Wikileaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower

It was the scoop of the century.

WikiLeaks lifts the curtain on the secret communications

between Washington and the diplomats that we have

stationed all over the globe.

I'm not aware of any release of information in human history

comparable to the amount that was released via WikiLeaks.

These were cables that showed a superpower's secret thoughts.

It was hard for me to look Secretary Clinton in the eye

when she'd say, "How did this happen?"

A quarter of a million US diplomatic messages,

apparently stolen by one of their own soldiers.

Turned into a global sensation by a whistle-blowing website

and its controversial founder - Julian Assagne.

I like crushing bastards.

I think every diplomat around the world

will have had one overriding thought...

"Thank god it wasn't me, and thank god it's not us."

In the first in-depth television analysis of the secret cables,

we lift the lid on how the world's greatest superpower does business,

and how it gets what it wants.

We reveal a superpower on a mission to change the world,

but a superpower that sometimes fails to live up to its own ideals.

It's a complete outrage. Diplomats stepping in to attempt

to obstruct the course of the criminal investigation.

Over a year has passed since the leaking of the cables.

Now we assess what the impact of the leak has been

in the US and beyond.

And we ask - can American diplomacy ever be the same again?

They don't trust you any more?

Many of them don't, and it will take a long time,

I think, to recover that trust.

It's late November, 2010.

Two journalists arrive at the US State Department in Washington DC.

The enormous ministry that controls America's relationship

with the rest of the world.

They're not here for a friendly chat.

They're about to blow the lid on America's diplomatic secrets.

There was maybe a dozen senior officials and behind them, you know,

at least a dozen more minions taking notes on laptops, and so on.

And they represented not just the State Department

but all of the intelligence agencies and the Defense Department.

And they did not look happy.

The US State Department was facing a crisis unlike any other.

A quarter of a million internal messages, or cables,

between Washington and US embassies all over the world

had found their way into the hands of the whistle-blowing website

WikiLeaks, and from there to five major newspapers.

Their message at the opening of the meeting, in no uncertain terms was,

you've been given stolen material.

Classified material. There would be grave consequences

if you published any of it.

At that meeting, one of the people leading the State Department's

response to the crisis was PJ Crowley.

These stories resulted from a crime.

For us this was still classified material

and it was our responsibility to, you know, to continue to protect it.

The State Department was right to be worried.

The cables reveal what American diplomats say

when they think the world will never know.

Who they trust, and who they mock. What they want, and how they get it.

"Some inside the US government dismiss Berlusconi

"as feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader.

"Merkel is risk averse and rarely creative.

"Gaddafi relies heavily on his long-time

"Ukrainian nurse, who has been described as a 'voluptuous blonde'."

Detailed records from thousands of secret meetings and conversations

involving US diplomats were about to become a media sensation.

"Bank of England Governor Mervyn King expressed great concern

"about Conservative leaders' lack of experience.

"It was related that King Abdullah remains a heavy smoker,

"regularly receives hormone injections and uses Viagra excessively."

Here were records of American diplomats'

secret plans and strategies, their uncertainties and fears.

"We should aim at influencing the group of individuals around him.

"Saudi energy facilities remain highly vulnerable to external attack.

"..Pointedly warned that urgent action is required.

"Without progress in the next few months,

"we risk nuclear proliferation in the Middle East."

All of this classified information was now in the hands of journalists.

In Washington, there was panic.

When the newspapers gave us access,

so that we could begin to get a sense of it,

I think there was a just growing sense of horror.

Can you remember Secretary Clinton's reaction?

She wasn't thrilled.

I think Secretary Clinton knew probably better than anybody

exactly just how delicate some of our relations were

with different countries.

The leak threatened the basics of US diplomacy.

When you're confronted with 250,000 cables,

in a way its overwhelming. You know, it involves everything.

But there was little they could do.

The five newspapers had already agreed on a publication date.

Nothing was going to stop them.

All the us government could do now was try to get ready.

They knew that within a matter of weeks

the world would know their secrets.

