U.S. State Department disconnects its computers from government-wide network
The U.S. State Department severed its computer files from the government’s classified network, officials said Tuesday, as U.S. and world leaders tried to clean up from the embarrassing leak that spilled America’s sensitive documents onto screens around the globe.
By temporarily pulling the plug, the United States significantly reduced the number of government employees who can read important diplomatic messages. It was an extraordinary hunkering down, prompted by the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of those messages this week by WikiLeaks, the self-styled whistleblower organization.
The documents revealed that the United States is still confounded about North Korea’s nuclear military ambitions, that Iran is believed to have received advanced missiles capable of targeting Western Europe and — perhaps most damaging to the United States — that the State Department asked its diplomats to collect DNA samples and other personal information about foreign leaders.
The Seattle Times reports that while the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, taunted the United States from afar on Tuesday, lawyers from across the government were investigating whether it could prosecute him for espionage, a senior defense official said. The official, not authorized to comment publicly, spoke only on condition of anonymity.
State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley sought to reassure the world that U.S. diplomats were not spies, even as he sidestepped questions about why they were asked to provide DNA samples, iris scans, credit card numbers, fingerprints, and other deeply personal information about leaders at the United Nations and in foreign capitals.
Diplomats in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion, for instance, were asked in a secret March 2008 cable to provide “biometric data, to include fingerprints, facial images, iris scans, and DNA” for numerous prominent politicians. They were also asked to send “identities information” on terrorist suspects, including “fingerprints, arrest photos, DNA and iris scans.”
In Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo the requests included information about political, military and intelligence leaders.
“Data should include e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers, fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans,” the cable said.
Every year, the intelligence community asks the State Department for help collecting routine information such as biographical data and other “open source” data. DNA, fingerprint and other information was included in the request because, in some countries, foreigners must provide that information to the United States before entering an embassy or military base, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
The possibility that American diplomats
