US wants noose tightened on Wikileaks

Washington has called on its allies to prosecute the founder of whistleblower website Wikileaks for declassifying secret US military documents.

The administration of US President Barack Obama is pressuring Britain, Germany, Australia and its other Western allies to consider criminal charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for his Afghan war leaks.

The United States wants its allies to consider tightening the screws on Assange's international travels, informed sources say.

Washington acknowledged last month that the Justice Department was weighing a range of criminal charges against Assange and others.

The US officials say now they expect other foreign governments to follow suit.

“It's not just our troops that are put in jeopardy by this leaking,” AFP quoted an American diplomatic official who is involved in responding the case.

"It is UK troops, it is German troops, it is Australian troops-all of the NATO troops and foreign forces working together in Afghanistan,” he said. Their governments, he added, should follow the lead of the Justice Department and “review whether the actions of WikiLeaks could constitute crimes under their own national-security laws.”

Wikileaks released over 90,000 classified military documents, including details of the war and field reports.

Assange accuses the US army of massively covering up the data on civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

RB/MMN