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Classified Government Documents Leaked; Uneasy Korean Peninsula

Aired November 28, 2010 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Threatening to strain diplomatic relations between the U.S. and its allies around the world, tens of thousands of sensitive U.S. State Department documents have been leaked.

Today the whistle blowing web site WikiLeaks provided the documents to several news organizations, and some of which have published them. The WikiLeaks action is one of the Obama administration has called "dangerous."

According to the London newspaper "The Guardian," it reveals these cables including grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, alleged links between the Russian government and organized crime. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's activities under the Obama administration as well as thousands of files from the George Bush presidency.

Let's go right to our foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty in Washington. So how potentially damaging is this, Jill?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a very wide range of documents that are being leaked now. Some of them are not that important. You might say like comments about world leaders could be embarrassing, could be uncomfortable, but they might not be that bad. But when you get into things like anything that deals with terrorism, negotiating positions by the United States, and perhaps implications that leaders are not on the side of the United States.

That's where you get into areas that could be very dangerous. And we're talking about 251,000 cables both coming from Washington out to the field, all the embassies and consulates and missions around the world, and then back almost like a filtering machine, you know, the diplomats and other people working at those embassies around the world, collecting information and then sending it back to Washington.

There could be quite a lot of things that are dangerous, and Fred, it's important to point out that these apparently are over the last three years. That pretty much means the Obama administration. It's not something that they could say, well, it happened in a previous administration. So if you look at some of these, certainly anything dealing with Iran could be sensitive, things about the stark negotiations and arms control agreement with Russia, things like that certainly could be highly damaging. We should also read this statement that the White House released today. You're hearing certain comments similar coming from the Pentagon, from the State Department. But here's what the White House said "President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal.

By releasing stolen and classified documents, WikiLeaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of those individuals. We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information."

So Fred, they have known, of course, about this. They've been notifying governments around the world, but now it's out there. People will be sifting through all of this, and we're going to hear the detailed information.

And in fact, Jill, how much has the State Department told you about secretary of state Hillary Clinton and other American diplomats who have done just that that you just mentioned, reaching out to a lot of these countries preemptive to the release of these documents to try to smooth any feathers before they're hearing it from the general public?

DOUGHERTY: Well, what they're pointing out is number one in talking to these governments, every government around the world does similar things. I mean, they correspond, they tell their embassies what the policy is, they try to get information back from their embassies. Everyone knows how this works, but what they're trying to avoid is to say, look, maybe in a sense get over it. That these are things that governments say to each other and about each other, and everyone knows that.

But the things that begin to get into policy, tipping the hand of the United States about where it's going with some sensitive negotiations, those are things that you can't really finesse. You just have to put it - have it out there and try to deal with the repercussions, and it may not be easy.

WHITFIELD: Yes, at this point is the State Department revealing to you or any of your sources revealing how they are going about trying to track these documents or cables that released? Who would be responsible? Was it a former employee? A disgruntled employee? How do they learn or go about finding the source of the leak?

DOUGHERTY: Well, it is assumed that it's the same source that U.S. military person who leaked the previous documents from the Department of Defense. They are not saying specifically that's how it happened, but it would appear that that indeed is how it happened. And you know, Fredricka, one of the things that's kind of ironic about it this is it was easier for almost anybody in the food chain, certainly in the military, to get access to those cables, because after 9/11 they realized the departments of the government weren't talking to each other. And so they tried to open that up, make it - make the information more accessible to a greater number of people. Now since then the Department of the Defense has taken steps to try to control that and patch the possibility for leaks, but that is how it happened. With sometimes the best of intentions to keep the government talking to various parts of the government.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jill Dougherty, thanks so much, from Washington. Appreciate it. State Department correspondent.

