US Defence Secretary Robert Gates welcomed Tuesday's arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London, dpa reported
I hadnt heard that, but that sounds like good news to me," Gates told reporters who informed him of the arrest while the defence secretary was on a visit to Afghanistan, the New York Times said.
President Barack Obama and senior US politicians have been outraged at the release of hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents by the whistleblowing website.
The documents, plus earlier disclosures on the website of secret US military logs about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, endangered lives and were harmful to US interests, according to the White House.
Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, was detained on a European arrest warrant, issued by Sweden, in connection with sexual assault claims made against him there