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. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:22.644 --> 00:00:26.763 These were cables that show the superpower's secret thoughts. 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?" NOTE Paragraph 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 its 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 overriding 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 superpower does business and how it gets what it wants. 00:01:09.310 --> 00:01:13.761 We reveal a superpower on a mission to change the world. 00:01:13.761 --> 00:01:18.577 But a superpower 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 --> 00:03:56.799 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 Ukrainian 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 --> 00:04:59.116 "We should aim at influencing the narrow group of individuals that surround him." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:59.116 --> 00:05:03.217 "Saudi energy facilities remain highly vulnerable to external attack." 00:05:03.217 --> 00:05:10.619 "[The Secretary of Defense] pointedly warned that urgent action is required. Without progress in the next few months, we risk nuclear proliferation in the Middle East." 00:05:10.619 --> 00:05:16.790 All of this classified information was now in the hands of journalists. 00:05:20.344 --> 00:05:23.540 In Washington, there was panic. 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:28.141 When the newspapers gave us access so that we could begin to get a sense of it, 00:05:28.141 --> 00:05:32.601 I think there was just a growing sense of horror. 00:05:33.816 --> 00:05:36.621 Can you remember Secretary Clinton's reaction? 00:05:36.621 --> 00:05:38.460 She wasn't thrilled. [laughs] 00:05:38.460 --> 00:05:48.469 I mean, Secretary Clinton knew probably better than anybody exactly just how delicate some of our relations were with different countries. 00:05:48.977 --> 00:05:52.990 The leak threatened the basics of US diplomacy. 00:05:53.530 --> 00:05:57.979 When you're confronted with 250,000 cables, in a way, it's overwhelming. 00:05:57.979 --> 00:06:01.018 You know, it involves everything. 00:06:02.280 --> 00:06:05.402 But there was little they could do. 00:06:05.864 --> 00:06:10.300 The five newspapers had already agreed on a publication date. 00:06:10.300 --> 00:06:13.141 Nothing was going to stop them. 00:06:13.141 --> 00:06:15.778 All the US government could do now was try to get ready. 00:06:15.778 --> 00:06:24.617 They knew that within a matter of weeks, the world would know their secrets, and the only question was how bad it would be. 00:06:24.617 --> 00:06:32.743 We knew that it was going to potentially do an enormous amount of damage to some of our key relationships. 00:06:32.743 --> 00:06:37.460 What was the atmosphere like in the State Department that these cables would be there for all to see? 00:06:37.460 --> 00:06:40.190 Battening down the hatches. 00:06:43.220 --> 00:06:47.450 On the 28th of November of 2010, it began. 00:06:47.450 --> 00:06:53.220 Huge trove of documents released just hours ago by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:57.867 The whistle-blowing website released another pile of government documents Sunday, including... 00:06:57.867 --> 00:07:04.701 Whoever leaked all those State Department documents to the Wikileaks website is a traitor. 00:07:04.701 --> 00:07:10.140 Within 24 hours, the cables had become a global sensation. 00:07:10.140 --> 00:07:13.300 It's hard to think of a worse day for US diplomacy. 00:07:13.300 --> 00:07:20.657 America's private opinions and conversations splashed across every front page in the world. 00:07:20.657 --> 00:07:26.057 [various news reports] 00:07:26.057 --> 00:07:32.816 So what's in there? Everything from global fears about Iran's nuclear programme to news that China may have sabotaged Google... 00:07:32.816 --> 00:07:41.781 Controversial and often embarrassing revelations include an American diplomat describing Prince Andrew as "rude and cocky." 00:07:41.781 --> 00:07:50.863 It was like that moment when an email gets sent to the wrong person, only went to the whole world. 00:07:50.863 --> 00:07:57.619 As the leaks poured out, foreign politicians looked on with horror. 00:07:57.619 --> 00:08:06.485 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." 00:08:07.901 --> 00:08:18.662 There is nothing brave about sabotaging the peaceful relations between nations on which our common security depends. 00:08:18.662 --> 00:08:27.263 In the weeks after the leak, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, traveled the globe saying sorry. 00:08:27.263 --> 00:08:34.419 Clinton even joked about getting special "apology tour" jackets made. 00:08:34.419 --> 00:08:39.539 But in some parts of the world, the fallout from the leak would be unstoppable. 00:08:39.539 --> 00:08:47.221 We had to pull our ambassador out of Libya, for example, because thugs were making threatening gestures to him. 00:08:47.221 --> 00:08:55.199 We had an ambassador in Mexico, the Mexican government had just made clear, "we can no longer do business with this American ambassador," 00:08:55.199 --> 00:08:58.137 and he's now being replaced. 00:09:00.337 --> 00:09:04.829 In Washington, tough questions were being asked. 00:09:04.829 --> 00:09:12.865 President Obama's a pretty calm guy, even in tough times and stressful times. 00:09:12.865 --> 00:09:17.299 But he was clearly incredibly angry along with the rest of us, 00:09:17.299 --> 00:09:25.899 and the question, obviously, to me, and to others, was, "How in the world could this happen?" 00:09:25.899 --> 00:09:28.987 The suspect had been identified. 00:09:28.987 --> 00:09:32.598 Online chat logs had given him away. 00:09:35.460 --> 00:09:41.612 The suspected source was not a foreign government or a spy at the heart of the US machine. 00:09:41.612 --> 00:09:48.060 It was an American soldier sitting in a remote base in the deserts of Iraq. 00:09:48.060 --> 00:09:56.490 Bradley Manning was a lowly PFC, a Private First Class, but he had access to a world of secrets. 00:10:01.060 --> 00:10:11.196 We live in a world now when, you know, a 20-something PFC in the American army can cause diplomatic damage of biblical proportions. 00:10:11.196 --> 00:10:20.321 An enormous flaw in US military security that left American diplomats and the US State Department compromised. 00:10:21.275 --> 00:10:26.277 The State Department security was actually tighter than military security in this instance, 00:10:26.277 --> 00:10:32.175 so there was anger, disappointment, a feeling that this simply should not have happened. 00:10:34.745 --> 00:10:38.700 Is it embarrassing personally that it came out of your department? 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:47.141 Well, of course, I mean, it was hard for me to look Secretary Clinton in the eye when she'd say, "How did this happen?" 00:10:47.141 --> 00:10:52.135 Because it did come out of the Department of Defense, it came out of a military installation. 00:10:53.365 --> 00:10:59.658 As the cables made headlines around the world, some in America were demanding a tough response. 00:10:59.658 --> 00:11:06.029 For them, the leak was the ultimate crime, and Bradley Manning a traitor. 