WikiLeaks disclosures involve 3000 cables from Delhi to Washington

Among a cache of a quarter-million State Department cables released by
WikiLeaks, 3,038 are from the US embassy in India, but no details were
immediately available on the whistleblower website. Other cables
pertain to communications from US missions in Islamabad, Colombo and
Kathmandu.

India was one of the countries reached out by top US diplomats before
the much anticipated release of what the New York Times described as
"an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the
world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders."

"We have reached out to India to warn them about a possible release of
documents," State Department Spokesman P J Crowley said ahead of their
publication Sunday, spawning condemnation from the White House and
congressional leaders.

The United States had warned WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange
that publishing the papers would be illegal and endanger peoples'
lives.

Among the 251,287 cables provided by WikiLeaks to The Times 2,278
cables are from the US mission in Kathmandu, 3,325 from Colombo and
2,220 from Islamabad.

Many are unclassified, and none are marked "top secret," the
government's most secure communications status. But some 11,000 are
classified "secret," 9,000 are labelled "noforn," shorthand for
material considered too delicate to be shared with any foreign
government, and 4,000 are designated both secret and 'noforn'.

Publishing the documents would jeopardise "our diplomats, intelligence
professionals, and people around the world who come to the United
States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government,"
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Senator John Kerry, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, called the disclosure "reckless."

"This is not an academic exercise about freedom of information and it
is not akin to the release of the Pentagon Papers, which involved an
analysis aimed at saving American lives and exposing government
deception," Kerry said in a statement.

Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security
Committee, on Sunday called on the Obama administration to prosecute
Assange.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder King said WikiLeaks has
provided "material support to terrorist organizations" by releasing
the documents.