WikiLeaks has released more than half a million U.S. diplomatic cables from 1978, the whistleblower website has announced.
In a blog post Wednesday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called these documents the "Carter Cables II," as they come from a tumultuous time for the Jimmy Carter administration and cover conflicts in Palestine, Lebanon, Cambodia and Eritrea as well as the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua and the Iranian revolution.
Other important events mentioned in the documents include Carter's decision to postpone the production of the neutron bomb, as well as the disintegration of a Soviet Union satellite over Canada in January 1978.
A total of 500,577 documents were released, covering U.S. interactions with "nearly every country," Assange claims.
RELEASE: #WikiLeaks releases "Carter Cables II" 500,577 US diplomatic cables from 1978 https://t.co/rV1SxmBEcG pic.twitter.com/TwdgZgkcma— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 27, 2015
WikiLeaks released 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, dated from 1966 to 2010 and supplied by whistleblower Chelsea Manning (then Bradley Manning), in November 2010. The leak led to Manning's arrest in May 2010. The organization continued releasing secret U.S. government documents, including the "Kissinger Cables" in April 2013, and the "Carter Cables" in April 2014.
The latest release brings the total number of U.S. diplomatic cables WikiLeaks has published to 2.7 million documents, Assange claims.