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QUESTION: Bradley Manning's trial begins tomorrow. I'm wondering if you have any thought ' this building has any thoughts on that? Or, more broadly, just on the impact ' the negative impact, how bad the impact was from the WikiLeaks disclosures.
MS. NULAND: Well, with regard to the trial, it's now a law enforcement matter, so I'm obviously not going to comment on it when the issue's in the courts. With regard to the impact of WikiLeaks, we were quite clear at the time, and we remain clear, that it was very ' a very bad thing.
QUESTION: Can I ask, following that ' at the time you ' this building voiced some serious concerns about the effect it might have on sources and methods and, in particular, a number of human rights activists around the world who've spoken to embassy officials. Can you speak to the overall impact now, several months later, that you've seen from the disclosure of these documents?
MS. NULAND: Well, beyond saying, Kirit, that you know that we stood up a cell in this building to work with individuals who were concerned about their security and we've made good progress in trying to help some of these individuals, I think I won't go into a broad, aggregate effort to, sort of, quantify this. But we were concerned and we have taken measures to try to help those who have been concerned about government --
QUESTION: And do you think those measures have been effective?
MS. NULAND: In a number of cases, we've been able to be quite effective.
QUESTION: And have there been any cases in which you feel that somebody's still at risk?
MS. NULAND: Again, I think it won't help the people involved for me to go any deeper on this issue.
QUESTION: Okay. And my last question will be just the diplomatic impact, just following on Matt's question, if you could speak to that at all. I mean, that was a subject at the Secretary's meetings for months after the initial release --
MS. NULAND: Absolutely.
QUESTION: -- I mean, have ' are you guys still reeling from that, or is that kind of patched up for the most part?
MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, the Secretary spent a good amount of time ' I would argue months ' working with and reassuring governments around the world and rebuilding trust. And her personal involvement in that, along with the President's, was absolutely key to getting ourselves back to strong positions with some of our interlocutors around the world.
QUESTION: And you do feel that you've reached that point? In other words, where things have patched up?
MS. NULAND: Well, look, I'm not in a position to qualify/quantify, but I would say that we have not had continued representations about WikiLeaks over the past six, seven months. So --
[*****] QUESTION: But there have been some kind of tactical changes, I mean, right ' of some diplomats not being able to take notes in certain meetings, or like meetings being restricted? I mean there have been practical effects since then, wouldn't you say?
MS. NULAND: Well, we've obviously taken steps both on the strategic level and --
QUESTION: Well, and host governments also have on you, haven't they?
MS. NULAND: I don't think that you can necessarily make a direct link. I mean, in diplomatic conversations, sometimes it's appropriate to have small meetings, and sometimes it's appropriate to have bigger delegation meetings. Obviously, individual governments have made their own policy decisions, but more importantly, this building and this government, broadly, has taken steps to address some of the issues that allowed the WikiLeaks thing to happen in the first place.
QUESTION: Can you be a little bit more specific about when you say 'It was a very bad thing'? Because it sounds as though from one of your answers to Kirit is that this has pretty much blown over now. And in the light of that, I wonder how difficult it's going to be for the Administration to make the case that this was, in fact, as damaging as you claim it was ' or as you claimed it was at the time.
MS. NULAND: Again, this is now a legal case. The case will be made by the lawyers, and I'm not going to get in the middle of it.
QUESTION: No, I understand. But can you be a little bit ' I mean, 'It was a very bad thing,' is not particularly enlightening.
MS. NULAND: Matt, we spoke extensively at the time about the damage to America's reputation, about the damage to individual ' individuals who had been open and honest with us, about the risks with regard to trust that are essential for diplomacy. And as I said, the Secretary, the President had to spend many months reassuring governments afterwards. I can't quantify the residual impact standing here today. But what's most important is that this case is now in the U.S. courts --
QUESTION: No. It's in the military courts.
MS. NULAND: -- and that he will face justice. Yeah. |
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Name(s:) |
Victoria Nuland |
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Title: |
Spokesperson |
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Agency(ies): |
Department of State |
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Concerning: |
Cablegate, WikiLeaks 24/7 Task Force, WikiLeaks Persons at Risk Group, WikiLeaks Mitigation Team |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Archive: |
Archive Link
http://archive.is/hgq1b |
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Title: |
Daily Press Briefing - December 15, 2011 |
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Authoring or Creator Agency: |
Department of State |
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