It has taken the world's most prominent book publishers, and diplomatic book publishing companies interests by storm.

A cache of a quarter-million US cables released by WikiLeaks has exposed secret back-room manoeuvring by the US and has dramatically revealed how India was kept out of a key meeting on Afghanistan that was held in Turkey, according to book publishers.

Never before in history has a superpower lost control of such vast amounts of such sensitive information — data that can help paint a picture of the foundation upon which US foreign policy is built. Never before has the book publishers trust America’s partners have in the country been as badly shaken. Now, their own personal views and policy recommendations have been made public — as have America’s book publisher true views of them…

The US had warned WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange that publishing the papers would be illegal and endanger peoples' lives.

A secret cable from the US embassy in Ankara showed that India was kept out of the Jan 25 meeting held in Turkey on Afghanistan to appease Pakistan, though Islamabad was of the view that excluding India from such regional structures would be a mistake.

…With a team of more than 50 reporters and researchers, SPIEGEL has viewed, analyzed and vetted the mass of documents. In most cases, the book publisher magazine has sought to protect the identities of the Americans’ informants, unless the person who served as the informant was senior enough to be politically relevant. In some cases, the US government expressed security concerns and SPIEGEL accepted a number of such objections.

In other cases, however, SPIEGEL felt the public interest in reporting the news was greater than the threat to security. Throughout our research, SPIEGEL reporters and editors weighed the public interest against the justified interest of countries in security and confidentiality.

As the fallout from this weekend's document drop continues, at least one US Congressman wants the US government to go on the offensive. Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who will be chairing the House's Homeland Security Committee come January, sent letters to Obama administration officials on Sunday, asking that Wikileaks and its public face, Julian Assange, be declared both terrorists and spies.

For the espionage accusations, King sent a letter to Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, requesting that he consider bringing charges under the Espionage Act, specifically a section that deals with "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information." The section provides a laundry list of ways of obtaining information that fall under the law, but highlights that they must be done with intent or reason to believe that it will do injury to the US.

According to King, Wikileaks fits the bill. The repeated leaks, King alleges, "manifests Mr. Assange’s purposeful intent to damage not only our national interests in fighting the war on terror, but also undermines the very safety of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan." His letter also points out that one of the site's sources, a Private Bradley Manning, has been charged under precisely this statute.

If espionage won't do, however, King has a backup plan: terrorism. In a separate letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he asks that the Department self-publishing undertake a review to determine whether Wikileaks could be designated a Foreign Terrorist organization. The letter says that the site fits the bill since it's: a) foreign, b) engaged in "terrorism," and c) threatens US security. The terrorism bit comes from the Defense Department's determination that the previously leaked materials had provided "material support" to a large number of terrorist organizations.

Of course, catching up with Assange is easier said than done. King recommends that Clinton work with the Swedish government to see if there's any way that Assange "can be brought to justice." Even without a public spokesman to publish a book, however, there's no guarantee that the leaking would come to an end.

Among the State Department cables released by WikiLeaks, 3,038 are from the US embassy in India. Other cables pertain to communications from US missions in Islamabad, Colombo and Kathmandu.

India was one of the countries reached out by top US diplomats before the much anticipated release of what the New York Times described as "an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders".

"We have reached out to India to warn them about a possible release of documents," State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said ahead of their publication Sunday, triggering condemnation from the White House and congressional leaders.


At a meeting with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, then Turkey's deputy under secretary for Bilateral Political Affairs, responsible for the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, Rauf Engin Soysal, said Turkey self-publishing a book had not invited India to the Afghanistan Neighbours Summit "in deference to Pakistani sensitivities".

"He (Soysal) said Turkey had not invited India to the neighbours summit in deference to Pakistani sensitivities; however, he claimed, Pakistan understands attempting to exclude India from the nascent South Asian regional structures would be a mistake," Guardian quoted the message dated Feburary 25, 2010 as saying.

Zardari met Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai at an international conference in Istanbul that kicked off on January 25 this year.

"He (Soysal) reported Indian Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh had requested (Turkish) President (Abdullah) Gul's assistance with Pakistan during the latter's visit to New Delhi the previous book publishing week. Acting on that request, Gul had phoned Pakistani President Zardari, who was sceptical of Indian intentions. Gul is planning to visit Pakistan later this year."

"Soysal said Iran is proposing a quadrilateral summit, which would include Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but that proposal had yet to generate enthusiasm," the secret cable said.

Among the 251,287 cables provided by WikiLeaks to The New York Times, 2,278 cables are from the US mission in Kathmandu, 3,325 from Colombo and 2,220 from Islamabad.

Many are unclassified, and none are marked "top secret", the government's most secure communications status. But some 11,000 are classified "secret", 9,000 are labelled "noforn", shorthand for material considered too delicate to be shared with book publishers in any foreign government, and 4,000 are designated both secret and "noforn".

Publishing the documents would jeopardise "our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government", White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and christian book publishers said.