WikiLeaks strikes a blow at US global interests

WASHINGTON: In its latest blow, WikiLeaks has released a secret list of infrastructure from British telecommunications facilities to chromite mines in India, whose loss or attack by terrorists could "critically impact" US security.

The list of companies and installations around the world was revealed in a February 2009 State Department cable requesting overseas US missions to update a list of infrastructure and resources around the globe "whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security and/or national and homeland security of the United States".

The list includes factories, ports, fuel companies, drug manufacturers, undersea cables, pipelines, communication hubs and a host of other "key resources".

A Danish insulin plant, a company making anti-snake venom in Australia and a cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo are also included.

Its publication was denounced as "irresponsible" by State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, amid fears it could be used as a list of targets by terrorists.

The document asks US missions to identify "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States the incapacitation or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters".

The cable is marked "secret state ... noforn, not for internet distribution." "Noforn" means it should not be shown to foreign governments or other non-US interests.

The cable said the State Department, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, was seeking input from embassies on "critical infrastructure and key resources within their host countries which, if destroyed, would likely have an immediate and deleterious effect on the United States".

It said diplomats were "not being asked to consult with host governments with respect to this request".

The request came under the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, which aims to enhance protection of key resources "to prevent, deter, neutralise or mitigate the effects of deliberate efforts by terrorists to destroy, incapacitate or exploit them; and to strengthen national preparedness, timely response, and rapid recovery in the event of an attack, natural disaster or other emergency".