维基解密曝光密件 美称将展开刑事调查

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.

本周一，美国宣称正对维基解密网站展开刑事调查，如果发现这家泄密网站的主管触犯法律，将予以追缉。

在该网站开始公布大约25万份美国国务院保密备忘录后的第二天，美国司法部长艾里克•霍德尔在记者招待会上称：“我们正就此事件积极展开刑事调查。”

他说：“目前还不适合公布调查结果。”他还称司法部和国防部都在参与该调查。

在记者追问美国将对维基解密的创始人、现年39岁的朱利安•阿桑奇采取何种行动时，霍德尔说：“这并不是武力恐吓。”来自澳大利亚的朱利安被称为神秘“黑客”，据称其总部位于欧洲。

霍德尔说：“如果我们发现谁触犯了美国法律，他们都将被追究责任。”

“如果现行法律有漏洞，我们将加以弥补。决不会因为某人国籍或居住地的原因就免于接受调查。”

维基解密网站公布的美国外交秘密电报大多来自近三年内，揭露了大量骇人听闻的外交事件，以及对世界领导人的坦率评价和极富争议的幕后言论。

白宫方面强烈谴责了这种泄密行为，称其威胁到其他人的生命和美国国家安全。

维基解密为公开密件的行为作出辩解，称其通过曝光“美国的公开表象及其幕后真面貌之间的矛盾”来服务大众。

网站还为自己公布的近50万份2004至2009年间的美军军情报告进行了辩解，称这些密件使公众更加了解阿富汗战争和伊拉克战争。

Vocabulary:

saber-rattling: a show or threat of military power, esp. as used by a nation to impose its policies on other countries（武力威胁，战争叫嚣）

shadowy: mysterious or secretive（鲜为人知的，神秘莫测的）