NY Post: Clinton calls WikiLeaks documents 'an attack on the international community'

Tempo Semanal

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized the massive WikiLeaks disclosures today as "an attack on the international community" -- and summed up the fiasco by saying that a foreign official told her: "Don't worry, you should see what we say about you."

In her first public comments since the weekend release of the classified State Department cables, Clinton said that WikiLeaks acted illegally in posting the material.

The Obama administration was "aggressively pursuing" those responsible for the leak, she added.

But Clinton said she was "confident" that US partnerships would withstand the challenges posed by the latest revelations.

WIKILEAKS DOCS REVEAL US HIDDEN ACTIONS

"There is nothing laudable about endangering innocent people," Clinton said. "There is nothing brave about sabotaging the peaceful relations between nations on which our common security depends."

Appearing in the Treaty Room at the US State Department, Clinton made her comments one day after WikiLeaks' latest cache of leaked documents was posted to the Internet and released by five major newspapers in four different languages.

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests -- it is an attack on the international community," she said.

Clinton is set to begin the delicate diplomatic mending shortly, as she departs Monday on a long-planned trip to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia.

Among the confidential information exposed were details of Saudi Arabian efforts to encourage Washington, D.C., to attack Iran in order to stop the country from pursuing nuclear weapons.

Clinton's comments came as the White House ordered a government-wide review of how agencies safeguard sensitive information.
Attorney General Eric Holder said that there is an “active and ongoing criminal investigation” into the release of the classified documents and that the feds will prosecute anyone found responsible.

"To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law, they will be held accountable," Holder said, adding that the disclosure of the documents was a criminal offense.

Meanwhile, a new report from the leaked documents says Britain’s Prince Andrew gave an “astonishingly candid” performance at an official lunch in Kyrgyzstan that included scathing attacks on British anti-corruption investigators, journalists and the French, The Guardian newspaper reported.

The secret cable from Tatiana Gfoeller, US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, said the prince led a discussion at the 2008 luncheon in the capital Bishek that “verged on the rude.”