00:11:06.029 --> 00:11:07.757 What do you think of Bradley Manning? 00:11:07.757 --> 00:11:12.145 I think he committed treason, I think he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 00:11:12.145 --> 00:11:13.381 What does that mean? 00:11:13.381 --> 00:11:22.141 Well, treason is the only crime defined by our Constitution. It says "treason shall consist only of levying war against [the United States], 00:11:22.141 --> 00:11:26.499 or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." 00:11:26.499 --> 00:11:28.983 He gave our enemies a lot of aid and comfort. 00:11:28.983 --> 00:11:30.192 So what should happen to him? 00:11:30.192 --> 00:11:35.208 Well, he should be prosecuted, and if he's found guilty, he should be punished to the fullest extent possible. 00:11:35.208 --> 00:11:36.140 And what is that? 00:11:36.140 --> 00:11:38.226 Death. 00:11:38.226 --> 00:11:39.034 You think he should be killed? 00:11:39.034 --> 00:11:41.121 Yes. 00:11:43.614 --> 00:11:49.444 The leak had rocked America and created a global sensation. 00:11:50.460 --> 00:11:55.466 The superpower had shown it wasn't in control of its secrets. 00:11:55.466 --> 00:11:59.137 It's now over a year since the first cables were released. 00:11:59.137 --> 00:12:03.700 So what has been the real impact of the leaking of these documents? 00:12:03.700 --> 00:12:09.381 And what have the cables really told us about how America does business in the world? 00:12:09.381 --> 00:12:14.663 The fallout from the secret cables was more than just damaged trust or lurid headlines. 00:12:14.663 --> 00:12:21.801 We found places where some believe that the cable release itself changed countries. 00:12:27.078 --> 00:12:38.860 In mid-October 2010, two Tunisian political activists, Sami Ben Gharbia and Malek Khadraoui, got hold of some of the secret US cables. 00:12:38.860 --> 00:12:45.106 At the time, Tunisia was ruled by a dictator, President Ben Ali. 00:12:45.106 --> 00:12:53.177 Someone got the cable and they gave me a bunch of Arab leaks, around 300 cables. 00:12:54.747 --> 00:13:01.668 Sami Ben Gharbia called and he told me that I had the bomb. So I opened the file and I start tweeting. 00:13:04.746 --> 00:13:11.628 Inside the cables were damning reports written by the American ambassador about the dictator Ben Ali. 00:13:11.628 --> 00:13:16.415 They showed the extent of his regime's corruption and excess. 00:13:18.708 --> 00:13:25.660 Corruption in Tunisia is getting worse, whether it's cash, services, land, property, or, yes, even your yacht. 00:13:25.660 --> 00:13:32.441 President Ben Ali's family is rumored to covet it and reportedly gets what it wants. 00:13:35.749 --> 00:13:43.271 This is Ben Ali's daughter, Nesrine, and her billionaire husband, Mohamed Sakhr El Materi. 00:13:44.302 --> 00:13:49.262 And this was one of their houses, a luxury villa on the Tunisian coast. 00:13:53.739 --> 00:13:56.778 This villa's obviously been smashed up by looters. 00:13:56.778 --> 00:14:02.740 This place inspired one of the most infamous cables to come out of Tunisia. 00:14:02.740 --> 00:14:11.997 The American ambassador was invited here for dinner, and what he found - the wealth, the opulence astounding. 00:14:17.628 --> 00:14:25.185 Ancient artifacts everywhere. Roman columns, frescoes, and even a lion's head from which water pours into the pool. 00:14:27.709 --> 00:14:39.580 The opulence with which El Materi and Nesrine live and their behavior make clear why they and other members of Ben Ali's family are disliked and even hated by some Tunisians. 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:42.633 The excesses of the Ben Ali family are growing. 00:14:43.587 --> 00:14:46.740 This cage is very, very famous in Tunisia, and 00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:48.581 it's all because of the cables. 00:14:48.581 --> 00:14:53.479 This is where Ben Ali's son-in-law kept his pet tiger, 00:14:53.479 --> 00:15:00.420 and from the cables, we're told that at a time when there were people here in Tunisia who couldn't afford to eat, 00:15:00.420 --> 00:15:04.304 this animal was fed four chickens a day. 00:15:10.859 --> 00:15:17.399 At the time of the cable release, Tunisia was already suffering economic unrest. 00:15:17.399 --> 00:15:22.441 Food prices were rising, youth unemployment was at crisis point. 00:15:24.626 --> 00:15:30.336 The cables showed the contrast between the lives of ordinary people and their rulers. 00:15:30.336 --> 00:15:36.394 For activists like Malek and Sami, the cable leak was an extraordinary opportunity. 00:15:36.394 --> 00:15:48.305 The Wikileaks cable was, for us, like a new tool or a new weapon to make this contest come down from the internet to the street. 00:15:49.982 --> 00:15:55.660 They published the Tunisian cables on the same day as the Wikileaks splash. 00:15:55.660 --> 00:15:58.059 It was a very huge reaction. First of all, 00:15:58.059 --> 00:16:04.316 on the social networks, Twitter, Facebook, and, you know, our community, 00:16:04.316 --> 00:16:06.675 it was like a bomb. 00:16:07.937 --> 00:16:15.644 Now, the secret American reports of the Ben Alis' excess were out there for ordinary Tunisians to read. 00:16:15.644 --> 00:16:18.301 It wasn't that Tunisia didn't know about the corruption. 00:16:18.301 --> 00:16:21.897 Most people here were well aware of how the elite lived. 00:16:21.897 --> 00:16:26.065 It was now that they could see that the Americans knew. 00:16:26.065 --> 00:16:31.588 Ben Ali was a president who made an awful lot of his relationship with the United States. 00:16:31.588 --> 00:16:36.340 But the cables show that the Americans knew him for what he was. 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:39.617 They were critical, and they were disparaging. 00:16:42.617 --> 00:16:44.730 When the people were in the street, 00:16:44.730 --> 00:16:46.341 they had in their mind 00:16:46.341 --> 00:16:54.156 that this regime is really corrupt, that this regime is not really supported by foreign forces, 00:16:54.156 --> 00:17:00.868 so that maybe people were saying, okay, maybe he's not too strong, 00:17:00.868 --> 00:17:04.079 maybe he's not too invincible. 00:17:07.587 --> 00:17:14.107 Then senior ministers in Ben Ali's regime saw the cables were having an impact. 00:17:14.107 --> 00:17:21.507 When the people of Tunisia saw US criticism of the president, 00:17:21.507 --> 00:17:25.537 of the surrounding circle, et cetera, 00:17:25.537 --> 00:17:29.484 of course maybe they were not expecting this from the Americans. 00:17:29.484 --> 00:17:31.420 So what difference did that make? 00:17:31.420 --> 00:17:35.780 It did encourage people to speak in a more open and louder way. 00:17:35.780 --> 00:17:37.906 And this is, in my opinion, 00:17:37.906 --> 00:17:40.053 there is no doubt. 00:17:40.915 --> 00:17:45.259 The regime tried to block the websites carrying the cables. 00:17:45.259 --> 00:17:47.180 They failed. 00:17:47.180 --> 00:17:51.698 The secret documents helped fuel a mood of change in Tunisia. 00:17:51.698 --> 00:17:56.577 We published them on November 28th, and the Revolution started on December 17th. 00:17:56.577 --> 00:17:59.065 It was two weeks. Two weeks. 00:17:59.065 --> 00:18:08.064 [rioting and protesting] 00:18:08.064 --> 00:18:11.982 The Revolution began when a young Tunisian, Mohamed Bouazizi, 00:18:11.982 --> 00:18:17.859 set himself on fire in protest at his mistreatment by the regime. 