Assange’s defence team turned the attention to the British newspaper, one of WikiLeaks publishing partners, to refute the US claims that Assange had put sources in harm’s way, including some that had since disappeared when unredacted US state cables were published in September 2011.
…Assange’s defence counsel Mark Summers… said “the gate was opened, not by Assange or WikiLeaks” when the encryption key keeping the names secret was outlined in a book “Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy”, published by Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding in February 2011.
Source: Julian Assange’s legal team blames Guardian journalists for release of unredacted files