Wikileaks publishes 'red cell' CIA paper

Wikileaks yesterday released a CIA memo analysing the risks of terrorists operating from the US, but the document offered no dramatic revelations of government secrets like the website's earlier leaks.

The CIA paper – titled "What If Foreigners See the United States as an 'Exporter of Terrorism'?" – examines the implications of extremists recruiting US nationals and using the US as a base for attacks abroad.

The Central Intelligence Agency played down the release of the February memorandum, a so-called "red cell" analysis that is supposed to provide an alternative view to the spy agency's leaders. "These sorts of analytic products – clearly identified as coming from the agency's 'red cell' – are designed simply to provoke thought and present different points of view," CIA spokesman George Little said in an email.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made light of the development. "This is not exactly a blockbuster paper," said the official.

The website is locked in a dispute with the Pentagon over the leaking of nearly 77,000 classified documents on the Afghan war it recently published. It has said it will publish another 15,000 soon.

Meanwhile, the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, no longer faces sex abuse charges in Sweden after a prosecutor decided yesterday to investigate only one of two complaints against him.