00:18:17.859 --> 00:18:24.065 His death provoked outrage and brought crowds to the streets. 00:18:24.065 --> 00:18:29.740 As they vented their anger, the cables inspired many of their chants. 00:18:29.740 --> 00:18:34.582 [shouting, gunshots] 00:18:34.582 --> 00:18:40.580 You see, during the Revolution, some slogans talk about the content of these cables, 00:18:40.580 --> 00:18:48.098 making reference to the very rich life that those people are living, and 00:18:48.098 --> 00:18:54.207 the role of the state, a lot of people were referring to these stories. 00:18:54.223 --> 00:18:58.194 [rioting and protesting] 00:18:58.210 --> 00:19:04.736 Those protests would bring down a dictatorship that had lasted 23 years. 00:19:05.660 --> 00:19:08.388 Ben Ali fled the country. 00:19:08.388 --> 00:19:14.937 The Tunisian Revolution spread and prompted a wave of uprisings that became known as the Arab Spring. 00:19:14.937 --> 00:19:18.876 The cable leak had played a part in history. 00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:28.347 But what about America itself? 00:19:28.347 --> 00:19:32.180 What do the cables reveal about the superpower? 00:19:32.180 --> 00:19:35.507 We've spent months analyzing these documents. 00:19:35.507 --> 00:19:39.339 They show how America's diplomats try to get what they want, 00:19:39.339 --> 00:19:42.187 how they gather gossip and how they use it. 00:19:42.187 --> 00:19:45.866 How they deal with their enemies, and what they say about their friends, 00:19:45.866 --> 00:19:49.304 when they think no one's listening. 00:19:53.580 --> 00:19:59.264 So, what does America say about its closest friend of all - us? 00:20:01.341 --> 00:20:05.741 Two countries who fought alongside each other in Iraq and Afghanistan, 00:20:05.741 --> 00:20:11.306 but the cables reveal harsh US criticism of the British military. 00:20:12.660 --> 00:20:19.966 A secret document from December 2008 offered a bleak assessment of British capabilities. 00:20:21.781 --> 00:20:26.196 The British are not up to the task of securing Helmand. 00:20:27.827 --> 00:20:32.310 It forced Hillary Clinton to offer yet another apology. 00:20:32.618 --> 00:20:36.090 I personally want to convey to the government, 00:20:36.090 --> 00:20:38.862 and the people of the United Kingdom, 00:20:38.862 --> 00:20:42.094 both our deep respect and admiration, or 00:20:42.094 --> 00:20:45.088 the extraordinary efforts, and I regret 00:20:45.088 --> 00:20:50.593 if anything that was said by anyone suggests to the contrary. 00:20:51.655 --> 00:20:58.577 But the secret documents show the Americans were hearing concerns about our political leaders. 00:21:00.485 --> 00:21:05.364 In February 2010, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, 00:21:05.364 --> 00:21:10.568 and the US ambassador in London discussed the then-Conservative opposition. 00:21:10.568 --> 00:21:13.595 This is the cable that followed: 00:21:15.288 --> 00:21:20.249 King expressed great concern about Conservative leaders' lack of experience. 00:21:20.249 --> 00:21:23.008 Cameron and Osborne have only a few advisors, 00:21:23.008 --> 00:21:27.308 and seemed resistant to reaching out beyond their small inner circle. 00:21:32.093 --> 00:21:37.978 It is the duty of a diplomat to report those conversations, 00:21:37.978 --> 00:21:40.563 so people can take that into account, 00:21:40.563 --> 00:21:43.249 so they know what's going on. 00:21:43.249 --> 00:21:48.899 And gossip is not gossip if it's conversations that are had. 00:21:48.899 --> 00:21:53.293 "Gossip" is speculation. There is no speculation. 00:21:56.524 --> 00:22:01.065 But some cables are not so easy to explain away. 00:22:02.927 --> 00:22:09.007 In 2009, Ivan Lewis was a foreign office minister in Tony Blair's government. 00:22:09.007 --> 00:22:12.004 He got to know the Americans during this time, 00:22:12.004 --> 00:22:14.650 and they tried to get to know him. 00:22:14.650 --> 00:22:18.275 No detail or rumor was too [unintelligible]. 00:22:19.568 --> 00:22:25.252 "Lewis reportedly remains a bit of a hound dog where women are concerned." 00:22:28.822 --> 00:22:33.259 "Contacts who know him well report he has manic-depressive tendencies." 00:22:34.290 --> 00:22:37.316 "He's very up one minute, very down the next. 00:22:37.316 --> 00:22:42.241 And at least one Foreign and Commonwealth Office colleague has described Lewis as a bully." 00:22:46.072 --> 00:22:50.564 US diplomats may claim to be simply reporting what they hear, 00:22:50.564 --> 00:22:55.327 but it seems from the cables that no detail is too trivial. 00:22:55.327 --> 00:22:59.404 Biographic data is something that is valuable. 00:22:59.404 --> 00:23:06.571 Building and understanding of the personalities, proclivities, 00:23:06.571 --> 00:23:09.567 what might be distracting to individuals, 00:23:09.567 --> 00:23:15.905 what might explain the behavior of third parties toward that individual. 00:23:16.536 --> 00:23:20.927 Finding out that somebody has a reputation, a bad reputation, 00:23:20.927 --> 00:23:25.236 with women, once might have been an advantage, 00:23:25.236 --> 00:23:28.225 but these days, generally isn't. 00:23:29.887 --> 00:23:38.217 So why, then, did Hillary Clinton send this to London one month after the cable about Lewis was written? 00:23:40.648 --> 00:23:47.207 "Washington analysts appreciate the excellent background and biographic reporting on Ivan Lewis. 00:23:48.007 --> 00:23:52.084 [Cable] regarding Lewis's bullying, possible depression, and scandals, 00:23:52.084 --> 00:23:54.654 as well as comments on the state of his marriage 00:23:54.654 --> 00:23:58.226 are particularly insightful and timely." 00:24:01.934 --> 00:24:06.013 We contacted Mr. Lewis, but he didn't want to comment. 00:24:07.167 --> 00:24:11.248 As for America's diplomats, well, the cable speaks for itself. 00:24:11.248 --> 00:24:17.276 Dirt and gossip even on America's closest friends goes down very well in Washington. 00:24:17.984 --> 00:24:21.008 Gossip can reveal information about people 00:24:21.008 --> 00:24:24.208 that shows their strengths and weaknesses, 00:24:24.208 --> 00:24:29.093 just like politicians use it, it doesn't mean that you believe everything, 00:24:29.093 --> 00:24:31.793 but information is information. 00:24:37.623 --> 00:24:42.241 And there is no limit to America's desire for information on its friends. 00:24:43.983 --> 00:24:45.702 It's about much more than just gossip. 00:24:45.762 --> 00:24:50.683 What we've seen is the Americans want any piece of information no matter how trivial. 00:24:52.944 --> 00:24:54.990 And no one, it seems, is off-limits. 00:24:55.056 --> 00:24:59.712 America's most important Arab ally in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia. 00:25:00.589 --> 00:25:05.334 They're close militarily, and the US relies on Saudi for oil. 00:25:07.302 --> 00:25:11.260 But when it comes to information, everything's up for grabs, 00:25:11.260 --> 00:25:16.616 including the king's secret medical file. 00:25:16.616 --> 00:25:21.944 "Upon arrival, the royal clinic accidentally provided this physician with the king's medical file. 00:25:21.944 --> 00:25:24.814 It was related that King Abdullah is 92 years old. 00:25:24.814 --> 00:25:28.417 He remains a heavy smoker, regularly receives hormone injections, 00:25:28.417 --> 00:25:37.573 and 'uses Viagra excessively.'" 