Interpol called yesterday for the arrest of WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief as his site’s dumping of secret US cables exposed deep tensions between the US and Pakistan over nuclear arms safety.
Interpol said it had alerted all member states to arrest Julian Assange, who is wanted in Sweden for questioning over the alleged rape and molestation of two women.
Assange’s mother said she did not want her son, who has denied the charges, “hunted down.”
Christine Assange told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that she was feeling “as any mother would be, very distressed” that authorities were looking for her son.
“He’s my son and I love him and obviously I don’t want him hunted down and jailed,” she said from her home in Queensland, Australia.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called in US Ambassador Cameron Munter for talks yesterday as WikiLeaks’ steady release of 250,000 cables sent shockwaves around the diplomatic community. Islamabad reacted angrily to suggestions by US diplomats that its nuclear weapons could fall into terrorist hands.
International fears over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal “are misplaced and doubtless fall in the realm of condescension,” Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said.
The anger stems from a cable from last year in which then-US ambassador Anne Patterson reportedly wrote: “Our major concern is not having an Islamic militant steal an entire weapon but rather the chance someone working in government of Pakistan facilities could gradually smuggle enough material out to eventually make a weapon.”
The Guardian newspaper, which was given advance access to the memos, said the documents showed greater US concern about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal than previously revealed publicly.
The cables also quoted the Russians as saying: “There are 120,000-130,000 people directly involved in Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes ... There is no way to guarantee that all are 100 percent loyal and reliable.”
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