Gibbs On Legal Action Against WikiLeaks: 'I Wouldn't Rule Anything Out'

WASHINGTON -- White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Monday that the administration is not ruling out taking legal action against WikiLeaks after the online site began releasing 250,000 leaked U.S. State Department cables.

"Obviously, there is an ongoing criminal investigation about the stealing of and dissemination of sensitive and classified information," Gibbs said, during Monday's press briefing. "Secondly... administration-wide, we are looking at a whole host of things and I wouldn't rule anything out."

WikiLeaks and people who disseminate information to them, Gibbs added, are "criminals first and foremost."

Gibbs was responding to a question about the idea of taking legal action against the site. It did not touch on what some Republican congressmembers have urged, which is to designate Wikileaks a "foreign terrorist organization."

"They are engaged in terrorist activity. What they're doing is clearly aiding and abetting terrorist groups," Rep. Peter King, ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. "Either we're serious about this or we're not."

Gibbs, elsewhere, sought to strike an even but angered tone with respect to Sunday's massive document disclosure. The president will not be discussing the matter on Monday, he said. And the task of patching up any diplomatic messes will be left to the State Department,

It would be "an understatement," he said, to suggest that President Obama was displeased by WikiLeaks. But that would not spur massive changes in U.S. foreign policy -- just a review of how information is disseminated and, on occasion, leaked.

"I don't think anybody would stand up here and tell you this isn't a serious concern," said Gibbs. "At the same time I do not believe this does... impact our ability to pursue a foreign policy that is in our interest and in the interest of the world."

"This is a serious violation of the law, this is a serious threat to individuals that both carry out and assist in our foreign policy," he added later. "And I'm not here to downplay the overall seriousness of information that is classified for a reason. But I'm also here to say that the problems the world has, be they countries that seek nuclear weapons... simply the release of these documents does not change our posture and our effort in seeking to contain that... threat."

Comments

[voidme]

05:12 PM on 12/04/2010

With a liawyer as president isn't it taking a long time to come up with a charge against WikiLeaks ....

[RenoSage]

04:47 PM on 12/05/2010

Read the O'Connell and the Newt Gingrich quotes.

The only Dem I've heard is Gibbs.
Most seem to feel that the public needs to be informed.

[Dr. Jonathan David Farley]

03:17 PM on 12/02/2010

Obama on Bush administration torturers: "I'm a strong believer that it's important to look forward and not backwards".

Obama attorney general on Wikileaks: "To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law...they will be held responsible".

[Forrestabbey]

10:40 AM on 12/01/2010

I would like to see a law passed, unanimously, by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President making it illegal to lie to the American People In other words any time they speak to us they are under oath and lies would be grounds for impeachment. I would suspect that things like Wikileaks would not be so frequent.

[AZreb]

09:19 AM on 11/30/2010

Why shouldn't we, the people, know of the pressure put on our own government by Israel, Saudi Arabia and other countries in that region to attack Iran? What other pressure has been put on our government by other countries and why shouldn't we be aware of it?

Why shouldn't we know that China is sending "sensitive" items to Iran and North Korea? Does this include nuclear materials and information?

What else don't we know? How the heck can we protect ourselves without the facts? How do we know who is with us or against us? Depend on our government? That's a joke as evident by the behind-the-doors diplomacy going on.

Now the CIA and our government want to prosecute and shut down Wikileaks and its head before the next leaks come out regarding the financial institutions and the facts on the economic crisis. Seems like there is a lot more our governmet doesn't want us to know, especially about the "too big to fail" and the shenanigans of the financial institutions and who-got-what out of the deals in the back rooms.

[exF14RIO]

02:32 PM on 11/30/2010

AZ, I can't defend everything the Feds do, but we (the public) are ill equipped to be our country's intelligence apparatus; they have trained professionals who are very good; we have good professional diplomats. But all are human, all can muck it up, all are fallible. But these leaks of classified matters are indefensible, and really are damaging. I was shocked that I agreed with Hillary on this one.

[fr33d0mhawk]

09:05 AM on 11/30/2010

I find it telling that the US is trying to find ways to imprison Assange for the Wikileaks documents, but still protects the CIA officers who kidnapped and tortured a German citizen. The usual refrain of, " We made a mistake, but we did it with the best intentions", could also be said of Assange, that he did what he did to protect peace and democracy around the world. To me the bigger crime is kidnapping and torturing an innocent ally, then to add insult to injury, threatening Germany against prosecuting the CIA officer responsible. The US could justify protecting Assange to a greater degree than protecting the CIA officer responsible for the kidnap and torture, and subsequently, the State Department for threatening Germany for exercising a perfectly good law to imprison those who kidnap and torture. It says volumes that the US thinks its important to protect those guilty of kidnapping and torturing of innocents than protecting people that blow the whistle on such abuses. Maybe if Assange was guilty of kidnapping and torturing an innocent human being the US Sate Department would be more vigilant in defending his acts.