So, right now, I'm going to bring in former assistant secretary of state for political military affairs Mark Kimmitt. So Mark, in your view, how potentially damaging is this considering according to "New York Times" reporting some of these items were classified as secret, none marked as top secret. But some are labeled, some 9,000 of these are 250,000 documents are labeled no form, meaning short hand or materials considered too delicate to be shared with any foreign government. That according to the "New York Times" reporting.

MARK KIMMITT, FMR. ASST. SECY. OF STATE FOR POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFAIRS: Well, let's assume of the 250,000 only 90 percent were routine cables that didn't reveal anything spectacular. But that still leaves 25,000 documents and even if only one percent of them were top - were secret and indicated significant negotiations, that's still a very, very large number of documents out there that are not only embarrassing but also potentially put our soldiers at risk, put our diplomats at risk for their candidness and their reporting as well as Jill Dougherty said, revealing sensitive negotiation positions.

WHITFIELD: When you analyze the dumping of these documents and they date as far back as the Bush administration and they certainly involve this current Obama administration, does this remove from you any kind of political objective here?

KIMMITT: No, I don't think that there's a political objective. I believe there's a political agenda, however. There seems to be a view on the part of WikiLeaks that in this desire for open transparency that anything is open for revealing to the public. But it is clear that the release of these documents is damaging not only to our soldiers on the ground but our diplomats that are serving in countries around the world.

WHITFIELD: Do you believe that it's the same person responsible, the same person responsible for the first dumping of documents that involved intelligence as it pertains to the Afghanistan war just early this year? Do you think this would be the same person responsible here?

KIMMITT: Well, I don't want to speculate the source of this information, but I would suspect that the person who had access to sensitive intelligence reports used the same and had the same access to sensitive diplomatic reports as well. So it only follows that people would suggest that this came from the allegations against Specialist Bradley Manning.

WHITFIELD: So let me know, what is likely taking place right now as it pertains to the State Department or even DOD personnel as this government tries to figure out the source of the leak? Who would be in on trying to obtain these materials and then supply them to this web site, WikiLeaks?

KIMMITT: Well, again, the people that wanted to reveal this, we can't for a moment understand the motivations behind why people would want to do this. I think it's up to the courts to decide in the case of the allegations against Specialist Manning number one, whether he did it or not, and number two, what the motivations were behind that.

But that is not nearly as important as the outcome, which is the damage that it's done on the intelligence side for the military documents and on the diplomatic side for these cables that are being released at present.

WHITFIELD: But I wonder if it's equally important because there could be another dumping of a set of documents, and if this government, investigators will be looking at who would be responsible for this to try to prevent another document dumping like this.

KIMMITT: Well, there certainly could be more document dumping like this in the future for people that have any number of motivations, but I think it's as important for WikiLeaks and its ilk to recognize that the damage that they're doing by releasing this information and be held responsible for the damage that incurs from releasing this information.

WHITFIELD: All right. Former assistant secretary of State for political military affairs, Mark Kimmitt. Thanks so much. And I will also be talking to you again throughout the afternoon. I appreciate your time.

And of course, we're going to continue to follow this recent web site WikiLeaks revealing of these State Department documents to the world now.

Now, overseas and on to U.S. and South Korea, those military exercise is now under way in the Yellow Sea. This six days after the deadly attack by North Korea putting South Korea and its allies on alert. Right now China is proposing emergency talks between the six nations involved in previous nuclear talks with North Korea. That's China, the U.S., Japan, Russia to name a few. Even before the military exercises started this morning, North Korea warned that the maneuvers could lead to retaliatory strikes.

For more on today's developments we turn to CNN's Stan Grant reporting now from Seoul, South Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A day of high diplomacy and rising tension on the Korean peninsula. Let's start with that tension. South Korean military saying that the north had moved surface-to-air missiles into place on the northern side of the border. Now these apparently had been deployed after the clash last week at Yeonpyong Island. Also, the South Korean military saying there was military movement across the border in the north, and sounds of artillery fire. This raised tension on Yeonpyong Island. There were calls for residents there and media to take shelter. That was later lifted, but the South Korean government urging journalists to leave the island fearing further provocation from the North. All of this playing out against a backdrop of these South Korean and U.S. military exercises.

