WEBVTT 00:00:02.430 --> 00:00:05.596 It was the scoop of the century. 00:00:05.596 --> 00:00:09.828 WikiLeaks lifts the curtain on the secret communications between Washington 00:00:09.828 --> 00:00:13.662 and the diplomats that we have stationed all over the globe. 00:00:13.662 --> 00:00:22.644 I'm not aware of any release of information in human history comparable to the amount that was released via WikiLeaks. 00:00:22.644 --> 00:00:26.763 These were cables that show the super power's secret thought. 00:00:26.763 --> 00:00:32.931 It was hard for me to look Secretary Clinton in the eye when she was like, "How did this happen?" 00:00:32.931 --> 00:00:40.359 A quarter of a million US diplomatic messages apparently stolen by one of their own soldiers; 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:47.460 turned into a global sensation by a whistle-blowing website and it's controversial founder, Julian Assange. 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:49.960 I like crushing bastards. 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:58.378 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." 00:00:58.378 --> 00:01:01.810 In the first in-depth television analysis of the secret cables, 00:01:01.810 --> 00:01:09.310 we lift the lid on how the world's greatest super power does business and how it gets what it wants. 00:01:09.310 --> 00:01:13.761 We reveal a super power on a mission to change the world. 00:01:13.761 --> 00:01:18.577 But a super power that sometimes fails to live up to its own ideals. 00:01:18.577 --> 00:01:19.743 It's a complete outrage -- 00:01:19.743 --> 00:01:28.743 Diplomats stepping in to attempt to obstruct the course of the criminal investigation. 00:01:28.743 --> 00:01:33.759 Over a year has passed since the leaking of the cables. 00:01:33.759 --> 00:01:35.590 [Protests] 00:01:35.590 --> 00:01:41.773 Now we assess what the impact of the leak has been in the US and beyond. 00:01:41.773 --> 00:01:46.489 And we ask, can American Diplomacy ever be the same again? 00:01:46.489 --> 00:01:48.075 They don't trust you anymore. 00:01:48.075 --> 00:01:53.592 Many of them don't, and it will take a long time, I think, to recover that trust. 00:01:57.614 --> 00:02:00.302 [WIKILEAKS: The Secret Life of A Superpower] 00:02:07.717 --> 00:02:11.774 It's late November 2010. 00:02:11.774 --> 00:02:16.325 Two journalists arrive at the US State Department in Washington DC -- 00:02:16.325 --> 00:02:22.774 The enormous ministry that controls America's relationship with the rest of the world. 00:02:22.774 --> 00:02:25.408 They're not here for a friendly chat. 00:02:25.408 --> 00:02:30.926 They're about to blow the lid on America's diplomatic secrets. 00:02:30.926 --> 00:02:34.408 They were maybe a dozen senior officials and, behind them, 00:02:34.408 --> 00:02:38.707 you know, at least a dozen more minions taking notes on laptops and so on. 00:02:38.707 --> 00:02:41.108 They represented not just the State Department 00:02:41.108 --> 00:02:45.442 but all of the intelligence agencies and the defense department. 00:02:45.442 --> 00:02:47.159 They did not look happy. 00:02:50.727 --> 00:02:54.974 The US State Department was facing a crisis unlike any other. 00:02:54.974 --> 00:03:02.127 A quarter of a million internal messages or cables between Washington and US embassies all over the world 00:03:02.127 --> 00:03:06.775 had found their way into the hands of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks 00:03:06.775 --> 00:03:10.977 and, from there, to five major newspapers. 00:03:10.977 --> 00:03:23.041 Their message at the opening of the meeting, in uncertain terms, was "You've been given stolen material -- classified material. 00:03:23.041 --> 00:03:26.969 There would be grave consequences if you publish any of it." 00:03:32.836 --> 00:03:39.505 At that meeting, one of the people leading the state department's response to the crisis was P.J. Crowley. 00:03:39.505 --> 00:03:43.487 These stories resulted from a crime. 00:03:43.487 --> 00:03:45.719 For us, this was still classified material. 00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:49.269 It was our responsibility to, you know, continue to protect them. 00:03:52.553 --> 00:03:57.753 The State Department was right to be worried. 00:03:57.753 --> 00:04:02.887 The cables reveal what American diplomats say when they think the world will never know -- 00:04:02.887 --> 00:04:04.786 Who they trust and who they mock, 00:04:04.786 --> 00:04:06.995 what they want and how they get it. 00:04:10.478 --> 00:04:15.245 "Some inside the US government dismiss [Berlusconi] as feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader." 00:04:15.245 --> 00:04:17.478 "Merkel is risk averse and rarely creative." 00:04:17.478 --> 00:04:24.815 "Gaddafi relies heavily on his long-time Ukranian nurse, who has been described as a 'voluptuous blonde." 00:04:24.815 --> 00:04:30.632 Detailed records from thousands of secret meetings and conversations involving US diplomats 00:04:30.632 --> 00:04:33.850 were about to become a media sensation. 00:04:33.850 --> 00:04:39.732 "Bank of England Governor Mervyn King expressed great concern about Conservative leaders' lack of experience." 00:04:39.732 --> 00:04:47.632 "It was related that King Abdullah remains a heavy smoker, regularly receives hormone injections, and 'uses Viagra excessively." 00:04:47.632 --> 00:04:55.683 Here were records of American diplomats' secret plans and strategies, their uncertainties and fears. 00:04:55.683 --> 00:04:59.683 "We should aim at influencing the narrow group of individuals that surround him."