WikiLeaks Releases Thousands of New Docs

WikiLeaks is releasing tens of thousands of previously unpublished American diplomatic cables, and encouraging the public to look for nuggets of information in them using a searchable database. The cables, part of a cache of 250,000 leaked State Department reports WikiLeaks says it has, had previously only been released in small batches. WikiLeaks decided on the mass release because activists are dismayed that the media has lost interest in publishing stories based on the cables, insiders tell Reuters.

The document release began hours after WikiLeaks revealed that its Internet host in California had received and complied with a Patriot Act order to produce information on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Federal prosecutors have asked Dynadot for any "customer or subscriber account information" relating to Assange or WikiLeaks since November of last year, according to a copy of the court order posted on Twitter. (More WikiLeaks stories.)