The "USS George Washington" aircraft carrier is in place, four other battleships and 6,000 U.S. troops along with South Korean forces. Now these exercises are taking place about 100 kilometers, 60 miles south of that contentious border area. But North Korea warning that any incursions into each space will be met with force.

Now the diplomacy. China sending an envoy here to Seoul for discussions with President Lee Myung-Bak and a recognition that China will do more to act as an intermediary. It has invited an official from North Korea to visit Beijing next week, and is calling for a resumption of the six-party talks. Now that involves China, the United States, the Koreas, Japan and Russia. South Korea though saying it is not the time right now for those talks. This is not a rebuttal of China's position.

It is the standing position of South Korea. So right now all eyes on North Korea and how it reacts to these military exercises in the Yellow Sea. Stan Grant, CNN, Seoul.

WHITFIELD: Back in this country now, in Oregon, a suspicious fire today at a mosque attended by the suspected Christmas tree bomber. Police in Corvallis, Oregon are calling the fire arson. The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information. This all follows Friday's arrest of Somali-born Mohamad Osmond Mohamud in Portland. The FBI says the 19-year-old plotted to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony Friday night. Undercover FBI agents say they managed to slip him a fake bomb so no one was ever in danger.

And we're also monitoring the roads and the airports as a lot of you are finishing up your holiday weekend, checking for trouble spots as millions of Americans head home after Thanksgiving.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: This is one of the busiest travel days of the year. Lots of people trying to get home after that long Thanksgiving holiday. We're keeping our eye on the airports and of course some highways. So far so good, unless you're heading out west. That's where we bring in our Jacqui Jeras, lots of snow. Look at that big old icicle on that camera behind you.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. You know, my heart cries today for Salt Lake City. Can we just say it? Because they've had a rough go of it for the travelers, right? So Wednesday you had blizzard conditions and so here we are on another extremely busy travel day and you've got the winter storm warnings. You've got two and a half inches of snow on the ground. You can see visibility is not great. Icicles coming down on the tower cam there from our affiliate KSL.

Your temperature is 27, it feels like 15, and you're going to wake up with about four to eight inches of snow on the ground, yes, unfortunately. Higher elevations, of course, getting a little bit more than that. Probably more than a foot. It's really been the west-traveled roads that have had the most problems because of this winter weather.

I-80 and i-40, and we've seen it along i-70. There you can see the snow that continue to come down. I-15 across parts of Utah into Wyoming as well as into Montana. In the nation's mid-section you're drying up and it looks great. Your temperatures aren't bad either. But our big problem here is that the winds are very strong, so the east to west interstates, that's where we're going to have problems. Kind of white knuckle for you, unfortunately on some of those ways.

The air waves are not bad today. Knock on wood. You know, so far this holiday season, I'm going to say things have gone really, really well at the airports. We've had minor delays for the most part with two exceptions today. Teterboro and White Plains are looking at ground delays for over two hours. That's very unfortunate for those people but things are looking good in New York City, things are looking good out west. Very little problems in terms of the airports.

We've also been checking in on TSA, too, by the way, Fredricka. You know, with their blog we haven't had a lot of complaints about security issues either. That people get through the airports pretty quickly as well.

WHITFIELD: Yes. So for the most part maybe smooth sailing.

JERAS: Knock on wood.

WHITFIELD: All right.

JERAS: It's not over yet.

WHITFIELD: Let's find out at least at Washington's Reagan National Airport. That's where we're going to find our Sandra Endo. She is there. Let's find out from you whether people are happy with their traveling experience today.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred, no complaints here. Take a look behind me. Take a look at these lines. Pretty much nonexistent, and the lines we have seen, a lot of people have been going through pretty smoothly. Yes.

