CAMBRIDGE – Publishing US diplomatic cables helped shape uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange said on Tuesday. The computer expert, who infuriated the U.S. government by publishing thousands of the secret cables, said the leaks may have persuaded some authoritarian regimes that they could not rely on US support if military force was used on protesters.
They also made it difficult for the West to continue its support of the long-standing regimes, Assange told hundreds of students at the Cambridge University union. “The Tunisian cables showed clearly that if it came down to it, the US, if it came down to a fight between the military on the one hand, and (President Zine al-Abidine) Ben Ali’s political regime on the other, the US would probably support the military,” he said.
