Wikileaks fallout continues

The Wikileaks revelations continue to reverberate around the world.

Nowhere more so than the White House.

The leaking of such a huge amount of confidential diplomatic correspondence is the stuff of nightmares for the Obama administration.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs says no course of action has been ruled out:

“The president was – this is an understatement – not pleased with this information becoming public. An open and transparent government is something he believes is truly important. But the stealing of and dissemination of classified information is a crime.”

The release of the candid and unguarded assessments of many global figures has prompted condemnation from around the world.

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised what he said was the “courage and bravery” of Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Chavez, a vocal critic of Washington, said the documents showed the US to be a “failed state”.

Wikileaks has so far posted only a tiny fraction of the emails it says it has obtained – 278 of 251 thousand plus messages.

However all the material has been given to five newspapers around the world, who say they have published it in the public interest.

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