Hillary Clinton condemns WikiLeaks: 'Attack on international community'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton forcefully condemned the actions of the website WikiLeaks for leaking over 250,000 cables Monday afternoon. According to Clinton, these cables not only hurt leaders and politicians but also journalists, human rights workers and activists who could face, “imprisonments, torture and even deaths.”

Clinton emphasized that what this website and its creator, Julian Assange, has done is not commendable in any way but has rather disrupted peaceful relations between nations. Candid conversations are necessary and essential to have in order to build relationships. The former First Lady then went on to say that she and President Obama are taking, “aggressive steps” to make sure this will never happen again.

The cables come from the interactions between the State Department and over 270 of its American diplomatic outposts around the world. It is unclear as to what the consequences will be of the massive leak but most of the information gives candid opinions of foreign leaders that are not flattering. The New York Times, who were chosen to recieve the information two week prior, released a separate article from the documents on Sunday defending their decision to publish the information-- despite the pleas coming from the White House and other national security representatives. In the article the New York Times justifies the publication due to a sense of felt duty to inform the American people.

“The Times believes that the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match.”

This "letter to the reader" concludes with an unloading of some of their responsibility, probably due to in anticipation of a serious out-lash from other media outlets and politicians, when they say, “Of course, most of these documents will be made public regardless of what The Times decides.”

Countries are responding to the leak differently. Hillary Clinton has personally called a number of different international leaders Monday morning to try and gain control of the situation. The British Foreign office released a statement condemning the website and President Karzai of Afghanistan downplayed the entire security breach claiming the cables reflect opinions that the public was already aware of.

 Philip Terzain, in The Weekly Standard agrees more with what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated in her press conference that the information released is damaging.

 “…it ought to be understood that security classification is not to hide facts from the public, or conceal wrongdoing, but to allow government officials –posted overseas, in the executive branch, on active service—to speak with candor.”