US Consul General Grace Shelton and Governor Sir Richard Gozney yesterday denounced whistleblowing website Wikileaks for releasing confidential correspondence from American embassies around the world including 68 reports about Bermuda.

The huge leak of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables 27 of which are said to have been sent by the US Consulate in Devonshire began on Sunday and is expected to continue for months.

Less than 300 had been published by press time last night, none of them so far pertaining to Bermuda.

But the Guardian newspaper in London which has obtained all 251,287 files, along with The New York Times and the German magazine De Spiegel released a list of the cables on its website, indicating that those from the US Consulate in Bermuda relate to everything from economic conditions to terrorism, refugees and human rights.

Speculation was rife yesterday that the 27 documents dated between August 28, 2009 and February 23 this year will shed fresh light on the secret deal struck with the US by former Premier Ewart Brown to bring four former Guantánamo Bay prisoners here.

Dr Brown insisted last June that his decision to offer sanctuary to the Uighurs who come from Chinese Turkestan was a humanitarian one and resulted in no quid pro quo for the Island.

But some of the US State Department cables already released by Wikileaks reportedly show that several countries taking in former Guantánamo detainees were offered sweeteners.

The New York Times reported yesterday that the cables showed the Bush administration offered the Pacific island of Kiribati “an incentive package” of $3 million to take 17 Chinese Muslim prisoners.

It said Slovenia, which was seeking a meeting with President Barack Obama, was encouraged to “do more” on detainee resettlement if it wanted to “attract higher-level attention from Washington”.

Ms Shelton would not comment yesterday on the content of the cables from Bermuda. All 27 listed on the Guardian’s website were sent after she replaced Gregory Slayton as US Consul General to Bermuda in mid-August 2009.

She told The Royal Gazette: “One of the basic functions of diplomats is to report on developments in the societies in which they serve.

“As a matter of policy we don’t comment on documents that purport to contain classified information. We condemn in the strongest terms the deliberate and unauthorised disclosure of information represented as classified materials by individuals and organisations which puts lives at risk and jeopardises our national security.”

Sir Richard said: “I have concerns about the release of the documents. The British Government condemn any unauthorised release of classified information, just as they condemn leaks of classified information in the UK.

“Leaks can damage national security, are not in the national interest and, as the US Administration have said, may put lives at risk. As to any links to Bermuda, we do not comment on the substance of leaked documents.”

The Governor would not say whether he had spoken with Ms Shelton or Premier Paula Cox about the files. “We make it a general rule in Government House not to talk about whom we have met, or whom we have had discussions with, on issues across the board,” he said.

The Cablegate leak - thought to be the largest-ever release of confidential documents into the public domain - was yesterday denounced as “reckless and dangerous” by the White House and a threat to national security by 10 Downing Street.

The full “data dump” involves cables sent between 1966 and February this year; 15,652 of them secret files, 101,748 confidential and 133,887 unclassified.

De Spiegel has published a map on its online edition showing where all of the dispatches originated from and the sensitivity of the material. The graphic suggests the 27 cables from the US Consulate in Bermuda are all unclassified.

The Guardian’s breakdown contains a series of tags explaining the content of the cables. The first one on the Bermuda list sent August 28, 2009 has tags for personnel and management operations.

But later messages suggest far more sensitive information such as the cable sent on November 10, 2009 about human rights and internal governmental affairs; the one on January 13, 2010 about terrorists, terrorism, intelligence and security; and the one on February 16 this year about labour sector affairs, refugees and human rights.

The Guardian’s list also cites a cable concerning Bermuda originating from the US embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 17, 2005.

Opposition leader Kim Swan said last night: “We look forward with interest to learning any revelations related to the PLP Government’s secret negotiations over the Guantánamo Uighurs coming to Bermuda, if indeed this is the subject of any of the Wikileaks documents to be revealed.

“Until then, we can only follow this extraordinary story as it unfolds.”

Ms Cox had no comment, according to her press secretary. “When specifics, as they relate to Bermuda are available, then we will have something to speak about,” said the Premier’s spokeswoman.

This is not the first time Bermuda has been involved in a Wikileaks controversy. In 2008, the site founded by Julian Assange published previously-unreleased documents relating to the Bermuda Housing Corporation scandal.

l View the embassy cables released so far at http://cablegate.wikileaks.org.