00:25:37.573 --> 00:25:44.013 It looks like US diplomats behaving like tabloid hacks, anything to get the story. 00:25:44.013 --> 00:25:46.577 But this has a serious side. 00:25:46.577 --> 00:25:51.421 There have been cases in which elderly rulers, members of ruling families, that 00:25:51.421 --> 00:25:56.821 quite literally in the case of viagra, have died from stroke from an overdose of viagra, 00:25:56.821 --> 00:25:59.461 so it's, you know, we laugh about it, but in fact, 00:25:59.461 --> 00:26:02.993 as a medical question, it's serious. 00:26:02.993 --> 00:26:06.372 The cables seem to bear this out. 00:26:06.372 --> 00:26:14.386 "The Saudi Arabian government has always kept close hold any personal information on royal family members. 00:26:14.386 --> 00:26:18.944 This medical information provides some detail into the King's health and longevity, 00:26:18.944 --> 00:26:27.336 and is provided to Washington for additional analysis. 00:26:27.336 --> 00:26:32.736 The cables are a snapshot of America's vast information gathering machine. 00:26:32.736 --> 00:26:37.854 But, again, what's most revealing is the sort of behavior that's officially demanded, 00:26:37.854 --> 00:26:42.019 even of US diplomats at the United Nations. 00:26:42.019 --> 00:26:44.361 Diplomats are not spies, 00:26:44.361 --> 00:26:49.226 which is why the US didn't want the world to see these secret requests. 00:26:50.349 --> 00:26:55.779 "Reporting officers should include as much of the following information as possible: 00:26:55.779 --> 00:26:59.537 credit card account numbers, frequent flyer account numbers, 00:26:59.537 --> 00:27:05.196 work schedules, and other relevant biographical information." 00:27:05.720 --> 00:27:18.731 This seems pretty clear: the Secretary of State requesting US diplomats to do their best to collect personal and private information on foreign diplomats at the UN. 00:27:20.194 --> 00:27:26.299 Even the Secretary General and members of the Security Council were targeted. 00:27:27.776 --> 00:27:31.367 "Plans and intentions of the UN Secretary General... 00:27:31.367 --> 00:27:36.995 biometric information on UN Security Council Permanent Representatives..." 00:27:38.580 --> 00:27:44.349 But those on the inside of the State Department deny the obvious conclusion. 00:27:44.349 --> 00:27:47.376 Should we view diplomats as effectively spies, as well? 00:27:47.376 --> 00:27:48.161 No. 00:27:48.161 --> 00:27:48.779 Why? 00:27:48.779 --> 00:27:49.777 They're not. 00:27:49.777 --> 00:27:51.617 They're asked to spy in that cable. 00:27:51.971 --> 00:27:54.600 That doesn't mean they do. 00:27:57.704 --> 00:28:05.981 But for those outside of the US government, that secret cable was disturbing. 00:28:05.981 --> 00:28:09.820 What I think is troubling is, here were American diplomats, 00:28:09.820 --> 00:28:13.833 in a sense asked to do the spade work of spying, 00:28:13.833 --> 00:28:16.434 and collect this kind of data on their counterparts, 00:28:16.434 --> 00:28:24.143 and I suspect that's been very damaging to the relationships of trust and confidence and friendship 00:28:24.143 --> 00:28:38.704 that they would have been trying to develop with people from other countries. 00:28:38.704 --> 00:28:44.912 The cables reveal aspects of US diplomacy that America did not want us to see. 00:28:44.912 --> 00:28:49.824 But the real story of the cables is more complicated. 00:28:49.824 --> 00:28:55.703 These secret documents show US diplomats apparently trying to do good. 00:28:55.703 --> 00:29:04.783 In country after country, even behind closed doors, they're raising issues like freedom, democracy, and human rights. 00:29:04.783 --> 00:29:09.359 "[The Assistant Secretary] stressed the importance of human rights to the US government and public." 00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:14.357 "The Deputy [Secretary of State] stressed US government concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in Vietnam." 00:29:14.357 --> 00:29:22.515 "We should take every opportunity to promote sustained, democratic change in Burma." 00:29:22.515 --> 00:29:28.468 And, yet, the cables show a real tension in American diplomacy. 00:29:28.468 --> 00:29:34.942 The US wants to spread its ideals across the world but struggles to reconcile this with its other interests, 00:29:34.942 --> 00:29:40.022 like protecting some of its unsavory alliances. 00:29:40.022 --> 00:29:44.389 September 11th brought this tension to the fore. 00:29:44.389 --> 00:29:47.526 We're really talking about what happened after 9/11. 00:29:47.526 --> 00:29:50.700 You have this attack. The question that then arises is 00:29:50.700 --> 00:29:53.703 "What happened? Why? What produces this?" 00:29:53.703 --> 00:29:58.025 And the answer that President Bush came to, in his own mind, 00:29:58.025 --> 00:30:01.387 was repression produces it, 00:30:01.387 --> 00:30:07.111 the embitterment of young people who have no place to go, politically, in their own countries, 00:30:07.111 --> 00:30:09.462 which are very repressive dictatorships. 00:30:09.462 --> 00:30:13.704 And the antidote, therefore, is what he called the "freedom agenda," 00:30:13.704 --> 00:30:26.364 the expansion of democracy. 00:30:26.364 --> 00:30:32.780 One of the places where that "freedom agenda" was applied was Egypt. 00:30:32.780 --> 00:30:38.945 For over two decades, it had been ruled by Hosni Mubarak, a pro-American dictator. 00:30:38.945 --> 00:30:44.821 The Americans were giving him $1.3 billion in military assistance every year, 00:30:44.821 --> 00:30:51.109 but the cables show US diplomats were also pushing for reform. 00:30:51.109 --> 00:31:04.343 "We do not have a silver bullet, but we can press reforms that will lead, inexorably, to the 'death by 1,000 cuts' of Egypt's authoritarian system." 00:31:04.343 --> 00:31:10.149 The cables show that the US push for greater freedom in Egypt reached into Mubarak's home, 00:31:10.149 --> 00:31:17.345 targeting his son, Gamal, and his wife, Suzanne. 00:31:17.345 --> 00:31:28.784 "We should aim at influencing the narrow group of individuals that surround him [including] Gamal and Suzanne Mubarak." 00:31:28.784 --> 00:31:33.983 One man came to symbolize America's drive for change: Ayman Nour. 00:31:33.983 --> 00:31:38.542 Nour had challenged Mubarak for the Egyptian presidency in 2005. 00:31:38.542 --> 00:31:50.542 Four months later, he was convicted and imprisoned on what the US believed to be trumped-up charges. 00:31:50.542 --> 00:32:04.623 "The Embassy has raised strong concerns about the arrest and detention of Ayman Nour with a variety of government-of-Egypt contacts at both senior and working levels." 00:32:31.141 --> 00:32:37.803 The cables show that America repeatedly raised Nour's case with the Mubarak regime. 00:32:37.803 --> 00:32:43.724 And they reveal the dictator's angry response. 00:32:43.724 --> 00:32:52.730 "Mubarak takes this issue personally and it makes him seethe when we raise it." 00:32:52.730 --> 00:32:57.608 Nabil Fahmy was Egypt's ambassador in Washington during the Bush years. 