Norwegian Paper Says It Has All WikiLeaks Cables
By VOA
A Norwegian newspaper says it has access to all 250,000 classified diplomatic cables originally held solely by WikiLeaks, which the controversial website for weeks has been leaking out to a select number of dailies.
Aftenposten managing editor Ole Erik Almlid said Thursday his publication had “gained access” to the documents, which WikiLeaks has not yet fully released. He refused to say how he had obtained the material.
To date, WikiLeaks has only provided a controlled flow of classified documents to The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and Der Spiegel.
But on Thursday, the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said it also had joined forces with WikiLeaks to post secret cables related to Russian political corruption.
Novaya Gazeta said it has unlimited access to the WikiLeaks database and will start releasing materials next month. The independent paper is owned by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and billionaire Alexander Lebedev.
The Norwegian daily Aftenposten started posting stories Thursday based on the secret U.S. diplomatic cables, independently of how WikiLeaks is doling out its cache.
WikiLeaks has released only some 2,000 documents out of the more than 250,000 it claims it has.
Almlid said his daily would not publish all the cables, but would use them as a basis for journalists’ reports on issues of importance to his readers.
