Australia blames US over WikiLeaks

Australia blamed the US Wednesday for the release by WikiLeaks of US diplomatic cables, after a British court ordered the detention of the group's founder over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden.

WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, handed himself in to British police Tuesday after Sweden had issued a European arrest warrant for him.

Assange, who denies the allegations, will remain behind bars until a hearing Tuesday.

WikiLeaks vowed it would continue releasing the close to 250,000 secret US documents it has obtained.

Vaughan Smith with the Frontline Club in London said, "I am suspicious of the personal charges that have been made against Assange and hope that this will be properly resolved by the courts. Certainly no credible charges have been brought regarding the leaking of the information itself."

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the people who originally leaked the documents, not Assange, were legally liable, and the leaks raised questions over the "adequacy" of US security.

"Assange is not, himself, responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the US diplomatic communications network," Rudd told Reuters in an interview.

Rudd said Assange had contacted the Australian consul-general in London and asked for consular support.

"We have confirmed we will provide that, as we do for all Australian citizens," the foreign minister told ABC radio Wednesday.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Tuesday that the arrest of Assange is an issue between Britain and Sweden, as Washington pursues its own investigation.

Assange defended his Internet publishing site in a newspaper commentary in The Australian Wednesday, saying it was crucial to spreading democracy.

A Kremlin source was even quoted by AFP as saying that Assange should be helped and could even be put forward for a Nobel prize.

Also Wednesday, cyber attacks apparently organized by Internet activists sympathetic to Assange shut down the website of credit card company Mastercard and two Swedish sites.

Agencies