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P.J. Crowley: Deputy Secretary Jim Steinberg, Under Secretary Bill Burns, the assistant secretaries, ambassadors, we did everything we can to reach out to governments in advance of the anticipated release of these documents. We will be doing follow-up calls during the course of the week.
[...]
P.J. Crowley: We're conscious of the fact that probably the stories that we've seen today are not the last ones to be reported on this subject, so we are going to continue this diplomatic outreach for as long as it takes.
[...]
QUESTION: Is it correct that the State Department has set up sort of a war room or some crisis room or something like that to deal with this?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, we as with any major event, whether it's an earthquake on the one hand or something of a global scale like the release of these documents, we have set up a working group or a task force, if you will, and we are in continual contact with our posts around the world, assessing what is happening, reporting back on follow-up conversations that we are having with governments and with members of civil society. We took, we thought, aggressive action in anticipation of the release to warn our contacts of what was coming, and we'll continue to have an ongoing dialogue with them as we manage this.
QUESTION: And is this like a 24/7 type --
MR. CROWLEY: Yeah, we
QUESTION: -- war room sort of thing?
MR. CROWLEY: I mean, you've been around the State Department. We frequently put together these kinds of operations when you have crises that are going to endure for a period of time.
QUESTION: P.J., wasn't that task force set up more than a week ago, or aren't there several?
MR. CROWLEY: I mean, the preparations were made several days ago when we had an understanding of what was coming. I believe it went into force on Friday. |
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Name(s:) |
Phillip J. Crowley |
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Title: |
Assistant Secretary |
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Agency(ies): |
Public Affairs, Department of State |
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Concerning: |
WikiLeaks 24/7 Task Force |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Archive: |
Archive Link
http://archive.is/p4IRA |
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November 2010
When the press and WikiLeaks announced that they were going to release purported State cables starting on November 28, 2010, the State Department took the following immediate actions: 1) Established a 24/7 WikiLeaks Working Group composed of senior officials from throughout the Department, notably our regional bureaus; 2) Created a group to review potential risks to individuals; and 3) Suspended SIPRNet access to NCD (SIPRNet is a DOD network).
The Department also created a Mitigation Team to address the policy, legal, security, counterintelligence, and information assurance issues presented by the release of these documents. During this period, the Department kept Congress apprised of both the international fallout caused by the WikiLeaks' disclosure and the steps undertaken to mitigate them. The Department convened two separate briefings for members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate within days (December 2, 2010) of the first disclosure by WikiLeaks and appeared twice before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (December 7 and 9, 2010). |
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Name(s:) |
Patrick Kennedy |
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Title: |
Under Secretary for Management |
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Agency(ies): |
Department of State |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Archive: |
Archive Link
http://archive.is/KVW5s |
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