USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Obama
administration scrambled Monday to control the diplomatic damage from a
quarter-million leaked State Department documents reverberating across
the nation's capital and around the globe.
The White House ordered a
government-wide review of procedures to safeguard classified data and
vowed to prosecute anyone who broke U.S. law by leaking the latest trove
of documents to the online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.
"This disclosure is not just an
attack on America's foreign policy interests," Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton said. "It is an attack on the international
community — the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and
negotiations, that safeguard global security and advance economic
prosperity."
Attorney General Eric Holder
said the government was conducting a criminal investigation and would
hold responsible "anybody who was involved in the breaking of American
law."
The e-mails and other documents
released by WikiLeaks provide a rare glimpse into government
negotiations and unfolding world events.
Governments in Europe condemned
the leaks. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini dubbed them "the
Sept. 11 of world diplomacy."
White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs said President Obama was "not pleased," calling that
reaction "an understatement."
At the center of the controversy
were The New York Times and other news organizations that began
publishing stories about the documents on Sunday. The Times defended
publication of the documents as serving "an important public interest."
Few current or former U.S.
officials agreed. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, senior Republican on
the House Intelligence Committee, called the leak a "catastrophic"
breach of trust.
The documents, which WikiLeaks
said would be released over a period of months, show:
•U.S. diplomats were instructed
to collect personal data on United Nations officials, including flight
schedules, credit card numbers, Internet passwords and even some
biometric information.
Former U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations John Bolton questioned the authenticity of that cable. "I
have never seen one like that," he said. Diplomats "are not competent
to engage in espionage."
Clinton defended the diplomats'
work. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, "Our diplomats don't
break the law."
•Arab countries, including Saudi
Arabia, are far more concerned about Iran's nuclear program than they
have said publicly. "It should not be a surprise to anyone that Iran is a
source of great concern, not only in the United States," Clinton said.
•The U.S. bartered with other
countries to try to get them to take some of the terrorism suspects
being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Contributing: Kevin
Johnson and the Associated Press
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