And the only question was how bad would it be?

We knew that it was going to potentially do an enormous

amount of damage to some of our key relationships.

What was the atmosphere in the State Department that these cables would be there for all to see?

Battening down the hatches.

On 28th November, 2010, it began.

Huge trove of documents released just hours ago

by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks...

The whistle-blowing website released another pile of government documents Sunday, including...

Whoever leaked all those State Department documents

to the WikiLeaks website is a traitor...

Within 24 hours, the cables had become a global sensation.

It's hard to think of a worse day for US diplomacy.

America's private opinions and conversations

splashed across every front page in the world.

So what's in there? Everything from global fears about Iran's nuclear programme

to news that China may have sabotaged Google.

Controversial and often embarrassing revelations include

an American diplomat describing Prince Andrew as "rude and cocky."

It was like that moment when an email gets sent to the wrong person.

Only it went to the whole world.

As the leaks poured out, foreign politicians looked on with horror.

I think every diplomat around the world

will have had one overriding thought...

"Thank god it wasn't me, and thank god it's not us."

There is nothing brave about sabotaging the peaceful relations

between nations on which our common security depends.

In the weeks after the leak, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton

travelled the globe saying sorry.

Clinton even joked about getting special "Apology Tour" jackets made.

But in some parts of the world,

the fallout from the leak would be unstoppable.

We had to pull our ambassador out of Libya, for example,

because thugs were making threatening gestures to him.

We had an ambassador in Mexico, the Mexican government just made clear

"we can no longer do business with this American ambassador,

and he's now being replaced.

In Washington, tough questions were being asked.

President Obama is a pretty calm guy,

even in tough times and stressful times,

but he was clearly incredibly angry along with the rest of us,

and the question obviously, to me and to others,

was how in the world could this happen?

A suspect had been identified. Online chat logs had given him away.

The suspected source was not a foreign government,

or a spy at the heart of the US machine.

It was an American soldier

sitting in a remote base in the deserts of Iraq.

Bradley Manning was a lowly PFC, a Private First Class,

but he had access to a world of secrets.

We live in a world now when, you know, a twenty something PFC

in the American army can cause

diplomatic damage

of biblical proportions.

An enormous flaw in US military security

had left American diplomats and the US State Department compromised.

The State Department security was actually tighter than

military security in this instance. So there was anger,

disappointment, a feeling that this simply should not have happened.

Is it embarrassing to you personally?

That it came out of your department? Well, of course!

And it was hard for me to look Secretary Clinton in the eye

when she'd say, "How did this happen?"

Because it did come out of the Department of Defense,

it came of a military installation.

As the cables made headlines around the world,

some in America were demanding a tough response.

For them, the leak was the ultimate crime,

and Bradley Manning a traitor.

What do you think of Bradley Manning? I think he committed treason,

I think he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

What does that mean?

Well, treason is the only crime defined by our constitution

and it says treason shall consist only of

levying war against the United States

or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

And he gave our enemies a lot of aid and comfort.

So what should happen to him?

He should be prosecuted, and if he's found guilty

he should be punished to the fullest extent possible.

And what is that? Death.

You think he should be killed? Yes.

The leak had rocked America and created a global sensation.

The superpower had shown it wasn't in control of its secrets.

It's now over a year since the first cables were released.

So, what has been the real impact of the leaking of these documents?

And what have the cables really told us

about how America does business in the world?

The fallout from the secret cables

was more than just damaged trust or lurid headlines.

We've found places where some believe

that the cable release itself changed countries.

In mid-October 2010,

two Tunisian political activists,

Sami Ben Gharbia and Malek Khadhraoui,

got hold of some of the secret US cables.

At the time, Tunisia was ruled by a dictator, President Ben Ali.

Someone got the cable and they gave me

a bunch of Arab leaks, around three hundred cables.

Sami Ben Gharbia called, and he told me that, "I have a bomb."

So, I opened the file and I start reading.

Inside the cables were damning reports,

written by the American ambassador about the dictator Ben Ali.