US cable blames Chinese government for hacking on Google

Erbil, Oct. 5 (AKnews) – The hacking of Google last year that forced the search engine to withdraw from mainland China was orchestrated by a leading member of the communist party's politburo, according to a leaked US cable. The politician demanded action against Google after he searched his own name and found articles criticizing him, a leaked cable from the US embassy in Beijing says. The leaked cable has been released by WikiLeaks to The New York Times and Britain's The Guardian newspapers. The cable did not identify the leader, however, according to The New York Times it was propaganda chief Li Changchun, the fifth-ranked official in the country. Google said last December that it was hit by a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure". And that part of it was aimed at the Gmail accounts of "Chinese human rights activists" resulting in Google abandoning mainland China to Hong Kong, where it was able to run an uncensored version of its website in English and Chinese. Raber Y. Aziz/AKnews Sunday, December 5th 2010 7:12 AM