Australia blames US over cable leaks, not Assange

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd blamed the United States over the leaked diplomatic cables and maintained that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange 'is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release'.

Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday Rudd, a former Prime Minister, also questioned the adequacy of US security systems.

Mr. Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the U.S. diplomatic communications network, he said adding that the 'Americans were responsible for that'.

The Reuters also quoted him as saying, I think there are real questions to be asked about the adequacy of their (U.S.) security systems and the level of access that people have had to that material over a long period of time.

Rudd stated that the core responsibility and legal liability would go to those individuals who are responsible for that initial unauthorized release.

Australian Government seems to have softened their stand on the whistle-blower site as they announced that Assange, the 39-year-old Australian citizen, would be welcome home. The government also offered to provide consular services to the Wikileaks founder who had been detained in the UK on Tuesday.

A diplomatic cable published by the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that US diplomats dismissed Rudd as a 'mistake-prone control freak'.

Responding to the criticism Rudd maintained, My job's just to act in Australia's national interest as Australia's foreign minister. I don't, frankly, give a damn about this sort of thing.