Reactions to the United States diplomatic cables leak
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Reactions to the United States diplomatic cables leak
included stark criticism, anticipation, commendation, strong support for, as well as outright threats against people involved in the leak, satire and quiescence.
, in a letter to president Barack Obama
and Attorney General Eric Holder
, mentioned, "while we hold varying opinions of Wikileaks’ methods and decisions, we all believe that in publishing diplomatic cables Wikileaks is engaging in journalistic activity protected by the First Amendment
". It also warned that overreaction to publication of leaked material in the press will be more damaging to American democracy than the leaks themselves.
Emily Berman, a lawyer from the Liberty and National Security Project at NYU Law School told David Weigel
of Slate
why calls for WikiLeaks to be labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organisation are unrealistic: "A definition of material support which includes that would be so broad that it could include scholarly research and op-eds ... If the State Department designated WikiLeaks as a terrorist organization, a law professor working on these issues would immediately be at risk of criminal prosecution".
Noam Chomsky
, an Institute Professor
and professor emeritus
of linguistics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, told Amy Goodman
on Democracy Now!
, "Perhaps the most dramatic revelation ... is the bitter hatred of democracy that is revealed both by the U.S. Government – Hillary Clinton, others – and also by the diplomatic service". Chomsky also described Representative King's call for WikiLeaks to be named a "foreign terrorist organization" as "outlandish."
launched a task force to assess its impact on diplomatic relations of United States. Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. However, The Washington Post
reported that at CIA headquarters it is identified by its "all-too-apt acronym" W.T.F. which refers to the popular internet slang
, "What the fuck?". The main focus of the task force is the immediate impact of the most recently released files. One issue is whether the agency's ability to recruit informants could be damaged by declining confidence in the US government's ability to keep secrets.
that based on his experience as a Canadian diplomat in Indonesia the leak "is not a real victory for a more open world. It will lead to a more closed world, where repressive governments will be more free to commit atrocities against their own people and the people who try to stop them will have even less information to help prevent this".
Former British ambassador Craig Murray
wrote that he has "never understood why it is felt that behaviours which would be considered reprehensible in private or even commercial life – like lying, or saying one thing to one person and the opposite to another person – should be considered acceptable, or even praiseworthy, in diplomacy...Those who argue that Wikileaks are wrong, believe that we should entrust the government with sole control of what the people can and cannot know of what is done in their name. That attitude led to the 'dodgy dossier' of lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction...The people discomfited by these leaks are people who deserve to be discomfited. Truth helps the people against rapacious elites – everywhere".
Jonathan Powell, a British diplomat for sixteen years and Tony Blair
's Chief of Staff, wrote: "It is very difficult to conduct diplomacy effectively when your confidential deliberations are made public in this way. Mutual trust is the basis of such relations and once that trust is breached, candid conversations are less likely. It is like having a conversation in the pub with your best mate about problems with your girlfriend and then finding the content, possibly with a bit of spin added, posted on the internet. You won't be having that conversation again any time soon."
or other laws by allegedly trying to steal credit card numbers, passwords, and biometric data from the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon
and other leaders, and as future cable leaks or the current ones may bring investigations against Clinton.
The publishing of a cable from the U.S. State Department sent in February 2009, titled the Critical Foreign Dependencies Initiative
, listed foreign installations and infrastructure considered critical to U.S. interests; before its release, WikiLeaks removed the names and locations. The list includes key facilities that if attacked could disrupt the global supply chain and global communications, as well as goods and services important to the U.S. and its economy. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the disclosure of this list "gives a group like al-Qaeda a targeting list." In response, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson
said with reference to the cable: "This further undermines claims made by the US Government that its embassy officials do not play an intelligence-gathering role. In terms of security issues, while this cable details the strategic importance of assets across the world, it does not give any information as to their exact locations, security measures, vulnerabilities or any similar factors, though it does reveal the US asked its diplomats to report back on these matters."
U.S. Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell
has called Assange "a high-tech terrorist".
U.S. Representative
Peter T. King
, the ranking member of the United States House Committee on Homeland Security
said that the release "posed a clear and present danger
to the national security of the United States" and that it "manifests Mr. Assange
's purposeful intent to damage not only our national interests in fighting the war on terror, but also undermines the very safety of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. What I'm concerned about is the analysis of these documents" stating that "there are two things that are most damaging: 1. Yemen and Pakistan and the sensitive negotiations on nuclear proliferation underway. And, second, Saudi Arabia siding with the U.S. against Iran". He also called for Assange to be prosecuted for espionage, and asked the U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder
to "determine whether Wikileaks could be designated a foreign terrorist organization", and that "by doing so we can seize their assets". To this, New York attorney in international law and human rights Scott Horton responds
U.S. Congressman Ron Paul
(R) from Texas said "in a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble." He responds to the leaks by asking the American people to consider a list of nine questions. Under Number 5 and 6 he asks
British Prime Minister David Cameron
said the list was damaging to the national security of both his country and the United States, "and elsewhere".
Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee
Malcolm Rifkind
criticized the leaks on the grounds that the leaking of genuine secrets undermines the trust between diplomats required for diplomatic negotiations.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
branded WikiLeaks as "grossly irresponsible", arguing that a submarine cable link to Australia from the United States that included the details of critical infrastructure "would not be on Wikileaks if an illegal act hadn't taken place."
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
, expressed his "solidarity" with Assange following Assange's 2010 arrest in the United Kingdom. He further criticised the arrest of Julian Assange as "an attack on freedom of expression".
, said, "Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family." Assange denies this has happened, and responded by saying, "...it's really quite fantastic that Gates and Mullen...who have ordered assassinations every day, are trying to bring people on board to look at a speculative understanding of whether we might have blood on our hands. These two men arguably are wading in the blood from those wars."
whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg
said that Assange "is serving our democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations" and that the leak's ramifications for the U.S.'s national security "is extremely low."
Phyllis Bennis, a senior analyst with the left-wing think-tank Institute for Policy Studies
, told Paul Jay
of The Real News Network that Clinton's orders of spying on U.N. leaders shows that George W. Bush
's style is still around.
Daniel Flitton, diplomatic editor for The Age
, wrote that "Government embarrassment over this disclosure should not be confused with damage to the good of the nation. (sic) The full detail of the leak remains to be explored, but the public has gained a rare insight into the workings of government".
United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression Frank LaRue said Assange or other WikiLeaks staff should not face legal accountability for any information they disseminated, noting that, "if there is a responsibility by leaking information it is of, exclusively of the person that made the leak and not of the media that publish it. And this is the way that transparency works and that corruption has been confronted in many cases." Similarly, writing in the American Spectator, Alex Massie defended Wikileaks on the grounds that it is, like any other major media outlet, a news publisher.
John Pilger
, an Australian journalist who has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award defended the leaks, arguing that WikiLeaks and others were part of a larger struggle against "powerful institutions bent on curtailing our knowledge of and influence over policies and structures that impact our lives: they are information heroes, not information villains."
Henry Porter
, writing in The Observer
on 11 December, established a parallel with events in 1771. At that time British law prohibited reporting of U.K. Parliamentary
debates and speeches because those in power argued that the information was too sensitive and would be disruptive if published. John Wilkes
and others illegally published debates, with the eventual support of the London mob, shopkeepers and members of the gentry. Porter said: "From that moment, the freedom of the press was born ... and the kingdom did not fall."
Glenn Greenwald
wrote in Salon
, "The WikiLeaks disclosure has revealed not only numerous government secrets, but also the driving mentality of major factions in our political and media class. Simply put, there are few countries in the world with citizenries and especially media outlets more devoted to serving, protecting and venerating government authorities than the U.S. Indeed, I don't quite recall any entity producing as much bipartisan contempt across the American political spectrum as WikiLeaks has: as usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weapon". Greenwald has criticized one prominent New York Times article on Assange by John F. Burns as a "sleazy hit piece". Burns defended his article, saying it was an "absolutely standard journalistic endeavour".
Marc Lynch
wrote in Foreign Policy
that "my initial skepticism about the significance of this document leak, fueled by the lack of interesting revelations in The New York Times and The Guardian reports, is changing as I see the first batch of cables posted on WikiLeaks itself."
