WikiLeaks Makes Leaked US Documents Searchable

Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has launched a searchable database containing 1.7-million U.S. diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s that it says had been officially declassified, but were difficult for the public to access.

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange made the announcement Friday in Washington D.C. via a video link from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The searchable database gives the public access to diplomatic cables from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, including communications sent by or to then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

It also includes the 250,000 classified cables leaked by the website in 2010.

The U.S. State Department has declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents available on the database and says it is still looking into the matter.

The 2010 cables included secret military logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as classified U.S. diplomatic cables.

The leaked diplomatic cables and military reports infuriated the international community, often providing blunt and unflattering U.S. views of world leaders’ private and public lives.

Assange has been seeking refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London for the past nine months in an effort to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault.