"The reason being that a race commenced between the governments who need to be reformed and the people who can reform them using the material," says Assange.
"Additionally, for harm minimisation, there are people who need to know that they are mentioned in the material before intelligence agencies know they are mentioned -- or at least as soon after as possible.
"By the time we published the cables, the material was already on dozens of websites, including Cryptome, and were being tweeted everywhere. And even a searchable public interface had been put up on one of them."
Another motive for publishing the tranche, Assange claims, was the provision of a reliable source for the leaks. In the field of leak publishing, he says. WikiLeaks has become a trusted brand. Although versions of the cable tranche were appearing online, "there was not an authorised version of the cables that the public could rely on".
"By 'authorised' I mean a version that is known to be true -- it doesn't have another agenda. The unauthorised versions that were being tweeted everywhere -- although as far as we can determine they were accurate, the public and journalists couldn't know they were accurate."
A video of the Medienwoche event is can be viewed on this page , and live updates on twitter were compiled into a chirpstory .
05:05 PM Chief Minister Mayawati accuses "the 'WikiLeaks owner' of having gone "mad' following the release of a diplomatic cable a detailing her eccentricities (which include sending a empty jet to Mumbai to get a pair of sandals) and corruption.
Julian Assange responded with a statement ...
"Mayawati has betrayed rational thought. The question is, has she also betrayed the Dalit?
"There is no question that the documents are official papers from the US embassy. These papers have been proven the world over--including by the aggressive persecution of our people by Washington. The allegations within them are made by US diplomats in their private communications back to Hillary Clinton. If Chief Minister Mayawati has a problem with the contents of these communications she needs to take it up with Hillary.
"I ask that Mayawati admit her error and apologise.
"Should she fail to do so, she is welcome to send her private jet to England to collect me, where I have been detained against my will, under house arrest, for the last 272 days. I would be happy to accept asylum, political asylum, in India -- a nation I love. In return, I will bring Mayawati a range of the finest British footwear.
"-Julian Assange"
Reference: BBC: India's Mayawati 'sent jet to collect shoes' http://t.co/ToL77ms
04:00 PM Raw notes on Ghana's leaked U.S. Embassy cables.
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