WASHINGTON - WikiLeaks was on the defensive on several fronts Wednesday, scrambling to remain on the Internet and post more U.S. diplomatic documents while its fugitive founder, Julian Assange, was targeted by a European arrest warrant on Swedish rape charges.
Amazon.com Inc. prevented WikiLeaks from using the U.S. company's computers to distribute embarrassing State Department communications and other documents, Wiki-Leaks said Wednesday.
The WikiLeaks site was unavailable for several hours before it moved back to servers owned by its previous Swedish host, Bahnhof, which are housed in a protective Cold War-era bunker.
At the same time, Swedish officials intensified legal pressure on Assange by asking European police to arrest him on rape allegations that have shadowed him for weeks. Swedish Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny said that the European arrest warrant had been issued for Assange in connection with the allegations filed against him in that country.
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Amazon's move to kick WikiLeaks off its servers came after congressional staff members called the company Tuesday to ask about its relationship with WikiLeaks, Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, said Wednesday.
"The company's decision to cut off Wikileaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material," Lieberman said in a statement. He added that he would have further questions for Amazon about its dealings with WikiLeaks.
The White House said Wednesday that it was taking new steps to protect government secrets after WikiLeaks' release of thousands of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables. Officials said national security adviser Tom Donilon has appointed a senior aide to identify and develop reforms needed in light of the document dump.
The White House also spurned a call from Assange for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to step down if she had any role in directing U.S. diplomats' spying on other foreign leaders.
"Mr. Assange's suggestion is ridiculous and absurd, and why anyone would find his opinion here relevant is baffling," said spokesman Tommy Vietor, adding that Clinton was doing an "extraordinary" job. The White House says U.S. diplomats do not engage in spying.
Clinton was in Astana, Kazakhstan, enduring repeated comments about the WikiLeaks disclosures as she met with foreign officials at a conference of international leaders.
In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday reacted furiously to claims in a leaked U.S. State Department memo that he has money in Swiss bank accounts and said U.S. diplomats should be punished for allegations he branded as lies and gossip.
The outburst broke from Turkey's initial position of downplaying the leaks and saying that the documents would not affect Turkish and U.S. ties.
The classified cable, dated Dec. 30, 2004, was from then-U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman, who was assessing Erdogan's second year in power.
It says: "We have heard from two contacts that Erdogan has eight accounts in Swiss banks; his explanations that his wealth comes from the wedding presents guests gave his son and that a Turkish businessman is paying the educational expenses of all four Erdogan children in the U.S. purely altruistically are lame."
Erdogan said on live television he was prepared to resign if opposition parties can prove that he has any money in a Swiss account.
Turkey's main opposition party this week called on Erdogan to explain the Swiss-bank-accounts claim and said it had formed a committee to investigate the allegation.