Senators praise firms terminating ties with WikiLeaks

Two top US Senators today praised the companies which have terminated their relationship with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks and asked other companies to follow suit.

"Companies that are cutting off their services to WikiLeaks in the wake of its release of 250,000 stolen and classified State Department cables are doing the right thing as good corporate citizens and deserve the support of the American people," said Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins.

Lieberman is Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman, while Collins is its Ranking Member.

"The WikiLeaks data dump has jeopardized US national interests and the lives of intelligence sources around the world. This is no time for business as usual," they said.

"While corporate entities make decisions based on their obligations to their shareholders, sometimes full consideration of those obligations requires them to act as responsible citizens," the Senators said.

"We offer our admiration and support to those companies exhibiting courage and patriotism as they face down intimidation from hackers sympathetic to Wikileaks' philosophy of irresponsible information dumps for the sake of damaging global relationships," they said.

Earlier, Senator Lieberman had welcoming the decision of companies like Amazon to serve its ties with WikiLeaks and said that no responsible company, American or foreign, should assist this whistle blower website.

"Wikileaks' illegal, outrageous and reckless acts have compromised our national security and put lives at risk around the world. No responsible company – whether American or foreign – should assist WikiLeaks in its efforts to disseminate these stolen materials," he said.

"I call on any other company or organization that is hosting WikiLeaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them," Lieberman said after Amazon informed him about its decision to terminate its relationship with WikiLeaks.