The United States rushed into damage control Sunday as media around the world began reporting on thousands of classified diplomatic documents released to a handful of news organizations by WikiLeaks.
The White House said WikiLeaks had committed a "reckless and dangerous action" that threatened the lives of officials.
The documents, numbering more than 250,000, use unsparing language when describing foes and friends alike. They also touch on simmering political conflicts in countries such as Israel, Pakistan and North Korea.
Among the revelations contained in the files:
- Evidence that Gulf monarchies -- including Saudi Arabia -- lobbied for the U.S. to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities
- Claims that the Russian government has ties to organized crime
- Fears over enriched uranium in a Pakistani nuclear reactor
- Details of hardball tactics used to coax countries like Slovenia to take in Guantanamo Bay detainees upon their release
WikiLeaks gave the leaked documents to a few news organizations, including Britain's Guardian newspaper and the New York Times, weeks ahead of the release. That meant stories emerged even as WikiLeaks said its website came under an apparent cyber attack meant to delay release of the files.
In the weeks leading up to the release, the U.S. State Department had contacted countries -- including Canada -- to mitigate the potential fallout.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs warned Sunday that "when the substance of private conversations is printed on the front pages of newspapers across the world, it can deeply impact not only U.S. foreign policy interests, but those of our allies and friends around the world."
But the New York Times defended its coverage, saying that the leaked cables "serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match." The newspaper also censored any information that might put the lives of diplomats at risk, and urged WikiLeaks to do the same.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange charged that the White House was attempting hide alleged proof of "human rights abuse and other criminal behavior" by Washington.
Canadian content
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon described the enormous documents leak "deplorable" and said it could threaten national security.
By WikiLeaks' count, 2,648 of the cables originated within Canada. The vast majority of those were sent from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, plus several hundred from U.S. consulates in cities such as Calgary and Vancouver.
However, the content of those cables remained a mystery. WikiLeaks was slowly publishing the cables via its website on Sunday. By 6:30 p.m. ET, only 220 of 251,287 were accessible.
Colin Robertson, the vice president of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, said the leaked cables could be dangerous for U.S. officials because of their degree of detail.
"They're pretty explicit about who was at the meeting and who was accompanying who," he said. "Certainly in the context of the Middle East, where the objective of the United States is to reach a peace settlement… these cables are actually very high-level."
They could even pose an obstacle, he said, to making headway in already fraught, U.S.-brokered negotiations for a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
"When you make all this stuff public in the midst of ongoing negotiations, it certainly does a lot to undermine trust, which is really the basis of international negotiations," Robertson told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel.
One potentially damaging revelation is that U.S. diplomats were ordered to gather the personal information of foreign dignitaries -- essentially doing the work of spies.
According to the New York Times, one U.S. State Department cable asked diplomats abroad to look for "internet and intranet ‘handles', internet e-mail addresses, web site identification-URLs; credit card account numbers; frequent-flier account numbers; work schedules, and other relevant biographical information."
Another cable says U.S. officials should also gather "biographic and biometric information" at the United Nations headquarters.
The leaked documents also give a glimpse into the frank language used by diplomats, as they report back to the U.S. State Department on countries and foreign leaders.
Germany's Der Spiegel, another publication given access to the files, reports that one document describes the relationship between Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Medvedev is described as "pale and hesitant" and lacking the "bravado" of the other man.
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is called the "emperor of no clothes," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is likened to Hitler, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai is called paranoid.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi fared no better. According to the Guardian, he was described in two separate cables as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader" whose "frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest."
