November 26, 2010 - AUSTRALIAN officials are bracing for a massive leak of classified US State Department cables.
These cables could include embarrassing disclosures about Canberra's secret diplomacy on controversial issues, such as the war in Iraq.
The Gillard government was one of several foreign governments put on notice about the leaks, expected to be released within days by whistleblower group WikiLeaks.
So seriously is the issue being taken that several sources told The Australian it was raised during a phone call yesterday morning between Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the crisis on the Korean peninsula.It is understood the Department of Foreign Affairs and other agencies in Canberra, including the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, met to discuss the leaks, which a senior Australian government official said had prompted a "strong measure of concern".
"The whole thing is pretty big," the official said.
The latest tranche of classified documents could comprise more than two million diplomatic cables sent between the State Department and its posts around the world.
Australian government agencies are bracing for the worst, "in part because we simply don't know just how bad it might be", the Australian official said.
The disclosure would be the third major leak by WikiLeaks.
The organisation released 77,000 documents on Afghanistan in July, followed by a second leak of 400,000 files on the Iraq war.
WikiLeaks has said the pending disclosure will be seven times the size of the Iraq leak, about 2.8 million documents.
A second source told The Australian senior officials inside the Defence Department were concerned some cables could refer to the Howard government's support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Australian has been told the leaked cables include material sent up until February this year and predate the Iraq war.
This raises the possibility the Rudd government could also be exposed.
The Howard government did not commit Australia to war until March 2003, following a request from then US president George W. Bush.
But speculation has long been swirling that the Howard government had privately signed on to the controversial war well in advance of the formal request - a charge flatly denied by former foreign minister Alexander Downer. He condemned WikiLeaks yesterday for leaking the documents, while at the same time playing down their significance: "Do I think these particular documents would be incriminating or damning? I think the answer to that is no."
The Howard government predeployed forces to the Middle East in advance of committing to the war, but said that was just sensible contingency planning should diplomatic efforts to ease the impasse with Saddam Hussein fail.
Australian officials are also said to be on the lookout for documents discussing Canberra's handling of the David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib cases, both of whom claimed they were mistreated while in US custody in Guantanamo Bay.
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