Comment Re:Only in the USA... (Score 2) 289
Sorry, the first part was meant to be funny... As for the second, according to the Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/01/unredacted-us-embassy-cables-online
"The embassy cables were shared with the Guardian through a secure server for a period of hours, after which the server was taken offline and all files removed, as was previously agreed by both parties. This is considered a basic security precaution when handling sensitive files. But unknown to anyone at the Guardian, the same file with the same password was republished later on BitTorrent, a network typically used to distribute films and music. This file's contents were never publicised, nor was it linked online to WikiLeaks in any way.
"Our book about WikiLeaks was published last February. It contained a password, but no details of the location of the files, and we were told it was a temporary password which would expire and be deleted in a matter of hours.
So 1) WikiLeaks knew the password was out there many months ago, 2) if they were TOLD the password was temporary they didn't misunderstand anything...