What people will encounter when they get here are signs indicating what they're go through for security, what they are allowed to carry on and what they can't carry on. And this is a new sign here where they say passengers cannot carry on or even check in toner and printer cartridges, and that's all because of last month's terror bomb plot targeting the United States.

There certainly are new restrictions in place, but so far a lot of travelers aren't complaining even though those controversial body screening machines are in effect. They have them here at this airport, as well, and a lot of travelers say they're taking things in stride.

WHITFIELD: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm leaving from D.C., I had to go through the body scanner.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you feel about that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not bad. I mean, it's not a bad deal. You know, it's increased security, so I'm willing to go through it if it makes us safer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of ridiculous to a certain point. I mean, it's a little bit over the top. I don't see, like - I can see it used in some certain situations but for every passengers I feel like it's a lot to ask.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENDO: But keep in mind there are 400 body scanning machines spread out across the country through 70 airports, so when you do the math and you're talking about millions of travelers flying this holiday weekend, you're talking about a very small percentage of people who actually have to go through that screening process.

So clearly a lot of people are making a lot of hype about this, but a lot of people don't have to go through those intense screenings. Again, you can just see by the lines here it's going pretty smoothly and a lot of people just getting by really easily this holiday weekend.

WHITFIELD: Good. Contrary to what that last gentleman was saying, not everyone is getting patted down, so it's really not happening to everyone. Now are there any modifications on what you can bring through the checkout there? Because I know sometimes people like to bring, you know, they're favorite pie from grandma's house or some turkey, all those yummy leftovers from Thanksgiving. Any restrictions on any of that?

ENDO: Oh, yes. Let's talk about those leftovers, because if you do have extra turkey and stuffing and pie, you can bring those on board. Go ahead. TSA says that's OK. But what you can can't bring on board are things like cranberry sauce and gravy and anything kind of with a liquid substance. We're talking about soups and maple syrup as well. So make sure you don't bring those on board. TSA will confiscate all those homemade goodies. Turkey, bring it on in.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Sandra Endo, from Reagan National Airport there in Washington, D.C. area.

OK. So maybe you want to hit the stores tomorrow or shop from your computer tomorrow because you know what it's cyber Monday. Lots of bargains out there and there are also lots of scams. So how to tell one from the other, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Keeping your computer safe when you go cyber shopping on Monday, but first a quick look at the headlines.

In Brazil, military police rolled into the northern slums of Rio de Janeiro in tanks. They're hunting for drug gang leaders. 2,600 soldiers and police are trying to end days of violence that left 35 dead. A government crackdown against drug trafficking sparked the bloodshed.

Police are looking for two gunmen linked to a shooting at a Michigan mall. It happened early last night at Eastland Mall in Harper Woods. Two people were critically hurt. An 18-year-old shot twice in the chest and a store employee caught in the crossfire was hit in the leg. The mall, full of holiday shoppers, closed early. Well, today it's back open.

Thousands of confidential State Department documents spanning several years have been published after being leaked by the whistle blowing site, WikiLeaks. The release threaten to strain diplomatic relations around the world. Several news organizations have printed excerpts. According to the London newspaper, "The Guardian," the documents include grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and alleged links between the Russian government and organized crime.

Retailers are adding up the receipts from black Friday. The tally so far? Bigger crowds, but not a huge increase in sales. Shoppertrack looked at 70,000 stores and malls across the country. It estimates the sales rose only 0.3 percent over last year. Experts say all the deep discounts offered earlier this month took a bite out of the black Friday spending.

All right. The first Monday after Thanksgiving has become known as cyber Monday. A day when millions of shoppers go on-line to make holiday purchases. It's a big day for cyber bargains, but unfortunately it's also a big day for cyber scams.

Adam Chernichaw is a lawyer who specializes in technology among other things, so he's joining us right now from New York. Good to see you.

ADAM CHERNICHAW, INTERNET PRIVACY EXPERT: Hi, good to see you, too.

