Yesterday, the New York Times published an article courtesy of Read Write Web that suggested that WikiLeaks was responsible for exposing the sources behind over 250,000 leaked classified cables from U.S. embassies around the world.

And today, WikiLeaks has responded via Twitter.

The article published in the Times echoes accusations made by the German news magazine Der Spiegel. They say that a password leaked by Julian Assange and the taking of files by former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg contributed to the exposure of the unredacted cables – meaning that sources were exposed.

From the Times article –

When Domscheit-Berg left last year, he wound up taking a number of files with him, including that of the original cables. At the same time, Assange had given an “external contact” the file’s password so he could examine the materials. Domscheit-Berg returned the materials late in the year, and this year Wikileaks supporters “released a copy of this data collection onto the Internet as a kind of public archive of the documents that WikiLeaks had previously published.” The full, unedited documents were contained within that copy. The password was also apparently published.

WikiLeaks hit back with this series of Tweets –

Daniel Domscheit-Berg left WikiLeaks in 2010 due to the release of documents concerning the Iraq War. In early 2011, Domscheit-Berg launched OpenLeaks, a sort of WikiLeaks competitor.

If things went down like the Times article says they did, that’s bad news for WikiLeaks. Not only does it damage their security cred but it definitely exposes the sources to retributive measures. Of course, as you can see above, WikiLeaks is vehemently denying that they committed any mistakes. Their implications are that the Times is running anti-WikiLeaks propaganda, as Death and Taxes points out.