WikiLeaks claims its site is hacked

In a Twitter message, the whistleblower website said: “We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack.” It added that even if its website goes down a number of newspapers will go ahead and publish the documents released to them.

Ahead of the release of the potentially embarrassing documents, which the US fears could harm its relations with several countries, the American administration asked the website to refrain from making the classified documents public. It has asked it to return the “illegally obtained” papers, insisting that their leak would “endanger the lives of countless individuals” which WikiLeaks denied.

The Twitter message from the website said El Pais, Le Monde, Speigel, Guardian and The New York Times will publish many US embassy cables, even if WikiLeaks goes down. The website has already released thousands of documents on the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In October WikiLeaks released four lakh secret US files on Iraq war detailing abuse of Iraqi prisoners in US custody, rights violations and civilian deaths.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the soon-to-be released classified US documents will cover “every major issue” in the world. Assange put the number of documents to be released at more than a quarter of a million. Late on Saturday, Washington rejected talks with WikiLeaks, saying the website was holding the cables in violation of US law.