I also urge the Obama administration - both on its own and in cooperation with other responsible governments around the world - to use all legal means necessary to shut down WikiLeaks before it can do more damage by releasing additional cables. WikiLeaks' activities represent a shared threat to collective international security.

In my role as Wikileaks editor I've been involved in fighting off many legal attacks. To do that and keep our sources safe we have had to spread assets encrypt everything and move telecommunications and people around the world to activate protective laws in different national jurisdictions.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action they do it by making sure it's the only thing on the agenda the only thing everyone's talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images devious and prejudicial language dubious linkages weak or false 'intelligence' and selected 'leaks.'

A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.