|
|
QUESTION: India and WikiLeaks.
MR. TONER: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: Apparently, well, the Indian media is in an uproar over a WikiLeaks cable from July 2008 in which it details that a U.S. diplomat was aware of alleged bribery operations ahead of a key confidence vote in the Indian parliament. Does the U.S. condone such open corruption in other governments?
MR. TONER: Okay, specifically about WikiLeaks --
QUESTION: Yeah.
MR. TONER: Our policy throughout has been not to comment on the substance of allegedly classified material. And --
QUESTION: (Inaudible) classified (inaudible) leaked?
MR. TONER: Well, it's allegedly classified. We don't we're not I'm not going to say it's classified or not. But it certainly if it is classified, we wouldn't speak about it, and we're not going to speak about it in any way, shape, or form.
To your broader question about corruption in government, of course the United States is always for greater transparency in governments throughout the world because transparency in governments leads to better political systems that are able to help the people that they represent. So, I mean, more broadly, we deal with corruption issues throughout in many countries throughout the world. And that's an important part of our assistance efforts to many countries in the world. But specifically, what pertains to India, I really can't speak to that. |
