維基解密曝光密件 美稱將展開刑事調查

The United States on Monday said it was carrying out a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and would pursue the whistle-blowerwebsite's chief if he were found to have broken the law.

"We have an active, ongoing criminal investigation with regard to this matter," Attorney General Eric Holder told a press conference the day after the website began releasing some 250,000 confidential State Department memos.

"We are not in the position, as yet, to announce the result of that investigation," he said, adding that the justice and defense departments were both probing the website.

"This is not saber-rattling," Holder said when pressed by reporters over what action the United States could take against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 39, a shadowy Australian hacker believed to be based in Europe.

"To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law... they will be held responsible," Holder said.

"To the extent there are gaps in our laws, we will move to close those gaps. It is not the case that anybody at this point, because of their citizenship or their residency, is not a target or the subject of an investigation."

The US diplomatic cables, most from the last three years, reveal a wide array of shocking diplomatic episodes, as well as candid assessments of world leaders and controversial closed-door remarks.

The White House has strongly condemned the release of the documents, saying it places lives at risk and threatens national security.

WikiLeaks has defended the release of the documents, saying they serve the public by exposing "the contradictions between the US's public persona and what it says behind closed doors."

It has also defended earlier document dumps of nearly 500,000 US military incident reports from 2004 to 2009, saying they shed light on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

本週一，美國宣稱正對維基解密網站展開刑事調查，如果發現這家泄密網站的主管觸犯法律，將予以追緝。

在該網站開始公佈大約25萬份美國國務院保密備忘錄後的第二天，美國司法部長艾裏克•霍德爾在記者招待會上稱：“我們正就此事件積極展開刑事調查。”

他說：“目前還不適合公佈調查結果。”他還稱司法部和國防部都在參與該調查。

在記者追問美國將對維基解密的創始人、現年39歲的朱利安•阿桑奇採取何種行動時，霍德爾說：“這並不是武力恐嚇。”來自澳大利亞的朱利安被稱爲神祕“黑客”，據稱其總部位於歐洲。

霍德爾說：“如果我們發現誰觸犯了美國法律，他們都將被追究責任。”

“如果現行法律有漏洞，我們將加以彌補。決不會因爲某人國籍或居住地的原因就免於接受調查。”

維基解密網站公佈的美國外交祕密電報大多來自近三年內，揭露了大量駭人聽聞的外交事件，以及對世界領導人的坦率評價和極富爭議的幕後言論。

白宮方面強烈譴責了這種泄密行爲，稱其威脅到其他人的生命和美國國家安全。

維基解密爲公開密件的行爲作出辯解，稱其通過曝光“美國的公開表象及其幕後真面貌之間的矛盾”來服務大衆。

網站還爲自己公佈的近50萬份2004至2009年間的美軍軍情報告進行了辯解，稱這些密件使公衆更加了解阿富汗戰爭和伊拉克戰爭。

Vocabulary:

saber-rattling: a show or threat of military power, esp. as used by a nation to impose its policies on other countries（武力威脅，戰爭叫囂）

shadowy: mysterious or secretive（鮮爲人知的，神祕莫測的）