WikiLeaks publishes 'embarrassing' Syrian emails

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Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 05/07/2012

Reporter: Tony Jones

Whistleblower website WikiLeaks has begun publishing 'more than 2 million' Syrian emails it says are embarrassing for Syria's government and for its opponents.


TONY JONES, PRESENTER: In London there's breaking news on two fronts tonight.

British police have arrested six people on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack and WikiLeaks has begun publishing a massive trove of information, more than two million leaked emails it's dubbed the "Syria files".

For more on both those stories, we're joined by our Europe correspondent Philip Williams who's in London.

Philip, WikiLeaks to start with. This latest dump, the WikiLeaks spokespeople tell us will not only tell us what the Syrian regime is thinking, but also what Western governments and companies are saying behind the scenes to the regime.

PHILIP WILLIAMS, EUROPE CORRESPENDENT: Yes, indeed. They're hinting that there is a good deal of hypocrisy both from the companies and Western governments, although they haven't really given us any detail other than one example of an Italian company that appears to have been supplying radio equipment to the Syrian police as little as a couple of months ago.

So, no real sort of substantial evidence yet, just an enormous pot of emails, 2.4 million of them to be gone through, and of course that will take weeks, perhaps months and they're not all going to be released at once, so we'll have to wait and see the substance of those.

But certainly the Syrian government and perhaps some Western governments and companies will be holding their breath about that.

TONY JONES: How many were released in the first tranche, do we know?

PHILIP WILLIAMS: Only a very small amount and relating particularly to this particular company that is alleged to have been dealing with the Syrian government. But, in all of course there are going to be a whole lot more.

We don't know the exact timing of it, of how they'll be released or whether they'll be released in one lump or drip fed through the next few months. But certainly it is a substantial cache of information.

How they gathered it, we don't know, but clearly they've - what they've done is hoover up emails, it appears, from various government departments in Syria and government officials in Syria linking their dealings of course within Syrian and of course in their external relationships with Western governments and Western companies.

TONY JONES: Now, has Julian Assange had anything to do with this from his safe haven in the Ecuadorian embassy?

PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well not directly, other than to have a statement issued on his behalf that supports this and says, and I quote, "It'll detail how the West and Western companies say one thing and do another." That's just one aspect of this.

They emphasize that of course there's a lot of information about the Syrian government itself and its internal operations and repressions there. But, no, he's very much in effect in the background.

Of course they're aware there's a huge interest in him and - but they've made it very clear that apart from that statement they didn't want any questions about him, they weren't going to answer any questions about his future, and of course that's still up in the air as he's now in the embassy.

TONY JONES: On a completely separate matter obviously, six arrests in London, an alleged terror plot - pretty worrying, I would imagine, on the eve of the Olympics.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: Yes. In various locations around London early this morning there were co-ordinated raids.

Apparently there'd been an undercover operation and it was deemed that now was the time to swoop to prevent any possible incident. The police say this is not related to the Olympics, but of course that'll be little comfort, if there was an operation there - if there was a plot there of course. One woman, five men. One of the men was tasered in this operation.

They are now all at a police station being questioned in London. So, really, beyond that, there's very little information about what that plot may have been, what the threat may have been to Londoners.

TONY JONES: Alright. More to come on that obviously. Phil, thank you very much for being there.


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