Leaked files could shed fresh light on Uyghur deal

MONDAY, NOV. 29: A massive data leak of more than 250,000 classified cables from U.S. embassies around the world includes 68 reports about Bermuda, sparking speculation that new information about the Uyghur deal could emerge.

 
Whistleblowing website Wikileaks began the first phase of its controversial ‘data dump’, aka Cablegate, yesterday, prompting condemnation from governments around the world.
 
The U.S. has been warning allies since last week that potentially embarassing information about confidential discussions could be published by Wikileaks.
 
None of the reports referencing Bermuda appear to have been published in the first wave.
 
But the website has indicated it plans to release the information in stages over the next few months.
 
It is not known what the Bermuda files will contain but it is possible that new details about the secret negotiations with the U.S. to bring four Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the island could emerge.
 
The BBC reports that details of similar negotiations in other countries are included in the dispatches.
 
“The cables appear to reveal discussions between various countries on whether they would take prisoners released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
“Slovenia is offered the chance to meet President Barack Obama if it takes a prisoner, while Kiribati, in the South Pacific, is offered millions of dollars of incentives.
“Brussels is told taking prisoners could be ‘a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe’."

Wikileaks has said it plans to publish 251,287 documents over the next month. So far it has published only 220.

The website is currently under a ‘denial of service’ attack — typically involving the spamming of servers by hackers — and is inaccessible.

The website has already released the files in full to five international newspapers — The Guardian in the U.K., Le Monde in France, Der Spiegel in Germany, The New York Times and El Pais in Spain — and insists they will all be published despite the attack on its servers.