Wikileaks today offered sympathy and condolences to the victims of the Tucson shooting together with best wishes for the recovery of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, a democrat from Arizona‘s 8th district, was the target of a shooting spree at a Jan 8 political event in which six others were killed.

Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, leading the investigation into the Gifford shooting, said that „vitriolic rhetoric“ intended to „inflame the public on a daily basis … has [an] impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with.“ Dupnik also observed that officials and media personalities engaging in violent rhetoric „have to consider that they have some responsibility when incidents like this occur and may occur in the future.“