In the second part of his interview with the Al Jazeera network yesterday, the WikiLeaks founder stoked the Arab world’s interest in his cause by claiming that among the hundreds of thousands of still-unpublished diplomatic cables in his possession are those that reveal links between top Arab officials and the CIA, as well as the existence of “torture houses” in said countries where Washington regularly sends suspects for “interrogation and torture.” “Many officials keep visiting U.S. embassies in their respective countries voluntarily to establish links with this key U.S. intelligence agency,” he said, according to the Qatar-based Peninsula newspaper. “These officials are spies for the U.S. in their countries.” Assange didn’t name the officials but reportedly showed the interviewer the cables, in case he is “done away with.” He then issued a warning to anyone thinking that it might be a good idea: “If I am killed or detained for a long time, there are 2,000 websites ready to publish the remaining files,” he said. “If I am forced, we could go to the extreme and expose each and every file that we have access to.” Among their other crimes, he said, “Washington is also projecting me as a terrorist and wants to convince the world that I am another Osama bin Laden.” If you ask us, he’s doing a fine job of that himself.
Many Arab officials have close CIA links: Assange [Peninsula via CBS]
