Australian anger over WikiLeaks terror cable leak

The Australian government has condemned WikiLeaks for publishing a U.S. cable that names 23 Australians accused of having links to Yemeni terrorism.

Australia's Attorney General Robert McClelland called the WikiLeaks release that appears to name Australian terror suspects "incredibly irresponsible," the Australian Associated Press reports.

The cable, classified as "secret," was among more than 130,000 confidential U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks. In many of the recently released cables, the names of sources were not removed, despite such information having previously been redacted in WikiLeaks releases.

The New York Times wrote that the publication of names in diplomatic cables is "a shift of tactics that has alarmed American officials."

WikiLeaks has denied that any sources were exposed or that there were any mistakes in the data release.

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One of the newly released cables from the U.S. embassy in Canberra recommends that 11 Australians be placed on a no-fly list and another 12 on a "selectee" watch list for their connections to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula., the AAP says.

"The publication of any information that could compromise Australia's national security — or inhibit the ability of intelligence agencies to monitor potential threats — is incredibly irresponsible," McClelland said.

Some people on the list, including a well-known Sydney imam and a women who is a long-time Australian Security Intelligence Organization target, strongly rejected the claims made in the U.S. diplomatic cables, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.