Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States on Saturday responded with counter proposals to a letter from WikiLeaks requesting information about the persons mentioned in the thousands of documents set for release by the website.

Citing WikiLeaks’ request for information regarding individuals who may be at “significant risk of harm” in a letter to U.S. Ambassador Louis B. Susman, U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh wrote back, “We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained U.S. government classified materials.”

“As you know, if any of the materials you intend to publish were provided by any government officials, or any intermediary without proper authorization, they were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action,” Koh continued.

“It is our understanding from conversations with representatives from The New York Times, The Guardian [newspaper of Britain] and Der Speigel [newspaper of Germany], that WikiLeaks also has provided approximately 250,000 documents to each of them for publication, furthering the illegal dissemination of classified documents,” the State Department noted.

The State Department asked WikiLeaks to: “1) ensure WikiLeaks ceases publishing any and all such materials; 2) ensure WikiLeaks returns any and all classified U.S. government material in its possession; and 3) remove and destroy all records of this material from WikiLeaks’ databases.”

On Wednesday the U.S. admitted preparations for another WikiLeaks release of classified U.S. documents that could harm relations with friendly countries around the world.

Stating that the release is believed to offer sensitive classified documents, P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, told journalists then, “We’ve known all along that WikiLeaks has in its possession State Department cables. We are prepared if this upcoming tranche of documents includes State Department cables.”

The U.S. diplomatic missions are informing other countries to do damage control as Crowley admitted, “We are in touch with our posts around the world. They have begun the process of notifying governments that release of documents is possible in the near future.”

Typical diplomatic cables contain analyses of situations, as well as records of discussions between U.S. diplomats and foreign officials in what Crowley called “diplomacy in action.”

“Inherent in this day-to-day action is trust that we can convey our perspective to other governments in confidence and that they can convey their perspective on events to us,” Crowley said at a short off-camera briefing, adding, “And when this confidence is betrayed and ends up on the front pages of newspapers or lead stories on television and radio it has an impact.”

Crowley also informed the journalists that the State Department would be informing U.S. lawmakers about the situation arising out the leaks, saying, “Many of you are aware, we have had similar conversations with members of the Hill to let them know what we are prepared for. This is going to be unhelpful.”

The WikiLeaks release is expected to be the largest leak ever of classified documents.

In October, WikiLeaks published nearly 400,000 classified U.S. military documents related to the war in Iraq, but WikiLeaks said on Twitter last Sunday that the next one will be seven times the size of the Iraq War logs.

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