WEBVTT 00:00:02.387 --> 00:00:05.570 It was the scoop of the century. 00:00:05.570 --> 00:00:09.840 WikiLeaks lifts the curtain on the secret communications between Washington 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:13.705 and the diplomats that we have stationed all over the globe. 00:00:13.705 --> 00:00:22.586 I'm not aware of any release of information in human history comparable to the amount that was released via WikiLeaks. 00:00:22.586 --> 00:00:26.704 These were cables that show the super power's secret thoughts. 00:00:26.704 --> 00:00:32.955 It was hard for me to look Secretary Clinton in the eye when she was like, "How did this happen?" 00:00:32.955 --> 00:00:40.520 A quarter of a million US diplomatic messages apparently stolen by one of their own soldiers, 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:47.757 turned into a global sensation by a whistle-blowing website and it's controversial founder, Julian Assange. 00:00:47.757 --> 00:00:50.338 I like crushing bastards. 00:00:50.338 --> 00:00:58.170 I think every diplomat around the world would have one overwriting thought, "Thank God! It wasn't me," and "Thank God! It's not us." 00:00:58.170 --> 00:01:01.855 In the first in-depth television analysis of the secret cables, 00:01:01.855 --> 00:01:09.189 we lift the lid on how the world's greatest super power does business and how it gets what it wants. 00:01:09.189 --> 00:01:13.721 We reveal a super power on a mission to change the world. 00:01:13.721 --> 00:01:18.521 But a super power that sometimes fails to live up to its own ideals. 00:01:18.521 --> 00:01:19.873 It's a complete outrage -- 00:01:19.873 --> 00:01:28.907 Diplomats stepping in to attempt to obstruct the course of the criminal investigation. 00:01:28.907 --> 00:01:35.638 Over a year has passed since the leaking of the cables. 00:01:35.638 --> 00:01:41.758 Now we assess what the impact of the leak has been in the US and beyond. 00:01:41.758 --> 00:01:46.907 And we ask, can American Diplomacy ever be the same again? 00:01:46.907 --> 00:01:47.791 They don't trust you anymore. 00:01:47.791 --> 00:01:53.470 Many of them don't, and it will take a long time, I think, to recover that trust. 00:02:07.682 --> 00:02:11.450 It's late November 2010. 00:02:11.450 --> 00:02:16.390 Two journalists arrive at the US State Department in Washington DC -- 00:02:16.390 --> 00:02:19.928 The enormous ministry that controls America's relationship with the rest of the world. 00:02:22.921 --> 00:02:24.962 They're not here for a friendly chat. 00:02:24.962 --> 00:02:25.013 They're about to blow the lid on America's diplomatic secrets. 00:02:25.355 --> 00:02:38.176 They were maybe a dozen senior officials and, behind them, 00:02:38.176 --> 00:02:38.375 you know, at least a dozen more minions taking notes on laptops and so on. 00:02:38.375 --> 00:02:41.323 They represented not just the State Department 00:02:41.323 --> 00:02:45.490 but all of the intelligence agencies and the defense department. 00:02:45.490 --> 00:02:50.673 They did not look happy. 00:02:50.673 --> 00:02:55.007 The US State Department was facing a crisis unlike any other. 00:02:55.007 --> 00:03:02.090 A quarter of a million internal messages or cables between Washington and US embassies all over the world 00:03:02.090 --> 00:03:06.541 had found their way into the hands of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks 00:03:06.541 --> 00:03:10.910 and, from there, to five major newspapers. 00:03:10.910 --> 00:03:22.807 Their message at the opening of the meeting, in uncertain terms, was "You've been given stolen material -- classified material. 00:03:22.807 --> 00:03:31.159 There would be grave consequences if you publish any of it." 00:03:31.209 --> 00:03:39.825 At that meeting, one of the people leading the state department's response to the crisis was P.J. Crowley. 00:03:39.825 --> 00:03:43.574 These stories resulted from a crime. 00:03:43.574 --> 00:03:45.742 For us, this was still classified material. 00:03:45.742 --> 00:03:52.507 It was our responsibility to, you know, continue to protect them. 00:03:52.507 --> 00:03:57.809 The State Department was right to be worried. 00:03:57.809 --> 00:04:02.658 The cables reveal what American diplomats say when they think the world will never know... 00:04:02.658 --> 00:04:04.826 Who they trust and who they mock, 00:04:04.826 --> 00:04:10.608 what they want and how they get it. 00:04:10.608 --> 00:04:15.475 "Some inside the US government dismiss [Berlusconi] as feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader." 00:04:15.475 --> 00:04:17.525 "Merkel is risk averse and rarely creative." 00:04:17.525 --> 00:04:25.010 "Gaddafi relies heavily on his long-time Ukranian nurse, who has been described as a 'voluptuous blonde." 00:04:25.010 --> 00:04:30.725 Detailed records from thousands of secret meetings and conversations involving US diplomats 00:04:30.725 --> 00:04:33.925 were about to become a media sensation. 00:04:33.925 --> 00:04:39.759 "Bank of England Governor Mervyn King expressed great concern about Conservative leaders' lack of experience." 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:47.009 "It was related that King Abdullah remains a heavy smoker, regularly receives hormone injections, and 'uses Viagra excessively." 00:04:47.009 --> 00:04:55.659 Here were records of American diplomats' secret plans and strategies, their uncertainties and fears. 00:04:55.659 --> 99:59:59.999 "We should aim at influencing the narrow group of individuals that surround him."