John Nichols
of the The Nation
wrote that "Reasonable people may debate the way in which WikiLeaks obtains and releases classified documents. But for [White House Press Secretary Robert] Gibbs to try and claim that transparency and openness [has put at risk the cause of human rights] is intellectually and practically dishonest".
Republican
2008 U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin
denounced the Obama administration's approach, calling Assange "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" and asking "Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?" She went on to say, "What if any diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on NATO, EU, and other allies to disrupt WikiLeaks’ technical infrastructure? Did we use all the cyber tools at our disposal to permanently dismantle WikiLeaks? Were individuals working for WikiLeaks on these document leaks investigated? Shouldn’t they at least have had their financial assets frozen just as we do to individuals who provide material support for terrorist organizations?" On Twitter
she posted, "Inexplicable: I recently won in court to stop my book 'America by Heart' from being leaked", she wrote, "but US Govt can't stop Wikileaks' treasonous act?" Republican Rick Santorum
agreed with Palin, saying "We haven't gone after this guy, we haven't tried to prosecute him, we haven't gotten our allies to go out and lock this guy up and bring him up on terrorism charges." Republican 2008 presidential primary contender Mike Huckabee
called for the person who leaked the documents to be executed for treason.
Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich has been quoted as saying, "Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed, is terrorism, and Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. He should be treated as an enemy combatant."
G. Gordon Liddy
, former Richard Nixon
aide and talk-radio host, has reportedly suggested that Assange's name be added to the "kill list" of terrorists who can be assassinated without a trial.
Tom Flanagan
, a former advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
, stated on 30 November 2010: "I think Assange
should be assassinated. President Obama
should put a contract out on Assange's life or send out a drone
to kill him. I would not be unhappy if Assange 'disappeared. The next day Flanagan attempted to retract his statments by saying "I never seriously intended to advocate or propose the assassination of Mr. Assange. But I do think that what he's doing is very malicious and harmful to diplomacy and endangering people's lives, and I think it should be stopped." A complaint has been filed against Flanagan, which states that Flanagan "counselled and/or incited the assassination of Julian Assange contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada", in his remarks on the CBC
program Power & Politics
.
Scott Shane of The New York Times said "perhaps if we had had more information on these secret internal deliberations of governments prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we would have had a better understanding of the quality of the evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Secrecy is not always in the interests of governments or people".
Jon Stewart
, host of The Daily Show
, expressed cynicism about Assange's (and Wikileaks) descriptions of the importance of the release, as well as the ensuing media frenzy over the release. He blasted the Italian minister's equivalency of the leak to a diplomatic "9/11" and stated that Assange did not know just how much cynicism about the U.S. government is held by American citizens; thus, in Stewart's view, Assange should "stop with the drama".
Nancy Youssef of The McClatchy Company
of newspapers wrote that "American officials in recent days have warned repeatedly that the release of documents by WikiLeaks could put people's lives in danger, but, despite similar warnings before the previous two releases of classified U.S. intelligence reports by the website, U.S. officials concede that they have no evidence to date that the documents led to anyone's death".
Bob Beckel
, a Fox News Business commentator, said "This guy's a traitor, he's treasonous, and he has broken every law of the United States. And I'm not for the death penalty, so...there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch."
Daniel Yates, a former British military intelligence officer, wrote "Assange has seriously endangered the lives of Afghan civilians ... The logs contain detailed personal information regarding Afghan civilians who have approached NATO soldiers with information. It is inevitable that the Taliban will now seek violent retribution on those who have co-operated with NATO. Their families and tribes will also be in danger." Responding to the criticism, Assange said in August 2010 that 15,000 documents are still being reviewed "line by line", and that the names of "innocent parties who are under reasonable threat" will be removed.
Jack Goldsmith
, a former OLC official in the Bush administration, has written that Assange is "being unduly vilified" and though he does not like the leaks, "it is not obvious what law he has violated". Furthermore, "[i]t is also important to remember ...that the responsibility for these disclosures lies firmly with the institution empowered to keep them secret: the Executive branch." He does not understand "why so much ire is directed at Assange and so little at The New York Times", as in his opinion the disclosure by that organisation of the secret surveillance program in 2005–2006 was arguably "more harmful to national security than the wikileaks disclosures". He also points out the hypocrisy of the government in attacking WikiLeaks when "its top [Obama administration] officials openly violat[ed] classification rules and opportunistically reveal[ed] without authorization top secret information" when assisting Bob Woodward with his book Obama's Wars.
defended the leaks stating that "if secrecy is necessary for national security and effective diplomacy, it is also inevitable that the prerogative of secrecy will be used to hide the misdeeds of the permanent state and its privileged agents."
In an open letter
to prime minister Julia Gillard
, some of Australia's main media personnel said the U.S. and Australian governments' reaction to the release of diplomatic correspondence by the WikiLeaks website is "deeply troubling" and warned that they will "strongly resist any attempts to make the publication of these or similar documents illegal".
A 30 November 2010 Ottawa Sun
editorial criticised the leak: "we see no for-the-good-of-the-people journalistic justification for WikiLeaks reckless sabotage of U.S. international relations".
Javier Moreno, editor-in-chief of El País, said that the release of the documents does not put lives at risk and that the attacks on such a release of information to the general public amount to the same reaction seen in other leaks, such as the Pentagon Papers
in 1971. Moreno said that the only thing at risk is the career of officials and diplomats within the compromised governments.
Henry Porter
, writing in The Observer
, established a parallel with events in 1771. At that time British law prohibited reporting of Parliamentary debates and speeches because those in power argued that the information was too sensitive and would be disruptive if published. John Wilkes
and others illegally published debates, with the eventual support of the London mob, shopkeepers and members of the gentry. Porter says that "From that moment, the freedom of the press was born ... and the kingdom did not fall."
On 30 November 2010, Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland
, a national security analyst and host for Fox News, called Assange a terrorist, Wikileaks "a terrorist organization" and has called for Bradley Manning's execution if he is found guilty of making the leaks.
A 2 December 2010 editorial by Jeffrey T. Kuhner
in The Washington Times
said Assange should be treated "the same way as other high-value terrorist targets" and be assassinated.
The Sydney Morning Herald
ran an 8 December 2010 editorial by Bryce Lowry describing Assange as "the Ned Kelly
of the digital age" comparing him to a bushranger who defied colonial authorities in Australia in the nineteenth century.
On 10 December 2010, Beijing Daily, a publication of the Beijing
, China, city government, suggested in an editorial that this year's Nobel Peace Prize
not be given to the imprisoned Chinese dissident
Liu Xiaobo
but to Assange.
Richard Stengel
, managing editor of Time
, defended the leaks, on 13 December 2010, arguing that although the release of classified materials harms American security, he noted the right of news organizations to publish those documents under the First Amendment
.
In that same edition of Time, Fareed Zakaria
argued that cables leak show the competency, not duplicity, of American diplomacy as it shows "Washington pursuing privately pretty much the policies it has articulated publicly."
Some media outlets have criticized the subsequent attacks on WikiLeaks after the cables leak. "Not much truck with freedom of information, then, in the land of the free", Seumas Milne, a left-wing associate editor of the The Guardian. Financial Times Deutschland
said that "the already damaged reputation of the United States will only be further tattered with Assange's new martyr status".
responded to the release of a 2006 memorandum discussing American misuse of Shannon Airport
by asking the Irish Government to tighten its legislation to counter use of Irish airspace by the Americans. Colm O'Gorman
, the organisation's executive director in Ireland, observed that concerns expressed by Irish citizens over the misuse of the airport by the Americans was "a problem to be managed rather than something to be taken seriously".
Reporters Without Borders
condemned the subsequent blocking and the massive distributed denial-of-service attack
on the WikiLeaks website. It also raised concerns over the extreme comments made by American authorities concerning WikiLeaks and Assange. It issued a statement saying
Later, RWB decided to host a mirror site
of WikiLeaks on the address wikileaks.rsf.org as a "gesture of support for WikiLeaks’ right to publish information without being obstructed".
