Cables reveal Australia, US focus on Assange

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Philip Dorling May 28, 2012

... Despite extensive redactions, the Australian diplomatic cables released under freedom of information show the US and Australian governments continued high-level exchanges on WikiLeaks last year.

The Australian embassy in Washington provided Canberra with regular updates, including reporting on Justice Department efforts aimed at ''casting the net beyond Assange to see if any intermediaries had been involved in communications between Assange and Manning''.

An embassy representative attended all seven days of Private Manning's pre-court martial hearing for last December. Much of the embassy's reporting has been redacted on grounds that its release would damage Australia's diplomatic relations ...

The cables do reveal Mr Assange's complaints about numerous death threats were regarded by the embassy as part of a media campaign ''to set the scene for a possible political exception to extradition''.

http://m.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/cables-reveal-australia-us-focus-on-assange-20120527-1zd8a.html

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