A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to government officials.

Yesterday, on Salon, Glenn Greenwald wrote about the detention of Bradley Manning, the Army private who is accused of leaking thousands of classified diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

The "degrading and inhumane" treatment of Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking classified cables to WikiLeaks, has been denounced as "illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture".

Thousands of classified American cables obtained by the WikiLeaks website and passed to The Daily Telegraph detail the international struggle to stop the spread of weapons-grade nuclear, chemical and biological material around the globe.

Mr. Woolsey routinely arose at 4:30 A.M. six or seven days a week to read classified cables from overseas and absorb briefing books.

More than 250,000 classified cables from American embassies are leaked, many sent as recently as February.

The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today, with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year.

To join the other inmates: Bradley Manning, the Army private who is accused of leaking thousands of classified diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, has been cleared to leave his isolation cell.

It says it found him using it search secret databases for classified cables and reports about Russia.

Mr Assange is the public face of WikiLeaks, which outraged the US government by publishing more than 250,000 classified cables written by American diplomats.