The American Civil Liberties Union
issued a statement, beginning "The Wikileaks phenomenon — the existence of an organization devoted to obtaining and publicly releasing large troves of information the U.S. government would prefer to keep secret — illustrates just how broken our secrecy classification system is. While the Obama administration has made some modest improvements to the rules governing classification of government information, both it and the Bush administration have overclassified and kept secret information that should be subject to public scrutiny and debate. As a result, the American public has had to depend on leaks to the news media and whistleblowers to know what the government is up to".
Anonymous
, the online community of activists, announced its support for Wikileaks by "declaring war" against enemies of Assange, calling on supporters to attack sites and companies that do not support WikiLeaks and to spread the leaked cables online. As of 8 December 2010, PostFinance.ch, a bank which terminated Assange's bank account, the office of the Swedish prosecutor, MasterCard and Visa have all been attacked and brought down by DDoS attacks. Anonymous has also declared Paypal a target.
Avaaz
, an international civic organization, launched a gigantic petition to stop the crackdown of WikiLeaks.
External links
United States diplomatic cables leak
The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...
included stark criticism, anticipation, commendation, strong support for, as well as outright threats against people involved in the leak, satire and quiescence.
Afghanistan
- Finance minister of AfghanistanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
Omar ZakhilwalOmar ZakhilwalDr. Omar Zakhilwal , is an economist and a prominent politician in Afghanistan. He is the current Finance Minister as well as the Chief Economic Advisor to the President of Afghanistan. He is also the president of the Afghanistan Cricket Board.-Early life:...
warned that leaks would damage his country's relations with United States Government and there would no longer be "business as usual". He denied his remarks in the U.S. embassy cable dated 26 February 2010 as "absolutely, categorically wrong and false".
Azerbaijan
- According to member of the National AssemblyNational Assembly of AzerbaijanThe National Assembly , also transliterated as Milli Majlis is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies and 25 were members elected by proportional...
Rabiyat Aslanova, "politics does not have the concept of permanent friends or enemies" and "therefore Azerbaijan will conduct its policy as usual with respect to its national interests". Aslanova said in particular that "the publications in WikiLeaks will have no influence on Azerbaijani — Turkish relations since Turkey and Azerbaijan have already spoken on this issue and said these publications are of no importance to them".
People's Republic of China
- WikiLeaks was blocked by China's "Great Firewall". Media reports about leaked information specifically related to China were censored, although the leak incident itself was reported within China.
India
- External Affairs Minister S. M. KrishnaS. M. KrishnaSomanahalli Mallaiah Krishna , generally referred to as S. M. Krishna, is the Minister of External Affairs and a member of the Indian Parliament from Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha. He was the Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1999 to 2004 and the Governor of Maharashtra from 2004 to...
said "India's government is not really concerned but we certainly are interested in finding out what this WikiLeaks are all about..."
Iran
- Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "We don't think this information was leaked...we think it was organised to be released on a regular basis and they are pursuing political goals."
Iraq
- The Iraqi foreign minister criticized the leak over detailed U.S. concerns in regards to alleged Iranian involvement in Iraq and called the leaks "unhelpful and untimely."
Israel
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin NetanyahuBenjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...
said the leak did not hurt Israel. He also expressed hope that Arab leaders would tell their own people what they say behind closed doors about their desire for attack on Iran. Netanyahu stated that the documents show that "more and more countries, governments and leaders in the Middle East and in the world understand that [Iran's nuclear programme] is the fundamental threat." He also told reporters that the disclosures will make it harder for U.S. diplomats to be honest in their assessments and will make foreign leaders more cautious.
Japan
- Foreign Minister Seiji MaeharaSeiji Maeharais a Japanese politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives of Japan since 1993. He was the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan from 2005 to 2006, and later served as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Minister of Foreign Affairs under the cabinets...
referred to the disclosure as a "monstrosity and a criminal act".
Pakistan
- Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said "Pakistan is taking stock of the revelations concerning Pakistan". A statement issued by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's office on his meeting with U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter made two references to "vikilikes", describing it as "misleading" and "malicious".
Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Osama al-Naqli says the memos "do not concern us" and the kingdom has no insight into the authenticity of the documents and "we cannot comment on them." But the former director General of Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency Al Mukhabarat Al A'amahAl Mukhabarat Al A'amahThe Ri'āsat Al-Istikhbārāt Al-'Āmah , or the General Intelligence Presidency , is the primary intelligence agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.- History :...
, prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud pointed out that America's "credibility and honesty" has been damaged by the leaks. He describes the cables as "a hodgepodge of selectivity, inaccuracy, agenda pursuit, and downright disinformation".
Singapore
- Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry has expressed deep concerns over the "damaging action of WikiLeaks".
Sri Lanka
- G. L. PeirisG. L. PeirisGamini Lakshman Peiris is a Sri Lankan politician and academic...
, Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs, denied the allegations made by the U.S. ambassador in Sri LankaUnited States Ambassador to Sri LankaThe position of United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives has existed since 1949. Sri Lanka – United States relations and Maldives – United States relations have been friendly throughout the history of Sri Lanka and History of the Maldives. The diplomatic mission representing the...
, stating "the conveying of such mendacious stories clearly fabricated to denigrate Sri Lanka, are totally negative to the objective of diplomacy, which is building bridges and promoting understanding". The government spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya RambukwellaKeheliya RambukwellaKeheliya Rambukwella is a Sri Lankan politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.-References:*...
considered the leaks which now in public are "damning".
Turkey
- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoğanRecep Tayyip ErdoganRecep Tayyip Erdoğan has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party , which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara...
said "Let us see everything that comes from the site, then we will gauge how serious this is". Hüseyin ÇelikHüseyin ÇelikHüseyin Çelik is a former Minister of National Education of Turkey and member of parliament for Van for the ruling Justice and Development Party....
, deputy leader of Erdogan's AKPJustice and Development Party (Turkey)The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament...
(the majority party in Parliament), blamed Israel for the release of the documents and accused the Israeli government of trying to put pressure on Turkey through the release.
- Defense Minister Hua-chu Kao downplayed the accuracy of all the leaks, especially those that mentioned Taiwan. He cited specifically a leak in which the U.S. allegedly asked Taiwan to sell SuperCobra AH-1W helicopters to Turkey. Minister Kao said it was the first time he had ever heard of such a deal, citing that Taiwan's own defense requirements would never have made the deal possible. Taiwan's military has also set up a "WikiLeaks Group" to verify leaked cables.
Tunisia
- Minister of Foreign AffairsMinistry of Foreign Affairs (Tunisia)The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia is a cabinet-level governmental agency in Tunisia in charge of conducting and designing the foreign policy of the country.-Organization and structure:...
Kamel MorjaneKamel MorjaneKamel Morjane, also spelled Kemal Mourjan, is a Tunisian politician and diplomat who served as Tunisia's Minister of Defense from 2005 to 2010 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2011.-Life and political career:...
commented that "these leaks will have no effect whatsoever on the two countries' ties". He added that U.S. Secretary of StateUnited States Secretary of StateThe United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Hillary Clinton had confirmed in both media interviews and in a telephone conversation that "the leaked cables were personal views of U.S ambassadors", not official opinions. He continued to say that the cables detailing Tunisia's internal affairs were "baseless and do not mirror Tunisia's reality." Morjane also questioned the believability of the cables.
Austria
- Stefan Hirsch, Speaker of Austrian Minister of Defence Norbert DarabosNorbert DarabosNorbert Darabos is an Austrian politician. Since 11 January 2007, he is Minister of National Defence first in the Gusenbauer cabinet, then in the Faymann cabinet. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria . Darabos is part of the ethnic minority of the Burgenland Croats...
, said that they expect clarification from the U.S. ambassador regarding comments in the cables that Darabos did not care about foreign-military interventions.
Finland
- Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander StubbAlexander StubbCai-Göran Alexander Stubb is a Finnish politician and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 4 April 2008 to 22 June 2011...
criticised the leak as "the information shared between diplomats and their host countries is important and confidential, and although it is not illegal to have this information, leaking it outside the inner circles where it was meant to stay is irresponsible."
