The 250,000+ diplomatic cables that make up WikiLeaks’ “Cablegate” leak were reportedly redacted before being published. But, apparently, copy of the unredacted cables has been published online, according to TechCrunch.
The unredacted set was found by German news outlet Der Freitag’s editor Steffen Kraft, according to TechCrunch. The cables came from WikiLeaks and while they are “password protected,” the editor claims “the password for the file is also easy to locate.”
This past weekend, WikiLeaks published “a large number of cables” from that set of leaked cables. (Note: WikiLeaks states that it has only published 143,912 of the 251,287 documents. WikiLeaks first started publishing these documents in November 2010.) Even though news outlets like the Guardian have had the cables, WikiLeaks is just now publishing the documents, according to TechCrunch.
TechCrunch added:
“The release came, says chief leaker Julian Assange, because the media has lost interest in the diplomatic revelations as yet unreported. (A cynic might infer that Assange — who remains under house arrest in the UK pending extradition on sexual assault charges — is worried that the media has lost interest in him too.)’
TechCrunch noted that while “Der Freitag hasn’t published hard proof that the unredacted file even exists,” Der Spiegel claimed the file is for real. Der Spiegel was one of WikiLeaks’ five “partners” in the cablegate leak.
Der Spiegel claimed that the file was “stored” by Assange last year. Assange reportedly “gave the password to an external contact.” But, the file was published by “WikiLeaks supporters” not knowing the file with the unredacted cables was there. The password was leaked by “Assange’s external contact” this past spring, according to Der Spiegel.
WikiLeaks denied that any of its “insurance” files were public, tweeting:
“WikiLeaks ‘insurance’ files have not been decrypted. All press are currently misreporting. There is an issue, but not that issue.”
WikiLeaks added “There has been no ‘leak at WikiLeaks’. The issue relates to a mainstream media partner and a malicious individual.”