Wikileaks released more classified, war-related documents this weekend, which highlighted some of the backroom dealings related to the Iraq War. But should those leaks be viewed as terrorist activity?
If you ask Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, the answer is yes. King on Sunday penned a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking that her agency investigate whether Wikileaks could be designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
"In addition, I urge you to work with the Swedish government to determine the means by which Mr. Julian Assange can be brought to justice for his actions while recognizing and respecting Swedish sovereign law," King wrote.
Assange is the editor of and spokesperson for Wikileaks.
Sunday's leak was the third, war-related data dump since July; the organization also released data in October. King said that Wikileaks could qualify as a terrorist organization because it is a foreign organization that is engaging in terrorism that threatens the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the U.S.
"WikiLeaks engaged in terrorist activity by committing acts that it knew, or reasonably should have known, would afford material support for the commission of terrorist activity," King wrote.
The congressman said the data released by Wikileaks "provide valuable information and insights to FTOs throughout the world on U.S. military and diplomatic sources and methods and allow our enemies to better prepare for future U.S. and allied military, intelligence, and law enforcement operations targeting them."
The information also provides countries like Russia, China, and Iran with access to information about how the U.S. collects, analyzes, and produces intelligence products, King wrote.
"WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States," he concluded. "I strongly urge you to work within the Administration to use every offensive capability of the U.S. government to prevent further damaging releases by WikiLeaks."
During a November 24 press briefing, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said the Wikileaks data releases are "harmful to our national security. It does put lives at risk. It does put national interests at risk."
At the time, Crowley said the agency was aware that Sunday's data dump would include State Department cables. That information is "diplomacy in action," Crowley said. "It is part of the system through which we collaborate and cooperate with other countries. Inherent in this day-to-day action is trust that we can convey our perspective to other governments in confidence and that they can convey their perspective on events to us."
"And when this confidence is betrayed and ends up on the front pages of newspapers or lead stories on television and radio it has an impact," he continued. "They are going to create tension in our relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world."
On Monday, meanwhile, the Australian attorney general's office announced that it has "established a whole-of-government taskforce to look at [Wikileaks] and to obviously go through each and every incident to see what impact it may have and what action should appropriately be taken to firstly reduce any impact."
On Sunday, Wikileaks said via Twitter that it was "under a mass distributed denial of service attack," but provided no follow-up information, and appears to be online. It has not commented publicly yet on King's letter.
Among the data that was released, however, is a report that China's Politburo orchestrated the cyber attack on Google's computer systems earlier this year, according to the New York Times.