Italy
- Prime Minister Silvio BerlusconiSilvio BerlusconiSilvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
laughed off the alleged content of the documents, and said: "I don't care what low-level officials say." Foreign Minister Franco Frattini described the leaks as the "September 11 of world diplomacy."
Poland
- Prime Minister Donald TuskDonald TuskDonald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....
said that "Rumour goes that [the] Americans messaged themselves with regret that we negotiate too firmly, but if it is really in this correspondence, it's rather as [a] compliment than flashpoint".
Russia
- Russian prime minister Vladimir PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
warned the U.S., "Don't poke your noses into our affairs" after the release of materials. Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov called the revelation an "entertaining read", but said "on practical policy making we will take into consideration the deeds of our partners". Putin, on the other hand, condemned the cables describing himself as an "alpha-dog" "BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
" and President Dmitry MedvedevDmitry MedvedevDmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...
as "RobinRobin (comics)Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
" as "slanderous". Head of Russia's foreign intelligence service (SVR)Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is Russia's primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB since December 1991...
Mikhail FradkovMikhail FradkovMikhail Yefimovich Fradkov is a Russian politician and statesman who was the Prime Minister of Russia from March 2004 to September 2007. Fradkov has been the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service since 2007.-Early life:...
stated that he would order his spies to study the cables relating to Russia. On 9 December 2010, President Medvedev's office released a statement praising WikiLeaksWikileaksWikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
and its founder Julian AssangeJulian AssangeJulian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
which suggested that Assange should be awarded the Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
.
Netherlands
- Foreign Affairs Minister Uri RosenthalUri RosenthalUriël "Uri" Rosenthal is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy . He is the Minister of Foreign Affairs since October 14, 2010 in the Cabinet Rutte. He served as a Member of the Senate from June 8, 1999 until October 14, 2010. And the Parliamentary leader in the Senate...
said "We do not know what the contents of the documents are, it would be guesswork. It could be that they contain names of Dutch politicians. We will wait patiently, but [will] remain alert".
United Kingdom
- A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said that "[w]e condemn any unauthorised release of this classified information, just as we condemn leaks of classified material in the UK...[t]hey can damage national security, are not in the national interest and...may put lives at risk".
Vatican City
- The VaticanVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
has called the cables' descriptions of its internal affairs as a matter of "extreme seriousness." The Vatican also emphasises that the cables "reflect the perceptions and opinions of the people who wrote them and cannot be considered as expressions of the Holy See itself."
Canada
- Lawrence CannonLawrence CannonLawrence Cannon, PC is a Canadian politician from Quebec and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former Quebec lieutenant. On October 30, 2008 he was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs...
, Canadian Minister of Foreign AffairsMinister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's international relations section of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada....
, condemned the leak, saying, "Irresponsible leaks like these are deplorable and do not serve anybody's national interests. The perpetrators of these leaks may threaten our national security." Cannon further stated that the leaks will not harm Canada's relationship with the U.S., saying, "I do find it deplorable that documents like this are leaked in this fashion, but I want to reassure everybody that I don't think this is going to change the strong relationship that we have with the United States."
Jamaica
- Dwight NelsonDwight Nelson (politician)Dwight Nelson, born July 22, 1946, is a Jamaican politician. He has been the Minister of National Security in Jamaica since March 2009.-References:...
, Jamaican Minister of National SecurityMinistry of National Security (Jamaica)The Ministry of National Security is a law enforcement agency of Jamaica. It has its headquarters in the North Tower of the NCB Towers in Kingston. As of 2010 Sen. the Hon. Dwight Nelson is the security minister....
, stated that CubaCubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n concerns about Jamaican drug trafficking reported in a leaked diplomatic cable — dated 11 August 2009 by Jonathan Farrar, the chief of missionHead of MissionIn diplomatic usage, Head of Mission or Chief of Mission from the French "Chef de Mission Diplomatique" is the generic term used to refer to the head of a diplomatic representation, such as an Ambassador, High Commissioner, Nuncio, Chargé d'affaires, Permanent Representative, and sometimes to a...
at the United States Interests Section in HavanaUnited States Interests Section in HavanaThe U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is inaccessible from within Cuba. Consular issues regarding the naval base are handled by the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica.-Location:...
— were "absolute rubbish."
Mexico
- The Mexican President, Felipe CalderónFelipe CalderónFelipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
said that United States diplomatic cables criticising Mexico's anti-drug fightMexican Drug WarThe Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was...
had caused "severe damage" to its relationship with the United States and suggested tensions had risen so dramatically that he could no longer work with the American ambassador in his country. The result was the resignation of AmbassadorUnited States Ambassador to MexicoThe United States has maintained diplomatic relations with Mexico since 1823, when Andrew Jackson was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to that country. Jackson declined the appointment, however, and Joel R. Poinsett became the first U.S. envoy to Mexico in 1825. The rank...
Carlos PascualCarlos Pascual (diplomat)Carlos Pascual is a Cuban-American diplomat and the former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine.-Education:Pascual attended Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente California and graduated in 1976. He then earned a B.A. from Stanford University in 1980 and an M.P.P...
on March 19, 2011.
United States
- The White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
issued a statement saying the leak "put[s] at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government".
- Clinton, representing the U.S. State Department, said, "This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests ... it is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity ... It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems."
- On 3 January 2011, the US Presidential Executive Office issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies asking whether they have an "insider threat program", and whether they use psychiatrists and sociologists "to measure relative happiness as a means to gauge trustworthiness" and "despondence and grumpiness as a means to gauge waning trustworthiness".
Australia
- During an interview on 29 November 2010, Australian Attorney-GeneralAttorney-General of AustraliaThe Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...
Robert McClellandRobert McClelland (Australian politician)Robert Bruce McClelland is the Attorney-General of Australia. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of theAustralian House of Representatives since March 1996, representing the Division of Barton, New South Wales...
on 29 November 2010 stated that "the leaking of this substantial amount of information is a real concern to Australia. The release of this information could prejudice the safety of people referred to in the documentation and indeed, could be damaging to the national security interests of the United States and its allies, including Australia", and urged Australian news outlets to censor the contents of the leaks. He also stated that Assange's Australian passport may be revoked.
- Australian Prime MinisterPrime Minister of AustraliaThe Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Julia GillardJulia GillardJulia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
, during an interview on 7 December 2010, called the release of the cables "grossly irresponsible" and illegal.
- Australian Foreign Affairs MinisterMinister for Foreign Affairs (Australia)In the Government of Australia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing the international diplomacy section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In common with international practice, the office is often informally referred to as Foreign Minister...
Kevin RuddKevin RuddKevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
blamed the U.S. for the leaks and not Assange. He also said he did not "give a damn" about criticism of him in the cables.
- A 17 December 2010 article in The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
quotes from a statement by the Australian Federal PoliceAustralian Federal PoliceThe Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...
(AFP), released 17 December, including the statement saying that the AFP "has not established the existence of any criminal offences where Australia would have jurisdiction."
Argentina
- In response to accusations of espionage, corruption and drugdealing contained in the leaks, Chief of the Cabinet of MinistersChief of the Cabinet of MinistersThe Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers is a political office of Argentina, created by the 1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution. The current office holder is Aníbal Fernández.-Attributions:...
Aníbal FernándezAníbal FernándezAníbal Domingo Fernández is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician, who served as Interior Minister for President Néstor Kirchner, Minister of Justice for President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and is currently the President's Cabinet Chief.-Biography:Born in Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province,...
said "I'm not willing to give an entity to this stupidity" and that "this is a problem of the United States, not ours, of the seriousness of the information". Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
Cabinet Chief Horacio Rodríguez Larreta said that the leaks were "a shame for American diplomacy" and said that "(they) will have to give a lot of explanations in many countries to a lot of people."
Bolivia
- The office of the Vice President of BoliviaVice President of BoliviaThis is a list of Vice Presidents of Bolivia, the second highest political position in Bolivia. There are several gaps in the list, caused by intermittent political turmoil. The names of Vice Presidents who also were President at one time or another are given in bold text...
had created a portal website (at http://WikiLeaks.vicepresidencia.gob.bo) for leaked cables related to Bolivia. The site acts as both a mirror for these cables as they are released, and a host of translations and quantitative analysis of the cables.
Brazil
- The Defense MinistryMinistry of Defence (Brazil)The Ministry of Defence of Brazil, is the civilian cabinet organization responsible for managing the Military of Brazil. It is headed by the Minister of Defence....
issued a statement saying "relations between Brazil and the United States, both in the diplomatic and military spheres, have increasingly deepened. However, any differences between the two countries become visible, as Brazil increases its importance in the international arena."
Chile
- Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfredo MorenoAlfredo MorenoAlfredo David Moreno is an Argentine-born Mexican football forward, who currently plays for San Luis Potosí of the Primera División de México....
said "Wikileaks puts in risk the safety of the communications. To have´[th]em on disposal for any person, naturally that puts the United States in a difficult moment with this case ... it generates a difficulty and insecurity."
Ecuador
- Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas said that even though Ecuador's policy was not to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries, it was "concerned" by the information in the cables because it involved other countries, "in particular Latin America." He also said Ecuador would offer Assange residency with "no conditions... so he can freely present the information he possesses and all the documentation, not just over the Internet but in a variety of public forums." However, President Rafael CorreaRafael CorreaRafael Vicente Correa Delgado born is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007...
later stated that the offer by Lucas had "not been approved by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño - or the president", and Patiño himself retracted Lucas statement by stating that the asylum matter "will have to be studied from the legal and diplomatic perspective." - In a 2009 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks and published by El País in April 2011, U.S. Ambassador Heather HodgesHeather M. HodgesHeather M. Hodges is a career United States foreign service officer and ambassador. She was the United States Ambassador to Ecuador and a previous ambassador to Moldova.- Biography :...
said that "corruption among Ecuadorian National PoliceNational Police of EcuadorThe National Police of Ecuador is the national police force and the main civil law enforcement agency of Ecuador.-Human rights:The United States' Country Reports on Human Rights Practices has consistently identified major human rights abuses by Ecuadorian security forces, including: isolated...
officers is widespread and well-known" and that "U.S. investors are reluctant to risk their resources in Ecuador knowing that they could be targeted by corrupt law enforcement officials." The leaked cable resulted in a major diplomatic spat, resulting in the expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Hodges from Ecuador and the reciprocal expulsion of Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Gallegos from the U.S.
Venezuela
- President Hugo ChávezHugo ChávezHugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
said "I have to congratulate the people of Wikileaks for their bravery and courage ... Somebody should study Mrs Clinton's mental stability ... It's the least you can do: resign, along with those other delinquents working in the state department".
Academics
Columbia University Graduate School of JournalismColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...
, in a letter to president Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and Attorney General Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....
, mentioned, "while we hold varying opinions of Wikileaks’ methods and decisions, we all believe that in publishing diplomatic cables Wikileaks is engaging in journalistic activity protected by the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
". It also warned that overreaction to publication of leaked material in the press will be more damaging to American democracy than the leaks themselves.
Emily Berman, a lawyer from the Liberty and National Security Project at NYU Law School told David Weigel
David Weigel
David "Dave" Weigel , is an American journalist, currently working for Slate magazine and MSNBC. Weigel began appearing on MSNBC in 2009, accepting a position as a paid contributor in June 2010...
of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
why calls for WikiLeaks to be labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organisation are unrealistic: "A definition of material support which includes that would be so broad that it could include scholarly research and op-eds ... If the State Department designated WikiLeaks as a terrorist organization, a law professor working on these issues would immediately be at risk of criminal prosecution".
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, an Institute Professor
Institute Professor
Institute Professor is the highest title that can be awarded to a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States...
and professor emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
of linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, told Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
on Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
, "Perhaps the most dramatic revelation ... is the bitter hatred of democracy that is revealed both by the U.S. Government – Hillary Clinton, others – and also by the diplomatic service". Chomsky also described Representative King's call for WikiLeaks to be named a "foreign terrorist organization" as "outlandish."
WikiLeaks Task Force (WTF)
Upon the release of the classified materials, the CIACentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
launched a task force to assess its impact on diplomatic relations of United States. Officially, the panel is called the WikiLeaks Task Force. However, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
reported that at CIA headquarters it is identified by its "all-too-apt acronym" W.T.F. which refers to the popular internet slang
Internet slang
Internet slang is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites...
, "What the fuck?". The main focus of the task force is the immediate impact of the most recently released files. One issue is whether the agency's ability to recruit informants could be damaged by declining confidence in the US government's ability to keep secrets.
Diplomats
Scott Gilmore wrote in The Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
that based on his experience as a Canadian diplomat in Indonesia the leak "is not a real victory for a more open world. It will lead to a more closed world, where repressive governments will be more free to commit atrocities against their own people and the people who try to stop them will have even less information to help prevent this".
Former British ambassador Craig Murray
Craig Murray
Craig John Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and former Rector of the University of Dundee....
wrote that he has "never understood why it is felt that behaviours which would be considered reprehensible in private or even commercial life – like lying, or saying one thing to one person and the opposite to another person – should be considered acceptable, or even praiseworthy, in diplomacy...Those who argue that Wikileaks are wrong, believe that we should entrust the government with sole control of what the people can and cannot know of what is done in their name. That attitude led to the 'dodgy dossier' of lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction...The people discomfited by these leaks are people who deserve to be discomfited. Truth helps the people against rapacious elites – everywhere".
Jonathan Powell, a British diplomat for sixteen years and Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's Chief of Staff, wrote: "It is very difficult to conduct diplomacy effectively when your confidential deliberations are made public in this way. Mutual trust is the basis of such relations and once that trust is breached, candid conversations are less likely. It is like having a conversation in the pub with your best mate about problems with your girlfriend and then finding the content, possibly with a bit of spin added, posted on the internet. You won't be having that conversation again any time soon."
Politicians
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the leak as an attack not just on the U.S. but on all governments arguing that the leaks was "not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community, the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity." Clinton's credibility was questioned by several mainstream American and British periodicals, as some journalists, as well as Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, have called for Clinton to resign or asked whether she will resign, amid allegations that Clinton has broken international lawInternational law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
or other laws by allegedly trying to steal credit card numbers, passwords, and biometric data from the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
and other leaders, and as future cable leaks or the current ones may bring investigations against Clinton.
The publishing of a cable from the U.S. State Department sent in February 2009, titled the Critical Foreign Dependencies Initiative
Critical Foreign Dependencies Initiative
The Critical Foreign Dependencies Initiative is a strategy and list, maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security, of foreign infrastructure which "if attacked or destroyed would critically impact the U.S." A copy of the 2008 list was redacted and leaked by WikiLeaks on 5...
, listed foreign installations and infrastructure considered critical to U.S. interests; before its release, WikiLeaks removed the names and locations. The list includes key facilities that if attacked could disrupt the global supply chain and global communications, as well as goods and services important to the U.S. and its economy. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the disclosure of this list "gives a group like al-Qaeda a targeting list." In response, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson
Kristinn Hrafnsson
Kristinn Hrafnsson is an Icelandic investigative journalist and frontman for the WikiLeaks organisation.He has worked at various newspapers in Iceland and had a popular TV programme on Stöð 2 , Kompás, where he and his team often exposed criminal activity and/or shocking corruption in high places...
said with reference to the cable: "This further undermines claims made by the US Government that its embassy officials do not play an intelligence-gathering role. In terms of security issues, while this cable details the strategic importance of assets across the world, it does not give any information as to their exact locations, security measures, vulnerabilities or any similar factors, though it does reveal the US asked its diplomats to report back on these matters."
U.S. Senate Minority Leader
Party leaders of the United States Senate
The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders are two United States Senators who are elected by the party conferences that hold the majority and the minority respectively. These leaders serve as the chief Senate spokespeople for their parties and manage and schedule the legislative and executive...
Mitch McConnell
Mitch McConnell
Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Kentucky and the Republican Minority Leader.- Early life, education, and military service :...
has called Assange "a high-tech terrorist".
U.S. Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Peter T. King
Peter T. King
Peter T. "Pete" King is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party. King's central Long Island district includes parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties....
