the organization in fact chose to release all of them to Aftenposten, it may signal a change in its approach to the media. In October, Julian Assange lambasted the New York Times for its captious, front-page profile of him. And, just this week, the 39-year-old Australian voiced his displeasure with the Guardian in an interview with the London Times.

In light of these recent barbs, then, it wouldn't be entirely surprising to see the organization reach out to comparatively smaller papers, like Aftenposten. But, if WikiLeaks didn't willingly send the cables to the Norwegian daily, the leak could very well threaten WikiLeak's abilities to use the documents as leverage against national governments.

Tags: Aftenposten, DiplomaticCables, documents, JulianAssange, leak, newspaper, norway, politics, security, top, Wikileaks

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular