White House: call for Clinton's resignation 'ridiculous' - Summary

Wed, 01 Dec 2010

Washington - The White House dubbed as "ridiculous" the suggestion by WikiLeaks chief editor Julian Assange's that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton resign over leaked documents that showed she instructed US diplomats to engage in espionage.

"That statement is ridiculous and absurd," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on CNN. "I'm not entirely sure why we we care about the opinion of one guy with one website. Our foreign policy and the interests of this country are far stronger than his one website."

In an interview published earlier with Time magazine, Assange said Clinton is obligated to resign because ordering diplomats at the United Nations to spy violates international agreements.

"She should resign, if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering US diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the US has signed up. Yes, she should resign over that," Assange said.

WikiLeaks has been behind the leaking of more than 250,000 secret US diplomat cables that begin hitting the internet Sunday. Among them are cables signed by Clinton instructing diplomats at the United Nations to gather information about their counterparts. One cable said that included credit card information and frequent flyer numbers, and biometric data about North Korean officials.

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley has strongly denied that US diplomats are engaged in espionage.

"Diplomats are diplomats. And their job is to interact with people, gather information, gain perspective on events around the world and report those findings in a way that helps inform our policies and form out actions. They are not intelligence assets," Crowley said.

Meanwhile, the White House announced Wednesday that it was launching a comprehensive review of the security of classified documents across all of the departments, and determining what safeguards need to be implemented.

White House senior adviser Russell Travers has been tasked with overseeing the process. The State Department has already taken steps to safeguard its documents, temporarily removing access to diplomatic cables via a secret router known as SIPRNet.

The State Department has said none of its personnel were responsible for leaking the documents to WikiLeaks.

US military authorities detained and in July transferred Army Private Bradley Manning from Iraq to the United States in connection with leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. He was charged with unauthorized use and disclosure classified material relating to videos published by WikiLeaks.

He remained a person of interest in the WikiLeaks publication of tens of thousands of Afghan war-related documents. Authorities have not said whether he is the suspect behind the publication of nearly 400,000 Iraq war military documents, or the release of the State Department cables.

Manning was an intelligence analyst in Iraq at the time of his arrest and reportedly had access to classified material. Reports said the military had obtained evidence from his computer showing he had downloaded secret information.

Manning was reportedly able to access the documents following reforms after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, that made it easier for classified information to be shared across government agencies.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356142,resignation-ridiculous-summary.html.