, the ranking member of the United States House Committee on Homeland Security
United States House Committee on Homeland Security
The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. Its responsibilities include U.S...
said that the release "posed a clear and present danger
Clear and present danger
Clear and present danger was a term used by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in the unanimous opinion for the case Schenck v. United States, concerning the ability of the government to regulate speech against the draft during World War I:...
to the national security of the United States" and that it "manifests Mr. Assange
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
's purposeful intent to damage not only our national interests in fighting the war on terror, but also undermines the very safety of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. What I'm concerned about is the analysis of these documents" stating that "there are two things that are most damaging: 1. Yemen and Pakistan and the sensitive negotiations on nuclear proliferation underway. And, second, Saudi Arabia siding with the U.S. against Iran". He also called for Assange to be prosecuted for espionage, and asked the U.S. Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....
to "determine whether Wikileaks could be designated a foreign terrorist organization", and that "by doing so we can seize their assets". To this, New York attorney in international law and human rights Scott Horton responds
"In fact, the term 'foreign terrorist organization' (FTO) is established in section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which empowers the Secretary of State (not the attorney general) to apply that label to foreign organizations, with immediate and severe consequences for those so labeled and those who communicate or deal with them in any way. The Secretary of State does not have carte blanche in this process. To qualify as an FTO, an organization must have been engaged in 'terrorist activity' or 'terrorism,' which are defined to include multiple acts of violence threatening U.S. persons or the national security of the United States. An organization cannot plausibly qualify as a 'terrorist organization' simply by publishing documents that embarrass the government or particular politicians."
U.S. Congressman Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
(R) from Texas said "in a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble." He responds to the leaks by asking the American people to consider a list of nine questions. Under Number 5 and 6 he asks
"Number 5: Which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths: lying us into war or Wikileaks revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers? Number 6: If Assange can be convicted of a crime for publishing information that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the first amendment and the independence of the internet?"Regarding the accusations of treason, he has called the desire to charge Assange, an Australian citizen, for treason "wild,", but also asks the general question:
"Number 8: Is there not a huge difference between releasing secret information to help the enemy in a time of declared war, which is treason, and the releasing of information to expose our government lies that promote secret wars, death and corruption?"
British Prime Minister David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
said the list was damaging to the national security of both his country and the United States, "and elsewhere".
Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee
Intelligence and Security Committee
The Intelligence and Security Committee is a committee of parliamentarians appointed by the Prime Minister to oversee the work of the Intelligence machinery of the United Kingdom...
Malcolm Rifkind
Malcolm Rifkind
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG QC MP is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Kensington. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland , Defence Secretary and...
criticized the leaks on the grounds that the leaking of genuine secrets undermines the trust between diplomats required for diplomatic negotiations.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
branded WikiLeaks as "grossly irresponsible", arguing that a submarine cable link to Australia from the United States that included the details of critical infrastructure "would not be on Wikileaks if an illegal act hadn't taken place."
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
, expressed his "solidarity" with Assange following Assange's 2010 arrest in the United Kingdom. He further criticised the arrest of Julian Assange as "an attack on freedom of expression".
Military
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael MullenMichael Mullen
Michael Glenn "Mike" Mullen is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral, who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2011. Mullen previously served as the Navy's 28th Chief of Naval Operations from July 22, 2005 to September 29, 2007...
, said, "Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family." Assange denies this has happened, and responded by saying, "...it's really quite fantastic that Gates and Mullen...who have ordered assassinations every day, are trying to bring people on board to look at a speculative understanding of whether we might have blood on our hands. These two men arguably are wading in the blood from those wars."
Individuals
Pentagon PapersPentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967...
whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg, PhD, is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War,...
said that Assange "is serving our democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations" and that the leak's ramifications for the U.S.'s national security "is extremely low."
Phyllis Bennis, a senior analyst with the left-wing think-tank Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies is a left-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C..It has been directed by John Cavanagh since 1998- History :...
, told Paul Jay
Paul Jay
Paul Jay is a journalist and filmmaker, and is creator and CEO of The Real News. Jay was born and raised in Toronto and holds dual-citizenship with the United States. Jay is the nephew of screenwriter Ted Allan.- Film and television work :...
of The Real News Network that Clinton's orders of spying on U.N. leaders shows that George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's style is still around.
Daniel Flitton, diplomatic editor for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, wrote that "Government embarrassment over this disclosure should not be confused with damage to the good of the nation. (sic) The full detail of the leak remains to be explored, but the public has gained a rare insight into the workings of government".
United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression Frank LaRue said Assange or other WikiLeaks staff should not face legal accountability for any information they disseminated, noting that, "if there is a responsibility by leaking information it is of, exclusively of the person that made the leak and not of the media that publish it. And this is the way that transparency works and that corruption has been confronted in many cases." Similarly, writing in the American Spectator, Alex Massie defended Wikileaks on the grounds that it is, like any other major media outlet, a news publisher.
John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
, an Australian journalist who has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award defended the leaks, arguing that WikiLeaks and others were part of a larger struggle against "powerful institutions bent on curtailing our knowledge of and influence over policies and structures that impact our lives: they are information heroes, not information villains."
Henry Porter
Henry Porter (journalist)
Henry Porter is an English author and journalist. He is a writer of thrillers and a regular columnist for The Observer newspaper. He is also the British editor of Vanity Fair....
, writing in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
on 11 December, established a parallel with events in 1771. At that time British law prohibited reporting of U.K. Parliamentary
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
debates and speeches because those in power argued that the information was too sensitive and would be disruptive if published. John Wilkes
John Wilkes
John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...
and others illegally published debates, with the eventual support of the London mob, shopkeepers and members of the gentry. Porter said: "From that moment, the freedom of the press was born ... and the kingdom did not fall."
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is an American lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author. Greenwald worked as a constitutional and civil rights litigator before becoming a contributor to Salon.com, where he focuses on political and legal topics...
wrote in Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, "The WikiLeaks disclosure has revealed not only numerous government secrets, but also the driving mentality of major factions in our political and media class. Simply put, there are few countries in the world with citizenries and especially media outlets more devoted to serving, protecting and venerating government authorities than the U.S. Indeed, I don't quite recall any entity producing as much bipartisan contempt across the American political spectrum as WikiLeaks has: as usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weapon". Greenwald has criticized one prominent New York Times article on Assange by John F. Burns as a "sleazy hit piece". Burns defended his article, saying it was an "absolutely standard journalistic endeavour".
Marc Lynch
Marc Lynch
Marc Lynch is an "Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs" at The George Washington University, where he is also director of both the Institute for Middle East Studies and the Middle East Studies Program. Lynch is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for a New...
wrote in Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...
that "my initial skepticism about the significance of this document leak, fueled by the lack of interesting revelations in The New York Times and The Guardian reports, is changing as I see the first batch of cables posted on WikiLeaks itself."
John Nichols
John Nichols (journalist)
John Nichols is an American journalist and author. He is a political correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Capital Times. Books authored or co-authored by Nichols include: The Genius of Impeachment and The Death and Life of American Journalism.- Biography :Nichols holds a...
of the The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
wrote that "Reasonable people may debate the way in which WikiLeaks obtains and releases classified documents. But for [White House Press Secretary Robert] Gibbs to try and claim that transparency and openness [has put at risk the cause of human rights] is intellectually and practically dishonest".
Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
2008 U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
denounced the Obama administration's approach, calling Assange "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" and asking "Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?" She went on to say, "What if any diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on NATO, EU, and other allies to disrupt WikiLeaks’ technical infrastructure? Did we use all the cyber tools at our disposal to permanently dismantle WikiLeaks? Were individuals working for WikiLeaks on these document leaks investigated? Shouldn’t they at least have had their financial assets frozen just as we do to individuals who provide material support for terrorist organizations?" On Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
she posted, "Inexplicable: I recently won in court to stop my book 'America by Heart' from being leaked", she wrote, "but US Govt can't stop Wikileaks' treasonous act?" Republican Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum
Richard John "Rick" Santorum is a lawyer and a former United States Senator from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Santorum was the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference -making him the third-ranking Senate Republican from 2001 until his leave in 2007. Santorum is considered both a social...
agreed with Palin, saying "We haven't gone after this guy, we haven't tried to prosecute him, we haven't gotten our allies to go out and lock this guy up and bring him up on terrorism charges." Republican 2008 presidential primary contender Mike Huckabee
Mike Huckabee
Michael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...
called for the person who leaked the documents to be executed for treason.
Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich has been quoted as saying, "Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed, is terrorism, and Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. He should be treated as an enemy combatant."
G. Gordon Liddy
G. Gordon Liddy
George Gordon Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed from July–September 1971, during Richard Nixon's presidency. Separately, along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the Watergate burglaries of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in...
, former Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
aide and talk-radio host, has reportedly suggested that Assange's name be added to the "kill list" of terrorists who can be assassinated without a trial.
Tom Flanagan
Tom Flanagan (political scientist)
Thomas Eugene Flanagan is an American-born political science professor at the University of Calgary, author, and conservative political activist. He also served as an advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper until 2004. Flanagan's scholarship has focused on Native and Metis rights in...
, a former advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
, stated on 30 November 2010: "I think Assange
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
should be assassinated. President Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
should put a contract out on Assange's life or send out a drone
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
to kill him. I would not be unhappy if Assange 'disappeared. The next day Flanagan attempted to retract his statments by saying "I never seriously intended to advocate or propose the assassination of Mr. Assange. But I do think that what he's doing is very malicious and harmful to diplomacy and endangering people's lives, and I think it should be stopped." A complaint has been filed against Flanagan, which states that Flanagan "counselled and/or incited the assassination of Julian Assange contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada", in his remarks on the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
program Power & Politics
Power & Politics
Power & Politics is a Canadian television newscast that debuted October 26, 2009 on CBC News Network. Hosted by Evan Solomon, the show airs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays....
.
Scott Shane of The New York Times said "perhaps if we had had more information on these secret internal deliberations of governments prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we would have had a better understanding of the quality of the evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Secrecy is not always in the interests of governments or people".
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
, host of The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
, expressed cynicism about Assange's (and Wikileaks) descriptions of the importance of the release, as well as the ensuing media frenzy over the release. He blasted the Italian minister's equivalency of the leak to a diplomatic "9/11" and stated that Assange did not know just how much cynicism about the U.S. government is held by American citizens; thus, in Stewart's view, Assange should "stop with the drama".
Nancy Youssef of The McClatchy Company
The McClatchy Company
The McClatchy Company is a publicly traded American publishing company based in Sacramento, California. It operates 30 daily newspapers in 15 states and has an average weekday circulation of 2.2 million and Sunday circulation of 2.8 million...
of newspapers wrote that "American officials in recent days have warned repeatedly that the release of documents by WikiLeaks could put people's lives in danger, but, despite similar warnings before the previous two releases of classified U.S. intelligence reports by the website, U.S. officials concede that they have no evidence to date that the documents led to anyone's death".
Bob Beckel
Bob Beckel
Robert Beckel is an American political commentator and an analyst on the Fox News Channel. He is also a columnist for USA Today where he writes "point-counterpoint" style articles with friend and political opposite Cal Thomas. He is the brother of actor Graham Beckel.-Career:Beckel holds a B.A....
, a Fox News Business commentator, said "This guy's a traitor, he's treasonous, and he has broken every law of the United States. And I'm not for the death penalty, so...there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch."
Daniel Yates, a former British military intelligence officer, wrote "Assange has seriously endangered the lives of Afghan civilians ... The logs contain detailed personal information regarding Afghan civilians who have approached NATO soldiers with information. It is inevitable that the Taliban will now seek violent retribution on those who have co-operated with NATO. Their families and tribes will also be in danger." Responding to the criticism, Assange said in August 2010 that 15,000 documents are still being reviewed "line by line", and that the names of "innocent parties who are under reasonable threat" will be removed.
Jack Goldsmith
Jack Goldsmith
Jack Landman Goldsmith is a Harvard Law School professor who has written a number of texts regarding international law, cyber law, and national security law...
, a former OLC official in the Bush administration, has written that Assange is "being unduly vilified" and though he does not like the leaks, "it is not obvious what law he has violated". Furthermore, "[i]t is also important to remember ...that the responsibility for these disclosures lies firmly with the institution empowered to keep them secret: the Executive branch." He does not understand "why so much ire is directed at Assange and so little at The New York Times", as in his opinion the disclosure by that organisation of the secret surveillance program in 2005–2006 was arguably "more harmful to national security than the wikileaks disclosures". He also points out the hypocrisy of the government in attacking WikiLeaks when "its top [Obama administration] officials openly violat[ed] classification rules and opportunistically reveal[ed] without authorization top secret information" when assisting Bob Woodward with his book Obama's Wars.
Media outlets
A 29 November 2010 article in The EconomistThe Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
defended the leaks stating that "if secrecy is necessary for national security and effective diplomacy, it is also inevitable that the prerogative of secrecy will be used to hide the misdeeds of the permanent state and its privileged agents."
In an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to prime minister Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
, some of Australia's main media personnel said the U.S. and Australian governments' reaction to the release of diplomatic correspondence by the WikiLeaks website is "deeply troubling" and warned that they will "strongly resist any attempts to make the publication of these or similar documents illegal".
A 30 November 2010 Ottawa Sun
Ottawa Sun
The Ottawa Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is published by Sun Media. It was first published in the early 1980s as the Ottawa Sunday Herald, until it was acquired by Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation in 1988....
editorial criticised the leak: "we see no for-the-good-of-the-people journalistic justification for WikiLeaks reckless sabotage of U.S. international relations".
Javier Moreno, editor-in-chief of El País, said that the release of the documents does not put lives at risk and that the attacks on such a release of information to the general public amount to the same reaction seen in other leaks, such as the Pentagon Papers
Pentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967...
in 1971. Moreno said that the only thing at risk is the career of officials and diplomats within the compromised governments.
Henry Porter
Henry Porter (journalist)
Henry Porter is an English author and journalist. He is a writer of thrillers and a regular columnist for The Observer newspaper. He is also the British editor of Vanity Fair....
, writing in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, established a parallel with events in 1771. At that time British law prohibited reporting of Parliamentary debates and speeches because those in power argued that the information was too sensitive and would be disruptive if published. John Wilkes
John Wilkes
John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...
and others illegally published debates, with the eventual support of the London mob, shopkeepers and members of the gentry. Porter says that "From that moment, the freedom of the press was born ... and the kingdom did not fall."
On 30 November 2010, Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland
Kathleen Troia McFarland
Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs at The Pentagon from 1982 to 1985 under President Ronald Reagan and speech writer to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger...
, a national security analyst and host for Fox News, called Assange a terrorist, Wikileaks "a terrorist organization" and has called for Bradley Manning's execution if he is found guilty of making the leaks.
A 2 December 2010 editorial by Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Jeffrey T Kuhner is a radio host, commentator, and journalist. He is a regular contributor to the commentary pages of The Washington Times, where he writes a weekly column, and has written for Human Events, National Review Online and Investor's Business Daily. He is also the president of the , a...
in The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
said Assange should be treated "the same way as other high-value terrorist targets" and be assassinated.
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
ran an 8 December 2010 editorial by Bryce Lowry describing Assange as "the Ned Kelly
Ned Kelly
Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
of the digital age" comparing him to a bushranger who defied colonial authorities in Australia in the nineteenth century.
On 10 December 2010, Beijing Daily, a publication of the Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China, city government, suggested in an editorial that this year's Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
not be given to the imprisoned Chinese dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo is a Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist who called for political reforms and the end of communist single-party rule in China...
but to Assange.
Richard Stengel
Richard Stengel
Richard "Rick" Stengel is an American editor, journalist and author and is Time magazine's 16th managing editor. While best known for his work for Time, he has written a number of books including a collaboration with Nelson Mandela on Mandela's autobiography...
, managing editor of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, defended the leaks, on 13 December 2010, arguing that although the release of classified materials harms American security, he noted the right of news organizations to publish those documents under the First Amendment
Freedom of the press in the United States
Freedom of the press in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This clause is generally understood as prohibiting the government from interfering with the printing and distribution of information or opinions, although freedom of the press, like...