00:32:57.608 --> 00:33:05.604 The Ayman Nour issue was impacting on Mubarak's dealings with the US. 00:33:05.604 --> 00:33:09.774 Reference to specific cases annoyed him quite a bit. 00:33:09.774 --> 00:33:16.724 How he reacted toward the US administration generally: he did not come back to the US in Bush's second term. 00:33:16.724 --> 00:33:18.013 Not once. 00:33:18.013 --> 00:33:25.020 America's push for reform, pursued privately and publicly, was poisoning relations. 00:33:25.020 --> 00:33:31.268 When the Americans linked the war against terrorism to democracy promotion, 00:33:31.268 --> 00:33:37.419 it really complicated things, and it [unintelligible] the tensions between the two presidents, 00:33:37.419 --> 00:33:45.457 in particular President George W. Bush, and President Mubarak. 00:33:45.457 --> 00:33:51.497 "[Mubarak] resents and ridicules the US reform agenda." 00:33:51.497 --> 00:33:55.614 The cables show US diplomats warning this pressure for reform 00:33:55.614 --> 00:34:03.458 had pushed the relationship between America and Egypt to a new low. 00:34:03.458 --> 00:34:13.378 "US and Egyptian differences over the pace and direction of political reform have drained the warmth from the relationship on both sides." 00:34:13.378 --> 00:34:16.944 But the Americans needed Mubarak. 00:34:16.944 --> 00:34:20.664 US security interests depended on the alliance. 00:34:20.664 --> 00:34:25.217 The Suez Canal was an artery for American military operations around the world, and 00:34:25.217 --> 00:34:30.817 Egypt's peace deal with Israel had helped preserve a kind of stability in the Middle East. 00:34:30.817 --> 00:34:33.820 This was a dilemma at the heart of American diplomacy, 00:34:33.820 --> 00:34:40.464 and it's captured in a cable. 00:34:40.464 --> 00:34:48.502 "An ongoing challenge remains balancing our security interests with our democracy promotion efforts." 00:34:48.502 --> 00:34:52.776 A long friendship, a partnership with Egypt against terrorism, 00:34:52.776 --> 00:35:00.320 an Egypt under Mubarak who by any measure would be more forward-leaning with regard to Middle East peace, 00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:04.815 than an Egyptian government that was more reflective of the Egyptian street. 00:35:04.815 --> 00:35:10.061 And then over here, you just had the raw demands of democracy and representative government. 00:35:10.061 --> 00:35:13.504 These are hard choices. 00:35:13.504 --> 00:35:17.017 The Americans weren't the only ones facing hard choices. 00:35:17.017 --> 00:35:22.497 British ministers also had conflicting feelings about Mubarak. 00:35:22.497 --> 00:35:26.293 President Mubarak was president of Egypt. We all dealt with him. 00:35:26.293 --> 00:35:28.161 That didn't mean that we supported what he did, 00:35:28.161 --> 00:35:32.080 either on the economy with his family, or on human rights, 00:35:32.080 --> 00:35:36.999 but he was clearly seen as a critical ally, 00:35:36.999 --> 00:35:42.208 both by Israel and the Palestinians, on the issue of Middle East stability and peace, 00:35:42.208 --> 00:35:50.249 therefore, he was a very important player for us, as well. 00:35:50.249 --> 00:35:55.542 In 2009, a new American administration chose a new approach. 00:35:55.542 --> 00:36:03.723 President Obama decided it was in America's interest to warm relations up with the Egyptian dictator. 00:36:03.723 --> 00:36:11.642 The Bush administration had gotten to a point where relations with Egypt were very, very frosty, 00:36:11.642 --> 00:36:17.402 and we concluded that we needed to engage the Egyptian government 00:36:17.402 --> 00:36:24.722 much more broadly to be able to advance any of the values that we held and that the Bush administration held. 00:36:24.722 --> 00:36:29.999 I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family, 00:36:29.999 --> 00:36:36.546 and so I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States. 00:36:36.546 --> 00:36:43.216 The cables reflect this new stance. 00:36:43.216 --> 00:36:57.921 "President Mubarak understands that the administration wants to restore the sense of warmth that has traditionally characterized the US-Egyptian partnership." 00:36:57.921 --> 00:37:03.930 President Obama's strategy may have been influenced by a massive miscalculation by US diplomats in Cairo, 00:37:03.930 --> 00:37:11.763 a mistake we only know about because of the cables. 00:37:11.763 --> 00:37:18.379 "There will be no 'Orange Revolution' on the Nile on Mubarak's watch." 00:37:18.379 --> 00:37:23.159 For years, the thrust of advice coming from America's diplomats in Cairo 00:37:23.159 --> 00:37:27.886 was that there was no chance the Mubarak regime would be toppled. 00:37:27.886 --> 00:37:31.380 If you look at the Arab world, nothing, it seemed, ever changed. 00:37:31.380 --> 00:37:36.450 I mean, there was no regime change except when Americans invaded, as in Iraq. 00:37:36.450 --> 00:37:40.052 Kings were not overthrown, fake presidents were not overthrown, 00:37:40.052 --> 00:37:49.624 it looked as if things had been stable for decades and were going to remain stable. 00:37:49.624 --> 00:37:56.762 But we can see in the cables that the Americans were warned that Mubarak's regime was under threat. 00:37:56.762 --> 00:38:04.923 A prominent opposition activist, Ahmed Salah, told of plans to make 2011 the year of change. 00:38:04.923 --> 00:38:13.443 He met with US embassy officials and the details were wired back to Washington. 00:38:13.443 --> 00:38:27.967 "[Salah] claimed that several opposition forces have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy involving a weakened presidency before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections." 00:38:27.967 --> 00:38:35.761 They were telling them that we are trying, we are planning, and we are going to do a revolution, 00:38:35.761 --> 00:38:44.128 and if non-violence fails, there is only one alternative left, which is violence. 00:38:44.128 --> 00:38:47.548 But you were [unintelligible] up to the Americans that change was coming? 00:38:47.548 --> 00:38:50.562 Of course. I wasn't sure that Mubarak was going to go, 00:38:50.562 --> 00:38:59.279 but I was sure that we will be attempting to launch a revolution in 2011. 00:38:59.279 --> 00:39:03.884 In fact, the cables show the Americans were out of touch here in Egypt. 00:39:03.884 --> 00:39:06.808 The information-gathering process, that was working. 00:39:06.808 --> 00:39:10.965 What was failing was the interpretation. 00:39:10.965 --> 00:39:18.323 After the meeting with Salah, this is what the US ambassador in Cairo cabled to Washington. 00:39:18.323 --> 00:39:30.400 "[The] stated goal of replacing the current regime with a parliamentary democracy prior to the 2011 presidential elections is highly unrealistic." 00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:36.880 The events that happened here in Tahrir Square, the Americans just didn't see coming. 00:39:36.880 --> 00:39:45.211 They couldn't imagine that the Egyptian people could rise up against the dictator. 00:39:45.211 --> 00:39:47.296 But rise up, they did. 00:39:47.296 --> 00:40:05.966 [rioting, protesting] 00:40:05.966 --> 00:40:11.292 Inspired by the example of Tunisia in January and February 2011, 00:40:11.292 --> 00:40:17.467 protests flared across Egypt against the Mubarak dictatorship. 