WHITFIELD: OK. So if ever there was really an important time to make sure you have some sort of spam filters or anti-virus software on your computer, now is the time, right, first off?

CHERNICHAW: Yes, that's right. I mean, it's very important for people to be aware that there are cyber crooks out there. They shouldn't be scared of buying on-line, but they should be educated and people should really know what to do to best protect themselves from these cyber predators.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then you say pay attention to all the security warnings, license agreements and all of that sometimes when you download information.

CHERNICHAW: Right. People really shouldn't download or click through links from e-mails or that are on e-mails that they are not aware of, that they are not confident in. If you get an e-mail, a lot of people buy or click on links because their friends refer them to links.

But these cyber predators have found a way to shoot e-mails from what is your friends' account or people you know to your account and to all of their friends' accounts. And so there are these little tricks that they use to try and get people to click on links, and then the links will bring you to a web site or you'll download a file that will infect your computer with a virus or some sort of spyware so that people can, so that these cyber criminals can get financial information and other personal information that they can use. For example, steal your identity.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then in some that these cyber criminals may be out there and get you to engage. They may ask you, I guess, to click on agree or OK. When you close something out, you got to stick with that just little red box in the right upper hand corner usually.

CHERNICHAW: Right. The cyber criminals they get more sophisticated every day. So if you do get locked into these links or these pop-up ads, it's best to hit alt F4 to close the link. Never hit on I agree or never hit on download anything that may show up on your screen from a one of these pop-up ad or internet links or if you get an e-mail with an attachment, don't download it.

WHITFIELD: OK. And you also said you don't open files from people you don't recognize. And then lastly, you say if you click through a web site link, make sure the address in your browser is correct and it's a trustworthy site. There's a way in which you can double-check.

CHERNICHAW: Right. The best thing to do really is to click in or to type in the web site address into your own internet browser's address bar. Because that's the way, you know, you're getting to a site that you trust. If you click on a link, there are ways of masking links to make it look like it's coming from a trustworthy site.

When you click on it, you may think you're going through a trustworthy site, but you're not. I mean, at the end of the day people should not be scared to buy online. But you should do things, for example, check your credit card bills every month to make sure that you didn't do anything online where you may have been the victim of a cyber- criminal. They may be charging small amounts to your credit card bill every month.

CHETRY: Got you.

CHERNICHAW: For example, my uncle he has a separate credit card for his online purchases and he doesn't spend anything else so he doesn't have to worry about it. He sees the bill every month and he knows what he made purchases online and he can see if he if somebody is trying to scam him.

WHITFIELD: Fantastic. CHERNICHAW: Little ideas like that, that could really help protect yourself.

WHITFIELD: Adam Chernichaw thanks so much for joining us from New York. And of course if anybody wants to double-check on a website, et cetera, there are places you can go. The FBI has an internet crime complaint center. You can go to our website, CNN.com and get more information on that so you can find out where to issue your complaint. In fact there it is right now if you can read that tiny print right there.

All right. WikiLeaks documents have been released, we get reaction from one men's newspaper the "Guardian" and the "The New York Times" two reporters from those two organizations have published some of those documents right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: I've been talking about the release of classified U.S. government documents by the WikiLeaks website. They have been the one releasing them. One of the newspapers printing those documents today is "The Guardian" Newspaper in the UK. Joining me right now on the phone is David Leigh, the "Guardian" investigations executive editor. So David first how did you acquire these documents that were being released by WikiLeaks?

DAVID LEIGH, INVESTIGATIONS EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE GUARDIAN:" We acquired them because WikiLeaks passed over to us the entire data set of 250,000 cables, which it got hold of alleging from a 22-year-old soldier.

WHITFIELD: OK. So it's the same U.S. soldier who is suspected of providing those documents earlier in the year to WikiLeaks?

LEIGH: Yes, he's been charged by the U.S. military with leaking thousands of those cables.

