WikiLeaks founder may face legal action

PanARMENIAN.Net - Australia’s Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has foreshadowed possible legal action against the Australian founder of the WikiLeaks website.

Julia Gillard told a news conference this afternoon that the government was keeping a "close appraisal" of the latest document dump from the whistleblower website, which is run by Australian Julian Assange.

But the federal government was in damage control today as a top level team of defense and national security experts were combing through vast volumes of material to check on implications for possible damage to Australian-US relations - our most important foreign relationship.

U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich called the Government earlier today to alert them of what to expect as more material is released, the Attorney-General said.

"The release of this information could prejudice the safety of people referred to in the documentation and, indeed, could be damaging to the national security interests of the United States and its allies including Australia," Mr McClelland said.

A whole of government taskforce had been commissioned to see what action could be taken to reduce any adverse impact arising from the leaks, he said.

"There has previously been a specific defense taskforce looking at defense documentation.

"But obviously the documentations relate to issues broader than simply our defense strategy," Mr McClelland warned.

Queensland-born Mr Assange is currently overseas in Europe, and sought by Swedish authorities over allegations of rape and molestation.