Australian FM blames US for WikiLeaks cables

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday said the United States, not WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was to blame for the leak of secret cables, pointing to a "core problem" with its diplomatic security.
Rudd, himself the focus of embarrassing memos recently released by the whistleblowing site, said "the unauthorised release of these things by the US system" was the core problem, not WikiLeaks or Assange.
"When you've got a quarter of a million cables pecking around out there, and on top of that you have people who have had access in the US system to these sorts of cables in excess of two million people, that's where the core of the problem lies," Rudd told commercial radio.
"My view is the core problem lies with the US protection of its own diplomatic communications."
Rudd's comments come just days after Prime Minister Julia Gillard accused WikiLeaks of "grossly irresponsible" conduct and said the information published on the site was gathered through an "illegal act".
Assange, an Australian citizen who was arrested in Britain Tuesday on Swedish sex charges, has accused Canberra of "disgraceful pandering" to his foes in a bid to protect its own interests.
Rudd said Australian authorities would investigate whether Assange, 39, had broken any domestic laws but stressed that was at "political arms length from what the business of government is about."
He also vowed to offer Assange the same consular assistance and support as any other Australian citizen in strife abroad, adding that "we intend to do that without fear or favour."
An open letter calling on Gillard to support Assange and protect his basic rights was flooded by so much traffic Wednesday it caused the server to crash, with thousands of signatures including US academic and activist Noam Chomsky.
Meanwhile, hackers have attacked the Internet site and email service of the lawyer representing two Swedish women at the centre of rape and sexual assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
"Our e-mail and website were hacked last night or this morning," said lawyer Claes Borgstroem, who is representing the women.
SON URGES FAIR TREATMENT
The Australian son of Julian Assange urged fair and apolitical treatment for his father and said he hoped his arrest in Britain wasn't a "step towards his extradition to the US."
Melbourne-based software developer Daniel Assange, 20, said he hadn't been in contact with his father for a number of years, but called for him to be treated justly now that he had "finally" been arrested in Britain.
"Let us do our best to ensure my father is treated fairly and apolitically," said Assange late Tuesday on the Twitter microblogging site.
"I'm hoping this isn't just an intermediary step towards his extradition to the US."
Writing under the pseudonym @somnidea, Assange said he couldn't see how Swedish prosecutors could "possibly convict" his father of the sex charges for which his extradition to Stockholm was being sought.
"The behaviour of the Swedish legal system hasn't exactly been encouraging so far," he added, expressing doubts that his father would be treated fairly.
Daniel Assange was reportedly born when Julian was just 18 and the identity of his mother is not known. He has kept his distance from the media and his father's lawyers say he has been subjected to death threats.
Julian Assange's mother Christine Assange has told Australian media her son distanced himself from the family for their own safety due to his growing notoriety.
POTENTIAL NOBEL CANDIDATE
The detained founder of the WikiLeaks should be helped and could even be put forward for a Nobel prize, a Kremlin source was quoted as saying yesterday.
"Social and non-governmental organisations need to think how to help him," a source in the Kremlin administration was quoted as telling Russian news agencies.
"Perhaps he can be put forward as a laureate for the Nobel Prize," added the source, who was not named, in apparent reference to the annual peace award.
The remarks may have been made with a degree of irony and Russia has so far played down the release of the US diplomatic cables and predicted they will have no major effect in its relations with the United States.
TOP LAWYER TO BACK HIM
High-profile human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson will represent Assange in his fight against extradition from Britain to Sweden, Robertson's office said on Wednesday.
Robertson, a barrister who has dual British and Australian nationality, has appeared in some of the highest-profile freedom of speech trials in British history.
He was also among the defence team in the trial for the IRA bombing of the Brighton hotel, which targeted then prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the mid-1980s.