WHITFIELD: Now did you receive these documents directly from WikiLeaks or was it from an intermediator?

LEIGH: Directly. They passed them over to us.

WHITFIELD: OK. Were there any concerns or any intrepidation about releasing or publishing the information that WikiLeaks provided?

LEIGH: "The Guardian" in London had lots of concern, just like "The New York Times" has lots of concerned. They also have the documents. And we met those concerns by two things. First of all, we removed the name of every single individual that we think might be vulnerable to reprisals as a result of publication.

Secondly, we only published a handful, a tiny fraction of these 250,000 cables. Maybe at the end of the process of a couple weeks of publication have published a few hundred, so we only publish those that shed light on new and important things in the public interest that we think the world ought to know. WHITFIELD: OK and among those things you all chose to publish, I see that you reported on cables that included information about grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. Alleged links between the Russian government and organized crime. How did you make a decision about what things to include? Also, about some of the activities involving secretary of state Hillary Clinton with this administration as well as some activity involving the Bush administration, too.

LEIGH: Well, one of the things that a lot of people in the world are worried about is whether there's a risk of a nuclear exchange taking place in the near future. So one of the stories that we thought was most important was how dangerous were nuclear-armed states, how close they were to the nuclear brink. And the information about how close Pakistan is to that brink, likewise Iran, likewise North Korea. These are some of the things that we focused on.

WHITFIELD: I understand, David, as you mentioned that "The Guardian" didn't publish everything. You were very judicious about the things that you felt were pertinent or that should be published. Does "The Guardian" as a whole feel any responsibility or even culpability for helping to provide this information that WikiLeaks received in an illegal manner?

LEIGH: Well, we didn't do anything illegal. We didn't leak this stuff. We didn't receive this stuff or we didn't incite others to leak this stuff. This was other people who decided to do this. The soldier is charged with leaking it. He didn't like the things going on apparently. WikiLeaks they have an ideology of their own that all information ought to be made public. We're a news organization. People come to us with this kind of material. We don't urge anyone to break the law. When we got it we look at it to say what is in the public interest to make known. Those are the things which we published.

WHITFIELD: David Leigh thanks so much. Appreciate your time.

LEIGH: OK.

WHITFIELD: Here in the U.S. there were also news organizations that have received copies of these documents directly by WikiLeaks or even through an intermediary. "The New York Times" among them, joining us from Baltimore now reporter Scott Shane with "The New York Times." So Scott, give me an idea how did the "New York Times" receive these documents? Was it directly from WikiLeaks or was it from an intermediary?

Scott Shane, are you there? All right. We're going to try and re- establish a connection with him and try to resume that conversation as best we can.

All right. So what is this website WikiLeaks and who is Julian Assange who apparently leads up WikiLeaks. Our Josh Levs has been doing a little extra digging on this, because some folks have heard WikiLeaks but perhaps they need a little bit more information about what this organization and website is all about. JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure absolutely. The word WikiLeaks gets thrown around a lot. A lot of people don't understand exactly what it is. I'll tell you we've been following WikiLeaks' website here. They said earlier in the day they were under cyber-attack. We're following what happens with the site, we are also following them on twitter for announcements, too.

Let's talk to you a little bit about what WikiLeaks is from the very beginning. We describe it on CNN.com pretty well as being led by a loose band basically of tech-savvy volunteers who have put together what is now known as WikiLeaks. Over the last few years, that has taken on more and more import as they have posted more and more major stories that have been breaking news.

Let's go with some video here. They used the tag line we open governments, and one of the things that happened not long ago as it grew in significance over the past few years is that in July it published what it said were tens of thousands of U.S. military and diplomatic reports about Afghanistan specifically, and that infuriated the government and the military. It left a lot of people very unhappy.