00:40:17.467 --> 00:40:25.679 On the day the protests began, this was what Hillary Clinton had to say, still seeing Mubarak as the future: 00:40:25.679 --> 00:40:31.162 Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable, 00:40:31.162 --> 00:40:41.562 and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people. 00:40:41.562 --> 00:40:45.563 But within a month, Mubarak was gone. 00:40:45.563 --> 00:40:58.967 Congratulations for all my people! Congratulations! 00:40:58.967 --> 00:41:28.681 When Hillary Clinton visited Tahrir Square, some of the democracy activists refused to meet her. 00:41:28.681 --> 00:41:32.644 Whatever America's ambitions for bringing democracy to Egypt, 00:41:32.644 --> 00:41:37.294 the US had thrown its lot in with the dictator. 00:41:37.294 --> 00:41:39.883 When he was thrown out, for many in Egypt, 00:41:39.883 --> 00:41:52.385 America had put itself on the wrong side of history. 00:41:52.385 --> 00:42:01.631 Failed efforts to spread democracy and cozy alliances with dictators are recurring themes in the cables. 00:42:01.631 --> 00:42:06.883 There are times, though, when the US position approaches hypocrisy. 00:42:06.883 --> 00:42:14.548 Competing pressures make them say one thing but do another. 00:42:14.548 --> 00:42:23.849 We can see this tension in the place where the cable leak helped cause revolution: Tunisia. 00:42:23.849 --> 00:42:27.555 The cables show that for years, before the revolution, 00:42:27.555 --> 00:42:33.932 US diplomats were telling the regime in Tunis it needed to change. 00:42:33.932 --> 00:42:39.412 The cables make it quite clear: American diplomats here in Tunisia were not only interested in 00:42:39.412 --> 00:42:42.575 the corruption of the Ben Ali regime. 00:42:42.575 --> 00:42:49.532 They were also actively raising the issue of reform. 00:42:49.532 --> 99:59:59.999 "Our message to [Ben Ali] should be that while we do not seek regime change, we expect real transition to democracy." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And, yet, in spite of these efforts, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 many in Tunisia are not convinced that the Americans paid any more than lip service to reform. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, the cables reveal a kind of moral ambivalence in US diplomacy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 America wanted reform in Tunisia, but it also wanted other things, too. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Back in 2006, its diplomats were preaching freedom in Tunisia, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but privately, US ideals coming under strain [?]. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is Guantanamo Bay, a symbol of America's controversial war on terror. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For years, America had been seizing hundreds of foreign terror suspects, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 transferring them here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But in 2006, President Bush announced he wanted to close Guantanamo. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The problem now for the US was what to do with the detainees. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Their solution was to try and send them back to their home countries. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Our goal was to close Guantanamo, so as to reduce the size of the problem, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so there was a policy of trying to repatriate these detainees 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where there wasn't some kind of judicial or other action we could take against them, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and where we thought that we weren't running an undue risk by sending them back. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Of the 355 detainees in Guantanamo Bay, 12 were Tunisian. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the cables show US diplomats in Tunis had concerns about sending them back to Tunisia. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "[The embassy] believes there is a significant likelihood (i.e., more likely than not) that the detainees would be mistreated during the period they are in Ministry of Interior custody." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We had both the concern about how to deal with detainees, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and where they would end up, where they would be sent, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the issue of how they would be treated under human rights. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Concerns about human rights had meant some detainees were not repatriated to their home countries. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So what about Tunisia? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The cables show that US diplomats obtained limited assurances from the Tunisian government 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about how the detainees would be treated. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The US diplomats still had serious concerns. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "[W]e cannot exclude the possibility, given the track record of the Ministry of Interior, that the detainees would be tortured upon their return to Tunisia." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The cables suggest that the assurances the US wanted never arrived, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and yet, in June 2007, two detainees were handed over to the Tunisian authorities. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's claimed as soon as the two detainees arrived in Tunisia, they were mistreated. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Abdullah Hajji is interrogated, he's threatened, he's slapped around, they threaten to rape his wife, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they make him sign a statement, he's not allowed to read the statement, and that's it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Then he's transferred to prison where he's held in solitary confinement. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The concerns expressed in the cables had materialized. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Slapping around, threats of torture, threats to rape your wife constitute torture under the international definition, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Sleep deprivation, certainly the accumulation of all these things used against one person 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 amount to torture, or inhumane treatment, at the very least. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We asked the State Department about the case. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They refused to comment, but the conclusion seems clear. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 America's strategic interests had collided with its ideals, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it was the ideals that gave way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On the one hand, they wanted the regime in Tunisia to make more progress on human rights, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to be more presentable as an ally. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On the other hand, they wanted security cooperation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and in this case the security angle trumped the human rights angle, clearly. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This may be the real story of the cables: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a superpower on a global mission to spread democracy and freedom, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but struggling to live up to its own ideals. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Guantanamo Bay highlighted this tension. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But for US diplomats, America's controversial War on Terror brought yet other challenges. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The cables reveal how they deal with the worst allegations against their government. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cables shed new light on some of the darkest secrets of US foreign policy, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and not just in Tunisia. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 After 9/11, the Americans were using tough new measures. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They were seizing terror suspects off the street 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and shifting them to interrogation centers in secret foreign locations. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was called rendition. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We live in the real world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We had certain tools that were offered to us by our government, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that the Attorney General said was lawful, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it was our responsibility, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the American intelligence service, the American armed forces, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to carry out these directions to the best of our ability. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is Khaled El-Masri. He's a German national. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He says he was seized in Macedonia and flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He claims his captors were the CIA. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He says he was beaten and held for four months before being released. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When we approached them, neither the CIA nor the State Department would talk about the case. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But buried in the cables were the secret reports of what the Americans were telling the Germans in private. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "It was a mistake to take Al-Masri." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In 2007, German prosecutors identified 13 suspected CIA operatives understood to be involved in Al-Masri's abduction. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They wanted to issue international arrest warrants, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is when US diplomats stepped in. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Global Affairs Counselor underscored the serious negative implications of a German decision to issue international arrest warrants in the Al-Masri case." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "The Deputy Chief of Mission emphasized that issuance of international arrest warrants would have a negative impact on our bilateral relationship." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The message was clear: whatever crimes the CIA might have committed, the Germans should back off. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If they didn't, relations between the two countries would be harmed. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the dark side of diplomacy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Shocking to us, perhaps, but not for those who move in this world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 John Negroponte was number two at the State Department from 2007 to 2009. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We put the Al-Masri cables to him. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He says American diplomats did nothing wrong. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a political statement. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Governments undertake certain obligations to protect their own employees, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and so, to me, I think of it as an example of us standing by our people, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rather than threatening another country. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But what does the man who signed the cable think? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We tracked him down and he agreed to talk to us. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We didn't put pressure. We communicated the feelings of the US government. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that's normal. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The job of the United States government is to represent American citizens. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I believe that the appropriate steps and actions were taken, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I believe that it would have been ill-advised for Germans to prosecute the Americans. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But outside of the American government, things looked very different. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For many, the Al-Masri cables reveal the dark truth about US diplomacy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When key American interests are at stake, justice counts for little. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's a complete outrage. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is dangerously close to what would be called obstruction of justice in the United States. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You're talking about a pending criminal proceeding, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you're seeing US diplomats stepping in to attempt to obstruct the course of the criminal investigation through political means. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And this was not an isolated case. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We had an instance like that in Italy, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it allegedly involved some American intelligence people, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we went to considerable lengths to try to discourage legal action against those people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That was an understatement. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The cables revealed the aggression of US messages, even to allies. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "The ambassador explained [to the Italian Undersecretary] that nothing would damage relations faster or more seriously 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than a decision by the Government of Italy to forward warrants for arrests of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the alleged CIA agents named in connection with the Abu Omar case." