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MR. GIBBS: Yes, ma'am.
Q Thanks. We have the statement that you put out yesterday condemning the WikiLeaks release, but what was the reaction from the President when someone informed him yesterday that these documents had come out and reports were coming out about the contents of the documents?
MR. GIBBS: I was not in the PDB [President's Daily Brief] when the President was directly briefed on this. This would actually not have been yesterday, but would have been sometime last week when -- after we became aware of the upcoming release. The President was briefed by those in his daily intelligence briefing on the size the scope of the information that was to become public. And obviously, the Secretary of State and the State Department at a foreign minister level have been very active in discussions with our allies and our partners around the world about what is in these documents.
I think it is safe to say that the President was -- it's an understatement -- not pleased with this information becoming public. As you saw during the presidential campaign and during his time in the White House, open and transparent government is something that the President believes is truly important. But the stealing of classified information and its dissemination is a crime.
Q Have any world leaders called him to talk about the release or to complain about the contents of --
MR. GIBBS: The calls have originated -- the calls that our government has made have originated from the State Department and the Secretary of State, so I would refer you more specifically to them. The President has not been on the phone around this.
Q Will he speak on this at all? Will he speak -- will he comment publicly on this issue?
MR. GIBBS: There are no plans for him to talk about this today, no.
Q Robert, I know administration officials have been out there today talking about ways to tighten up the procedures --
MR. GIBBS: Yes.
Q -- or handling this material.
MR. GIBBS: Yes.
Q But why was the information so vulnerable to being stolen in the first place?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I think we have for -- and I speak a little bit for previous administrations, as well -- there is always the balance of need to know and need to share. If you look at one of the main critiques in the pre-9/11 intelligence world was a difficulty in information-sharing about threats up and down and across different government platforms. That is something that I think each and every administration struggles with.
Understand that we want soldiers on the front lines of battle to have the most up-to-date intelligence that's possible about the enemy that they face, the tactics that they use. That's important. It is obvious, though, that serious controls and oversight have to be in place in order to balance, as I said earlier, the need to know and the need to share.
Specifically the Department of Defense has made it much more difficult for somebody to get access to and to copy and move both this type and this volume of information, disabling the ability to, for instance, plug in a thumb drive or a CD and copy vast amounts of information; limiting the access to certain documents based on rank; greater oversight.
All of those things as well as -- I don't know if you all heard the statement that the Secretary of State just made where she announced a similar review at the State Department, as well as Jack Lew's memo to agencies reminding them of how one handles sensitive and classified information, and to convene groups to ensure that the best practices are being used, and to evaluate whether those practices are sufficient to ensure that this type of information isn't released.
[...]
Q Is the President worried because of the WikiLeaks disclosure that other countries will no longer be candid with American diplomats? And is the President worried that countries like Yemen or the Gulf states will now be forced into a position where they are publicly not cooperating with American efforts either against AQAP in Yemen or against Iran's nuclear program?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I think for obvious legal reasons I don't want to get into the specifics of these purported cables. I will say that while we -- and you've heard the statement that we released from me yesterday, the statement from the Secretary of State and from our Ambassador at the United Nations -- obviously a breach of these type of discussions is decidedly not good. That does not, however, change the fact that we have a series of problems that have to be addressed on the world stage, and that without -- it is hard to imagine progress on those issues without American leadership moving those forward.
You mentioned Iran. I think it's important to -- let's focus on that for a second. Iran is not a threat because we have said to other countries it is a threat and you should treat it as such. I think it is obvious that countries throughout the world, countries in North America, countries in Europe, countries in the Middle East all understand the threat that a nuclear Iran poses, again, not because we said it was a threat but because they recognize, either for regional stability or overall global stability, that dealing with their pursuit of a nuclear weapons program is a grave concern not just to us but also to them.
I do not believe that the release of these documents impacts our ability to conduct a foreign policy that moves our interests forward and addresses both regional and global concerns about the issues that threaten this world.
Q Is the administration considering taking legal action against WikiLeaks itself?
MR. GIBBS: I would say two things. Obviously there is an ongoing criminal investigation about the stealing of and the dissemination of sensitive and classified information. Secondly, under the administration -- or I would say -- should say administration wide, we are looking at a whole host of things, and I wouldn't rule anything out.
[...]
Q You called the leak of this classified information 'not good,' but how does the White House view it? Is it more of a headache than it is anything of a serious nature?
MR. GIBBS: Well, Dan, I don't -- I think obviously it is a very serious -- it's a serious crime, first and foremost. It is -- I don't think anybody would stand here and tell you this isn't a concern about security. This is a concern that, as you heard the Secretary of State discuss, some of these -- some of this information could contain names of people that are working with our government to help on issues like human rights, on issues of democracy, in places where those aren't so easy to work on.
So, again, I don't think anybody would stand up here and tell you that this isn't a serious concern. At the same time, I do not believe it does and I do not believe we could ever afford to let it greatly impact our ability to pursue a foreign policy that's in our interest and in the interest of the world. And I think we have touched on and we have talked about several issues -- counterterrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons, a whole host of things -- that demand our attention, demand our engagement, and we'll continue to receive it.
Q These documents also purport to highlight discussions about North Korea, the collapse of North Korea, reunification of the Peninsula. How do you think this kind of information could impact the tense situation in that region?
MR. GIBBS: I'm going to break these issues slightly apart. Obviously for the first reason, Dan, in order to handle sensitive and classified information as government, I've got to sign an oath. There's a safe in my office in the event that I keep any of that information. I'm not going to break the law and discuss openly what may or may not be in sensitive or classified cables.
We are working -- there have been meetings throughout the weekend, meetings again here today to discuss the ongoing situation on the Korean Peninsula. We continue to urge China to use its influence and persuasion with the North Koreans to address their behavior and to address the serious problems that arose last week.
The information that may or may not be on the Internet doesn't affect our ability to continue to focus on that. As obviously you heard |
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Name(s:) |
Robert Gibbs |
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Title: |
Press Secretary |
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Agency(ies): |
Office of the Press Secretary, White House |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Archive: |
Archive Link
http://archive.is/htxya |
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Title: |
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 11/29/2010 |
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Author: |
Robert Gibbs |
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Title: |
Press Secretary |
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Authoring or Creator Agency: |
White House |
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Concerning: |
"Cablegate |
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Archive Link |
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Title: |
White House Daily Briefing, Nov 29, 2010 |
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Authoring or Creator Agency: |
White House |
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Concerning: |
"Cablegate |
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