The founder, the name you here often is Julian Assange. He is an expert in computer networks, and security flaws and took on big issues of the government, security, war and politics. He doesn't make a lot of appearances, but he's not shy in the statements he makes about WikiLeaks and what it is. Take a look at one thing he said about WikiLeaks just several weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS EDITOR IN CHIEF: WikiLeaks has proven to be arguably the most trustworthy news source that exists because we publish primary source material.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: He said the information is sourced and that they check it before publication. Some government and military officials have a very different take saying Assange and WikiLeaks have blood on their hands and are endangering lives. A new website Ted.com that talks about technology covers technology. They describe him as the world's most visible human rights activist. And that right there is a sign of how Julian Assange and WikiLeaks has become such a lightning rod.

He says he himself gets a lot of the anger and a lot of the credit, even though WikiLeaks is actually the product of a lot of people. So we're following now, Fred, everything they post on line, they're twitter. We're waiting to see if their blog pops up at any point. And we'll be here with the latest from WikiLeaks throughout the day.

WHITFIELD: Right. And we understand there's been a real problem that the WikiLeaks website has been experiencing as well. We'll still try to find a little more information about that.

All right. Josh Levs thanks so much. Remember I just mentioned that there are a number of news organizations around the world who have been provided information from WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly, in order to publish the material. Among them, "The New York Times" as well and Scott Shane is out of Baltimore, one of the reporters on this story. We are going to try this one more time, hopefully we have him now. Scott are you there?

SCOTT SHANE, REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES:" I'm here.

WHITFIELD: OK, so give me an idea, how did "The New York Times" obtain this information, these documents, these cables by way of WikiLeaks, directly or indirectly?

SHANE: We got them indirectly in this case. As you may know "The New York Times" along with the European papers published documents from earlier WikiLeaks collections on the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. The state department cables, which clearly originated from WikiLeaks, we got from a confidential intermediary, somebody who gave them to us on the condition we don't name that person. But they're clearly are the 250,000 cables that WikiLeaks obtained.

WHITFIELD: While your report that none of these documents are marked top secret and you do mention that some 11,000 are classified as secret and 9,000 are labeled as no form meaning short hand as you report, from material considered too delicate to be shared with any foreign government, did you also run this past the U.S. State Department or get a kind of green light or resistance from the State Department on reporting on the this.

SHANE: Yes, we identified about 100 cables that we intend to post in whole or in part. We gave all that material to the State Department and asked for their help in identifying areas that they thought were particularly problematic. We had some conversations with them. They've expressed concerns about particular cables and particular portions of cables.

As a result of that and as a result of our own judgment, we redacted the names of, say, human rights activists or journalists or politicians who spoke to U.S. diplomats in countries where they could face severe reprisals, perhaps prison, for talking openly to the U.S. government. So we've removed those kinds of names. We've also removed some material and some entire cables that we thought might compromise ongoing U.S. intelligence collection efforts.

WHITFIELD: So does that mean that among the items -- I'm looking at your web page right now, that you decided to report on the dangerous standoff of Pakistan over nuclear fuel and gaining out of an event collapse of North Korea and failing negotiations trying to get South and North Korea to come together, a bargaining to try and empty the Gitmo Prison by getting certain countries to accept some of these detainees and then also information about suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government. You are saying that those items you decided or your news organization decided would not be problematic to report on these in conjunction with advice from the State Department? SHANE: Many of those including Afghan corruption are things that we report on all the time. In general, I would say that this collection of documents is not notable so much for brand-new revelations about things, shocking disclosures, but more to the kind of behind the scenes stories. How we speak to other countries and how they speak to us.

And I guess our judgment was that while there certainly would be repercussions, there would be strained relations perhaps with certain countries or certain leaders, we did not think that there would be lives at stake. We did not think that there would be important intelligence operations that would be compromised by the material that we're actually publishing.

WHITFIELD: All right. Scott Shane of the "New York Times." And then we're going to try to talk with you again if you are available in the next hour. I'd love to ask you a bit more about how the secretary of state Hillary Clinton and other American diplomats worked really hard upon the release of these documents to try to reach out to number of allies before they learned it from the general public. I'd love to ask you at that point to what extent. So Scott Shane, thanks so much, hopefully you're available the next hour?