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We have a government running around saying, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the rule is law is our banner, and that's what we seek to promote in the world, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in fact, we're seeing some of the same diplomats who run around with that message 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 working overtime, and working very aggressively, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to try and suppress the rule of law. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So what are we to conclude about the world's greatest superpower from the cables? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For America's most senior officials, the real revelation of the cables is America's integrity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think that if there's a big surprise out of all of the Wikileaks documents, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it is how few inconsistencies there are between what we were doing and saying privately 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and what we were doing and saying publicly. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Many of my friends, particularly in Europe, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have the view that United States never means what it says, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and in that context, a lot of these cables show 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that diplomats really are working behind the scenes to push governments, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 either on behalf of individual political prisoners, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or pushing them toward social or political reform, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or simply being very honest back home, in a way that maybe they don't expect. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But as we've seen, the real story of the cables is much more complicated. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 America may want to make the world a better place. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But this sits uneasily with America's unsavory alliances and narrow self-interest. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The cables show that when it comes down to it, all too often, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's the ideals that give way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We see a struggle between the world of the CIA, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and this counterterrorism effort, versus 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the sort of general diplomatic mission, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the mission of promoting democracy and the rule of law, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and what we see is, there's no reconciling these two things. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They're starkly at odds. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, over a year has passed since the cables were released. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Bradley Manning, the man accused of stealing the files, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is facing a court marshal. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Julian Assange, the man behind the Wikileaks website, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is fighting efforts to get him to face sexual assault allegations in Sweden. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But what effect has the leaking of the cables had on US diplomacy? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Has it changed the way US diplomats do business? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Those on the inside say the damage is real. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I found, in my travels, for example, in the Middle East, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 whenever there was a big meeting, and notetakers, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the other side would just speak in platitudes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the only time I could get real candor, have a real conversation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was when I was meeting with a foreign leader privately, one-on-one. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So this is a direct consequences? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Absolutely. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They don't trust you anymore? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Many of them don't, and it will take a long time, I think, to recover that trust. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's going to be reduction in the willingness of people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to talk to American diplomats because, again, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we've proven that we don't have the ability to protect the confidentiality of the communication. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And in the world of intelligence, they foresee other changes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If information and trust are lost, espionage and spies will have to fill the gap. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Everybody who's used this information will have less to work with. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That will mean the need for greater reliance on some of these things, on clandestine collection. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The US government claims it's tightened up the way it shares its confidential information. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But can the secrets of the superpower ever really be safe again? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Trust and faith in the confidentiality of American diplomacy has been severely dented. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's reinforced for everybody who was already cautious about Americans' ability to keep secrets, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and for those who had not been burnt before, they've sure been burnt now. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As American diplomats continue to deal with the impact of the cables, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 other political challenges loom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In a century that could see the decline of American power, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 her enemies and rivals are becoming more defiant. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Next week, we look at US fears, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what the cables tell us about a new Cold War, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a rogue Chinese army, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and how to stop the Iranian bomb.