Weigel

The humanitarian group joins the chorus of WikiLeaks criticism with a letter to Julian Assange:

Human rights advocates in repressive and authoritarian countries face many dangers, as governments in those countries regularly harass, mistreat and imprison them. Not least among these dangers is being charged with receiving foreign support or "cooperating" with foreign governments, as that can make them even more vulnerable to attack by governments and their agents. At the same time, many activists in repressive countries have very few options for financial support, as avenues of domestic support are effectively blocked. To protect themselves from the increased risk that comes with foreign support, many activists remain quiet about it.

As a human rights organization, we support freedom of expression and greater transparency in government. Yet, in releasing the information in the circumstances we describe above, the very real dangers to the health and well-being of human rights activists would outweigh the benefits. We urge you to remove any identifying information of human rights activists from the documents that you will be releasing.

You notice in some of the official criticism of WikiLeaks that the damage it could be doing to humanitarian groups, like the Red Cross, is played very high.