Can the State Department Recover from WikiLeaks?

How big a mess has been caused by the release of the WikiLeaks documents? It may depend on who you ask.



A senior Foreign Service officer at the State Department said he was "disgusted, totally disgusted" by the massive release of 250,000 diplomatic cables. This is what he and his colleagues do. They report from the field back to Washington on political, economic and other developments in the countries to which they are assigned.


Others say the information is not too surprising and really not all that troublesome. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was making calls to her fellow foreign ministers to do some damage control, she said one told her "Well, don't worry about it. You should see what we say about you." That was about the only touch of humor there was as official Washington grappled with what is clearly more than your ordinary PR problem.


The Obama administration's reaction has so far been predictable. The White House has ordered government agencies to examine the way they treat classified information. The Attorney General, Eric Holder, said the release of the documents "puts at risk our national security" and announced "an active, ongoing criminal investigation." A senior State Department official said, "We have taken steps to mitigate and ensure this does not happen again." A 24/7 working group has been established to monitor next steps and reaction.


It all sounds like too little, too late.


The issue is the damage which has already been done, and notwithstanding all the remedial steps which Washington takes the harm will be long-lasting and impossible to paper over. Blame the internet and the ability of a misguided individual to manipulate the system by easily downloading a quarter of a million documents. (Still not explained is how that action did not trigger some sort of alarm.) Blame the post-9/11 atmosphere which encouraged more sharing of information across various government agencies. Blame WikiLeaks for being irresponsible.

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