SHANE: Thank you. I think I should be.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Talk to you then.

SHANE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll have much more on our continuing coverage of the WikiLeaks information that has been leaked.

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WHITFIELD: OK. A lot folks in the air and on the ground there traveling trying to get home after the holiday. Folks out west may find it's not so easy getting around, lots of snow and ice. Jacqui Jeras.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well it can be yuck. Sometimes it can be nice.

WHITFIELD: Just not when you're trying to drive.

JERAS: It can be rough going and it's kind of patchy out there. This isn't the worst storm system you've seen. It could be worse, and that's the best news that we can tell you. But there are a couple of hot cities so to speak that we've been watching where we've had some trouble because of the weather. Salt Lake City is one of those. We have been watching parts of Montana as well as Wyoming. Denver, right now we're checking in on you because you can see some moisture is moving into the area.

I just checked all the observations in Denver by the way and nobody is reporting any rain just yet. This is precipitation that actually evaporates before it reaches the ground, so it cools the atmosphere. I think we are going to start to see some rain and snow mixing in the next couple of hours before it changes over to snow. You can see it is snow definitely on I-70 as you head out to the west. The winds are gusting, too about 30 miles per hour so be aware of that. The winds even stronger as you head into the Plain states and the Western high plains. You can see the advisories. They remain in effect until about 6:00 for most of you. And gust can reach 45 miles per hour. So the wind is definitely an issue on those east/west traveled roads in particular.

I want to mention a couple of tinges that have happened on the roadways, too. The northeast has been really good weather wise, but we're having some problems in some of the big cities. I wanted to mention Washington, D.C. on the Beltway here and southward on I-95 towards Virginia 784 a jam factor of number 8 from Traffic.com. So traffic here only moving about 21 miles per hour. So slow going. No reports of accidents, but just lots of congestion in this area.

OK, how are things at the airports? We've had those delays at Teterboro and White Plains all day, about two hours to arrive in those cities and this is just volume delays. Now we have some problems in Ft. Myers, departure delays. If you're leaving Ft. Myers, Florida, delays around 45 minutes.

What about tomorrow back to work, back to reality, maybe an extra day of vacation? Well the nation's mid-section is where we expect the most trouble, Minneapolis, down towards Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City will be blustery and wet and we may see some severe thunder storms down along the Gulf Coast towards Pensacola area and the winter storm starts to die down a little bit across parts of the west. So we are watching improving conditions especially if you head into the afternoon hours for tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: OK. Fair enough warning. Thanks Jacqui.

JERAS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: We'll have much more in THE NEWSROOM right after this.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Voting is under way right now in earthquake- ravaged Haiti. Will have that story in a minute.

But first a look at the top stories. In Oregon a suspicious fire at a mosque attended by perfected Christmas tree bomber. Police in Corvallis, Oregon are calling it arson. The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information. This all follows Friday's arrest of Mohamed Osman Mohamud in Portland. The FBI says the 19-year-old plotted to bomb the crowd at a Christmas tree lighting Friday night.

And an ex-boyfriend has been charged in the death of a 20-year-old college dance student. Jenni-Lyn Watson has been missing since November 19th. Her body was discovered yesterday near Syracuse, New York. Prosecutors quickly filed a second-degree murder charge against 21-year-old Steven Pieper. At an arraignment yesterday the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Michigan police have issued an amber alert for three little boys. They vanished on the same day their father tried to hang himself. The boys were five, seven and nine and they were last seen Friday in Morenci, Michigan. Their father John Skelpan (ph) claims he dropped them off with a woman he met on the internet. He's now in a mental health facility.

Tens of thousands of sensitive U.S. State Department documents have been released by WikiLeaks. We're following this developing story next in THE NEWSROOM.

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