( CNN ) -- WikiLeaks has published a secret U.S. diplomatic cable listing places the United States considers vital to its national security , prompting criticism that the website is inviting terrorist attacks on American interests . State Department spokesman P.J . Crowley said the disclosure `` gives a group like al Qaeda a targeting list . '' The sites are included in a lengthy cable the State Department sent in February 2009 to its posts around the world , asking American diplomats to identify installations overseas `` whose loss could critically impact the public health , economic security , and/or national and homeland security of the United States . '' The diplomats identified dozens of places on every continent , including mines , manufacturing complexes , ports and research establishments . CNN is not publishing specific details from the list , which refers to pipelines and undersea telecommunications cables as well as the location of minerals or chemicals critical to U.S. industry . The list also mentions dams close to the U.S. border and a telecommunications hub whose destruction might seriously disrupt global communications . Diplomats also identified sites of strategic importance for supplying U.S. forces and interests abroad , such as in the Strait of Hormuz , the Persian Gulf and the Panama Canal . The cable is classified secret and not for review by non-U.S. personnel . The United States and Great Britain condemned the disclosure . `` There are strong and valid reasons for classifying vital information , including the identification of critical infrastructure that is important to not only our society and economy , but those of other countries , '' Crowley said Monday . `` Without discussing any particular cable , the release of this kind of information gives a group like al Qaeda a targeting list , '' he said . `` This is why we have condemned WikiLeaks for what it has done . '' Later , on the microblogging site Twitter , Crowley said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange -- now facing extradition to Sweden in connection with a rape investigation -- `` threatens to put others at risk to save his own hide . '' British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement that the publication is `` damaging to national security in the United States , Britain and elsewhere . '' And Malcolm Rifkind , chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee in Britain , said the list was `` a gift to any terrorist ( group ) trying to work out what are the ways in which it can damage the United States . '' `` It is grossly improper and irresponsible '' for Assange and his website to publish that information , he said . WikiLeaks , which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information , published the list of sensitive sites as part of a larger disclosure of what it says are 250,000 U.S. State Department documents that were never meant for public view . The site began publishing the first of those quarter-million documents last week . Since then , the site has been hit with denial-of-service attacks , which seek to make a website unavailable . It also has been kicked off servers in the United States and France , and it lost a major revenue source on Friday , when U.S.-based PayPal cut off its account . On Sunday , WikiLeaks appealed to supporters worldwide to mirror its website , saying the site `` is under heavy attack . In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove WikiLeaks from the Internet , we need your help . '' In a message sent on Twitter on Monday , WikiLeaks said it had several hundred mirror sites -- websites at other online addresses that have the same content as WikiLeaks . Assange , 39 , is wanted by Swedish authorities on allegations of sex crimes , including rape . He has denied the allegations , but his whereabouts have been undisclosed since WikiLeaks began publishing the documents last week . Investigators have focused much of their effort on finding Assange in Britain , where U.S. investigative activity is being conducted by the Defense Department , a senior law enforcement official said Friday .
NEW : State Department blasts WikiLeaks for publishing list . Locations listed worldwide could hurt national security if damaged or destroyed . WikiLeaks says several hundred sites now mirror its content .