Unredacted WikiLeaks Cables Leaked to Internet

A controversial associate of WikiLeaks has begun posting unredacted versions of U.S. State Department cables on a left-wing magazine's website. These cables contain the names of specific corporations accused of corruption and of individuals implied to be involved in bribery on behalf of western companies in Kazakhstan and Uzbekstan. In one case, they also give highly suggestive clues to the identity of an American informant on organized crime activities.

The cables were posted to CounterPunch by Israel Shamir, a WikiLeaks associate who has served as the organization's informal Russian liaison. Shamir has also posted reprinted material from Holocaust denial websites on his personal webpage and come under public fire for a series of anti-Jewish statements.

Shamir describes himself as “a freelance writer accredited with WikiLeaks”; the organization came under fire for his past anti-Semitic writings in December 2010. In one infamous statement, Shamir accused Jews “of being a virus in human form.”

Fast Company has opted not to reprint excerpts from the unexpunged cables published to CounterPunch.

Shamir's article on CounterPunch accuses British newspaper The Guardian of censoring WikiLeaks cables and states that he is merely reprinting WikiLeaks cables in full that were originally censored by them:

Although we are treated to daily accounts of how the net tightens around WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the contents of the US embassy cables have been doled out to us in spoonfuls. To add insult to injury, it is now clear that The Guardian edits and distorts the cables in order to protect their readers from unflattering remarks about how their corporations behave overseas. The Guardian has deliberately excised portions of published cables to hide evidence of corruption.

However, Shamir was not being completely accurate. These cables were also censored by the primary WikiLeaks website and all of its mirrors.

One of the uncensored WikiLeaks cables he posted to CounterPunch, ASTANA 72, also appears in censored form on the WikiLeaks website itself. Two other cables posted by Shamir, TASHKENT 465 and TASHKENT 902, do not appear on the WikiLeaks website as of January 12, 2011. 902 was published as an extremely limited excerpt on The Guardian's website and 465 is not even labeled by its number. In all three cases, it appears Shamir violated an internal WikiLeaks decision to censor a cable in one case and embarked on a rogue cable release in two others.

TASHKENT 465 implies links between high-level Uzbekstan officials and organized crime, while TASHKENT 902 discusses the role of organized crime in helping businessmen secure government tenders and jobs on the government payroll inside Uzbekstan. The second cable also gives highly suggestive clues to the identity of an American informant who gave highly sensitive information on organized crime.

The fact that Shamir was doing an end-run around WikiLeaks was noted in a post on the British blog Hurry Up Harry by author “Joseph W”:

WikiLeaks’ Israel Shamir, who has in his possession all of WikiLeaks’ unredacted cables, has written a polemic in CounterPunch against The Guardian’s editorial policy. He claims that The Guardian is redacting WikiLeaks cables for political reasons. Yet The Guardian’s redacted cables match the cables you can already read on Wikileaks.ch.”

As in all things WikiLeaks, the details of the story remain murky. Shamir has close ties to the Belarus government and recently visited Belarus, which has an infamously repressive government. Given that detail, it is seems extremely interesting that all the unredacted cables he leaked had to do with former Soviet states.

Follow the author of this story, Neal Ungerleider, on Twitter.