The whistle-blower organization WikiLeaks recently began releasing over 250,000 top secret diplomatic cables.
The cables, detailing the inner workings of the State Department and private remarks of U.S. diplomats, unleashed a strong response from the U.S. government and the global community.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at a State Department news conference, said, “The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of these documents.
It puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems.”
Mrs. Clinton did not comment on specific allegations of the cables, but presented them as positive evidence of the Obama administration’s “robust” foreign policy.
Attorney General Eric Holder said that WikiLeaks is currently under criminal investigation.
Western apprehension over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program is a frequent topic of the leaks.
The documents reveal that some of Iran’s neighboring Arab countries, including Egypt, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, also espouse a concern over Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is reported to have urged the U.S. to engage in military strikes in Iran.
Referring to Iran, King Abdullah pushed the U.S. to “cut the head off the snake.”
Iran maintains that it has a peaceful purpose for its nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alleged that the leaked cables were part of a U.S. plot to damage Iran’s relationship with its Arab neighbors.
“Some part of the American government produced these documents,” Ahmadinejad said. “We don’t think this information was leaked. [. . .] They are pursuing political goals.”
Another revelation from the leaks confirms a secret U.S. missile attack on suspected terrorists sites in Yemen. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh previously took responsibility for the bombings.
Dozens of Yemeni civilians were reportedly killed during the air-strikes.
U.S. diplomacy concerning North Korea’s debilitated leader Kim Jong-il is also disclosed by the leaked cables. U.S. and South Korean diplomats are shown preparing aftermath scenarios should Kim Jong-il pass away.
Additionally, the leaked documents reflect the Obama administration’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Though the prison’s population has dwindled from 240 to 174 under President Obama’s watch, the documents outline the difficult process of finding nations willing to take custody of its prisoners. The U.S. sought countries that could be trusted with the detainees.
Some European countries, like Germany, accepted a limited number of detainees, though well short of the amount the U.S. hoped to transfer.
In response to the leaks, the State Department and the Pentagon vowed to tighten information access and controls to prevent similar leaks in the future.
Current information control policies were influenced by concerns that a lack of information sharing between government agencies was a contributing factor in the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks
Michael Angelo Rumor can be reached at michealangelorumore@gmail.com.