The United States moved on Monday to deal with the fallout from the release of secret
diplomatic cables by the online site WikiLeaks. Several hundred of the more than 250
thousand documents have already been made available to the general public, some of
which have contained unflattering references to major figures in foreign countries,
including US allies.
Professor of international relations at The American University
of Rome, James Walston, told Vatican Radio that the leaks have thus far been a cause
of embarrassment, but not a threat to security - as were the classified military documents
wikiLeaks released earlier in the year. “The [US] State Department does what any other
diplomacy does, said Walston. “They are there to report on what goes on in their country
reasonably accurately – and they get that from the local newspapers, they get it from
their own sources, they have private sources.” Walston went on to say, “Sometimes
they do things which are ‘undiplomatic’. We should not be surprised if, every now
and again, someone gets caught doing it, and there are a lot of red faces.”
Asked
about the Obama administration’s concerns over potential security leaks, Walston said
that, though there were legitimate security concerns over the WikiLeaks release of
US military documents earlier this year, “So far, there is nothing [in the diplomatic
cables] which is relevant to security.” He speculated, however, that there could be
sensitive security-related information in the cables, which have yet to be released
to the broader public. “Diplomacy,” said Walston, “unless we’re talking about operational
security, does not damage national interests.”
Listen to Chris Altieri's interview
with James Walston of AUR: