Amazon pulls WikiLeaks after U.S. pressure

The web hosting arm of Amazon.com has dropped WikiLeaks from its servers, driving the controversial website to migrate to a Swedish host after releasing a rash of sensitive U.S. State Department cables.

Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs, confirmed on Wednesday that Amazon.com Inc. decided to stop hosting the site after congressional staffers contacted the company to inquire about its relationship with WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks bought space on servers owned by Amazon Web Services, the computing services arm of Amazon, following online attacks targeting its site.

Lieberman, an independent, called on other companies to follow Amazon's example and boycott WikiLeaks.

"The company's decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material," Lieberman said in a statement.

"I call on any other company or organization that is hosting WikiLeaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them."

China blocks sites with leaked cables

China also took steps to block links to the WikiLeaks website on Wednesday amid the potentially embarrassing claims made in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables posted to the site.

Attempts to access wikileaks.org and cablegate.wikileaks.org called up a notice saying the connection had been reset. That's the standard response when a website is being blocked by Chinese authorities who exert rigid controls over internet content.

It wasn't clear when the blocks were imposed, although a vast swath of the internet is inaccessible behind China's firewall, including social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Human rights and political dissent-themed sites are also routinely banned, although technologically savvy users can easily jump the so-called "Great Firewall" with proxy servers or other alternatives.

WikiLeaks may have been singled out because of some of the assertions made in the leaked cables, including some sent from the U.S. embassies in Seoul and Beijing, focusing on China's ally North Korea.

Those included suggestions that North Korea's communist regime would likely collapse within three years of the death of ruler Kim Jong Il, and that Chinese leaders were prepared to accept South Korea's eventual rule over the entire Korean peninsula.

In one, a Chinese diplomat is quoted describing North Korea as a "spoiled child" for attempting to win U.S. attention with a provocative missile test.

The leaks also claimed that China's Politburo directed a cyber intrusion into Google's computer systems, and expressed concern over attempts by Iranian front companies to obtain Chinese nuclear technology.

China's government has taken a low-key approach to the leaks, with the Foreign Ministry saying it would not comment on specific assertions in the cables.

"China takes note of relevant reports," ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday. "We hope the U.S. side will properly handle the relevant issue. As for the content of the documents, we do not comment on that."

'Nefarious slander'

The Global Times, a provocative tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece Peoples Daily, labelled the disclosure a "nefarious slander against China" on Wednesday.

It also questioned the U.S. government's perceived inability to block the posting of the leaks, saying it raised questions as to whether it had reached some form of tacit understanding with WikiLeaks.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Beijing's Renmin University, said Beijing shared Washington's concern about the release of sensitive diplomatic communications. But he said the WikiLeaks blocking was motivated more by the need to stifle further rumour mongering, rather than suppressing specific revelations.

"The website is blocked because the information is both unprovable and sensitive," Shi said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that WikiLeaks acted illegally in posting the documents. Officials around the world have said the disclosure jeopardizes national security, diplomats, intelligence assets and relationships between foreign governments.

The massive leaks were "embarrassing" and "awkward," but the consequences for American foreign policy should be limited, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.