Australian FM blames U.S. for WikiLeaks cables.

 

London (CNN) -- The MasterCard website suffered a cyberattack apparently linked to the WikiLeaks scandal Wednesday, as Australia's foreign minister blamed the United States for WikiLeaks' massive leak of diplomatic cables and military information.

A MasterCard spokesman would not comment on who was behind the cyberattack -- which left the corporate website inaccessible but did not affect the use of its cards -- but various news agencies reported supporters of WikiLeaks were responsible, and a Twitter account sympathetic to WikiLeaks claimed responsibility.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, meanwhile, said the people who originally leaked the documents -- not WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange -- are legally liable, and he told Reuters news agency the leaks raised questions about the "adequacy" of U.S. security.

"I have been pretty consistent about where the core responsibility lies in this entire matter and that lies with the release of an unauthorized nature of this material by U.S. personnel," Rudd told Reuters.

"Mr. Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the U.S. diplomatic communications network," Rudd told the agency. "The Americans are responsible for that."

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard took a different tack this week, calling WikiLeaks "grossly irresponsible" for distributing the documents. The "foundation stone is an illegal act that certainly breached the laws of the United States of America," she said.

The WikiLeaks website began posting the secret diplomatic cables online November 28. The documents reveal private communications between U.S. diplomats and the State Department about a host of world leaders and affairs and have provoked outrage in the United States and elsewhere.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the cables put national security at risk, comments echoed by a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron. Supporters of WikiLeaks say the cables reveal information the public has a right to know.

WikiLeaks is now the subject of a U.S. criminal investigation, and Holder said he has authorized "significant" actions as part of the probe, though he refused to say what they are.

No one has been charged in the U.S. investigation of the leaked cables, but a U.S. Army private is a prime suspect in previous leaks by WikiLeaks. Bradley Manning has been charged with leaking U.S. military video of a 2007 helicopter strike in Iraq that killed two Reuters journalists as well as removing classified information from military computers.