[Raw Ron]

09:04 AM on 11/30/2010

this administration aint gonna do shlt? I love the pres but he is soft as baby p00p

[cue]

08:24 AM on 11/30/2010

Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that the gov't gets its panties all in a knot when its private thoughts and reflections that were intended only for the eyes and ears of the addressee, that may potentially be embarrassing, are revealed but sees no problem with conducting electronic surveillance on the rest of us?

Don't I recall hearing somewhere an argument that said if you aren't doing anything wrong, you shouldn't worry if the gov't listens in or watches?

[OrangeSalad]

08:15 AM on 11/30/2010

Obama ignores Bush's war crimes but doesn't hesitate to go after Wikileaks. The only interests that are threatened are the multinational corporations.
I've come to expect no less from the Obama regime.

[RenoSage]

04:56 PM on 12/05/2010

Obama has said that those who break US laws should be punished. Those documents
were hacked in Switzerland and sent to France, and since then have been mirrored
countless times. Our law does not extend to those entities.

I welcome the promised transparency. It is the GOP that are screaming the loudest.

[publiuswarmac9999]

07:19 AM on 11/30/2010

It is always a great deal of fun playing at God.  People like Assange claim some higher purpose but he is obviously not accountable to anyone but himself.  This is how the world's most ruthless dicatorr, a Stalin or Mao, played the game.

[cue]

08:28 AM on 11/30/2010

Interesting to speculate how much history might have been changed if Wikileaks had existed in the era of Stalin or Hitler or Mao or Nixon.

[publiuswarmac9999]

09:19 AM on 11/30/2010

Assange would be dead with Stalin, Hitler or Mao.  Not sure about Nixon.

[Dr. Jonathan David Farley]

03:19 PM on 12/02/2010

Assange didn't kill anybody. It is U.S. politicians who are saying Assange should be killed.

[Angelaaaa]

07:18 AM on 11/30/2010

OR ... they could stop telling lies. It's cheaper than nonsensical litigation against a transnational entity with a huge profile.

It's a novel idea and I am just throwing it out there ...

[WykydRed]

06:36 AM on 11/30/2010

Criminals? Noooo, the American government are the criminals. Just depends how far back the documents go that it can be proven the AmGov have BEEN criminals. Funny how none of these cowards are worried about the mass graves, the ordered child-rapes by American soldiers to "make families speak" and the thousands of atrocities it happily ordered. But, maybe one day they will. When more heroes you'll call "criminals" come forward. With their videos. Their recordings. Let the tyrants live in fear. Assange is a hero, but more importantly, he's the front man for a litany of heroes. Remember we know that before you all start puffing and prancing....

[PathofTotality]

08:47 AM on 11/30/2010

"Remember we know that before you all start puffing and prancing"

"We" who?

By the way and in my opinion, Assange is an idiot that didn't read what he "leaked". I could care less about the name calling and personal opinions in the documents but when some of the information can, and probably will, p!ss of an unstable country (i.e. N. Korea) how is that a good thing. Your "hero" and the ilk that helped him have no common sense what so over.

[Dr. Jonathan David Farley]

03:19 PM on 12/02/2010

You are a villain.

[FREEDOM BELL]

06:27 AM on 11/30/2010

Apparently, Wikileaks is being flooded with new confidential information.  Wikileaks is processing the information as quickly as possible.  That is the only reason for the delay in publication.  Apparently, the publicity and success of the recent leaks is giving many people courage to leak sensitive information to Wikileaks !!!!
 
This is awsome !!!!

[JLRoberson]

05:43 AM on 11/30/2010

When you stop torturing and when you prosecute last admin's war criminals, get back to me, Gibbs. Till then, tell your boss what he wants to hear, like you always do.

[The Mad Guesser]

03:37 AM on 11/30/2010

Wikileaks' cables from God to Clinton: "For the 10th time: I'm NOT on your side so stop saying that...or it's more Cholera for Haiti!"

[The Mad Guesser]

03:31 AM on 11/30/2010

WikiLeaks shocker! 977 diplomats' cables confirm each world's leader as glib narcissist psychopath ruling over billions of hapless stooges!