.
In that same edition of Time, Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist and author. From 2000 to 2010, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International. In 2010 he became Editor-At-Large of Time magazine...
argued that cables leak show the competency, not duplicity, of American diplomacy as it shows "Washington pursuing privately pretty much the policies it has articulated publicly."
Some media outlets have criticized the subsequent attacks on WikiLeaks after the cables leak. "Not much truck with freedom of information, then, in the land of the free", Seumas Milne, a left-wing associate editor of the The Guardian. Financial Times Deutschland
Financial Times Deutschland
The Financial Times Deutschland is a German language financial newspaper based in Hamburg, Germany, and is published by Gruner + Jahr. The newspaper contains four sections: Business, Politics & Economy, Finance, and Agenda .Founded in February 2000, the circulation grew to 103,000 readers in the...
said that "the already damaged reputation of the United States will only be further tattered with Assange's new martyr status".
Organizations
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
responded to the release of a 2006 memorandum discussing American misuse of Shannon Airport
Shannon Airport
Shannon Airport, is one of the Republic of Ireland's three primary airports along with Dublin and Cork. In 2010 around 1,750,000 passengers passed through the airport, making it the third busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland after Dublin and Cork, and the fifth busiest airport on the island...
by asking the Irish Government to tighten its legislation to counter use of Irish airspace by the Americans. Colm O'Gorman
Colm O'Gorman
Colm O'Gorman is an Irishman from County Wexford, founder of One in Four, former senator, and current executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland...
, the organisation's executive director in Ireland, observed that concerns expressed by Irish citizens over the misuse of the airport by the Americans was "a problem to be managed rather than something to be taken seriously".
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
condemned the subsequent blocking and the massive distributed denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
on the WikiLeaks website. It also raised concerns over the extreme comments made by American authorities concerning WikiLeaks and Assange. It issued a statement saying
Later, RWB decided to host a mirror site
Mirror (computing)
In computing, a mirror is an exact copy of a data set. On the Internet, a mirror site is an exact copy of another Internet site.Mirror sites are most commonly used to provide multiple sources of the same information, and are of particular value as a way of providing reliable access to large downloads...
of WikiLeaks on the address wikileaks.rsf.org as a "gesture of support for WikiLeaks’ right to publish information without being obstructed".
The American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
issued a statement, beginning "The Wikileaks phenomenon — the existence of an organization devoted to obtaining and publicly releasing large troves of information the U.S. government would prefer to keep secret — illustrates just how broken our secrecy classification system is. While the Obama administration has made some modest improvements to the rules governing classification of government information, both it and the Bush administration have overclassified and kept secret information that should be subject to public scrutiny and debate. As a result, the American public has had to depend on leaks to the news media and whistleblowers to know what the government is up to".
Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
, the online community of activists, announced its support for Wikileaks by "declaring war" against enemies of Assange, calling on supporters to attack sites and companies that do not support WikiLeaks and to spread the leaked cables online. As of 8 December 2010, PostFinance.ch, a bank which terminated Assange's bank account, the office of the Swedish prosecutor, MasterCard and Visa have all been attacked and brought down by DDoS attacks. Anonymous has also declared Paypal a target.
Avaaz
Avaaz.org
Avaaz.org is a global civic organization launched in January 2007 that promotes activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict...
, an international civic organization, launched a gigantic petition to stop the crackdown of WikiLeaks.
Corporate responses
- Amazon.comAmazon.comAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
dropped WikiLeaks from its servers on 1 December 2010 at 19:30 GMT, and the latter's website, wikileaks.org, was unreachable until 20:17 GMT when the site had defaulted to its Swedish servers, hosted by BahnhofBahnhofBahnhof is a Swedish Internet service provider founded in 1994 by Oscar Swartz in Uppsala and was the first independent ISP in Sweden. Today the company is represented in Stockholm, Göteborg, Uppsala, Borlänge, and Lund....
. U.S. Senator Joe LiebermanJoe LiebermanJoseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman is the senior United States Senator from Connecticut. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was the party's nominee for Vice President in the 2000 election. Currently an independent, he remains closely affiliated with the party.Born in Stamford, Connecticut,...
, among the members of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs CommitteeUnited States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsThe United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and...
who had questioned Amazon in private communication on the company's hosting of WikiLeaks and the "illegally" obtained documents, commended Amazon for the action; WikiLeaks, however, responded by stating on its official Twitter page that "WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the free--fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe," and later that "If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendmentFirst Amendment to the United States ConstitutionThe First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
, they should get out of the business of selling books". - On 30 November 2010, PayPalPayPalPayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
decided to freeze the WikiLeaks's account over "illegal" activity. - EveryDNSEveryDNSEveryDNS.net was one of the world's largest free DNS management services, at one time providing DNS services for over 135,000 domains.- History :EveryDNS was founded in June 2001 by David Ulevitch. On the 7th of January 2010 EveryDNS was purchased by Dyn Inc....
, WikiLeaks's U.S. hosting provider, dropped WikiLeaks from its entries, citing DDoS attacks that "threatened the stability of its infrastructure which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites". - Tableau SoftwareTableau SoftwareTableau Software is an American computer software company headquartered in Seattle, WA, USA. It produces a family of interactive data visualization products focused on business intelligence, and is reportedly anticipating revenue of $30 million to $40 million in 2010.- History :The company traces...
, the company that provided visualisations of the contents of the leaked U.S. embassy cables removed them from the internet at the request of U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman. However, it commented that "this will inevitably be met with mixed reactions". James Ball, who created the visualisation, told "To pull these graphics — which had received over 2.4m visitors — merely because the Wikileaks website links to them; and a US senator issued a public (not private) complaint — smacks of cowardice and blind censorship." - Visa Inc. suspended all payments to the organisation "pending further investigation". The Icelandic online payment company DataCell threatened to sue Visa, after it was ordered to suspend processing all transactions. Its founder, Ólafur Sigurvinsson, pointed out "I've got confirmed today that I am capable of supporting Al-Qaeda, Ku Klux Klan, buy weapons, drugs and all sorts of pornography with a VISA card. But that's not being investigated. Instead I can not support a humanitarian organisation fighting for the freedom of speech".
- MasterCardMasterCardMastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
said it was "taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products". - WikiLeaks's Swiss-based host, SWITCH Information Technology ServicesSWITCH Information Technology ServicesSWITCH is the manager of the .ch and .li country-code top-level domains for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, respectively. It also manages the educational networks among Swiss universities, and the links to other university networks. It also mirrors open source software .- External links :**...
, rejected growing international calls to force the site off the Internet. It stated that there was "no reason" why it [WikiLeaks] should be forced offline. Swiss Pirate Party, which registered the wikileaks.ch domain name, had also issued a statement that SWITCH had reassured the party that it would not block the site. - On 20 December 2010, Apple Inc. pulled a WikiLeaks application from its App Store three days after its approval.
- Some companies have decided not to cut off their ties with WikiLeaks amidst the growing pressure. These companies include XIPWIREXIPWIREXipwire is a mobile payment service provider allowing payments and money transfers to be made with mobile devices using simple text messages. Mobile money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders....
, which stated that they are waiving fees and charges so that 100 percent of the money goes to the whistleblower site; FlattrFlattrFlattr is a microdonation system that launched in March 2010 on an invite-only basis and then opened to the public on 12 August of the same year.Flattr is a project started by Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson...
, a micropayment system which was started by one of the founders of Pirate Bay; DataCell, whose chief executive officer commented "the suspension of payments towards Wikileaks is a violation of the agreements with their customers"; and OVHOVHOVH is a privately owned web hosting service company in France that provides dedicated servers, mutual hosting, domain names and VOIP telephony services. The company is a Société par actions simplifiée under French law and its headquarters are in Roubaix in northern France...
. - Bank of AmericaBank of AmericaBank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
announced that it will not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for WikiLeaks. It commented that "this decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments".
External links
- dazzlepod.com/cable Comprehensive browser for WikiLeaks cables with email and twitter alerts.