The State Department and the White House made an effort in 2011 to convince the Washington Post not to publish un-redacted State Department cables obtained illegally by the hacker group Wikileaks.
Attempts by federal officials to influence the Post’s coverage proved unsuccessful, however, according to a batch of emails released Wednesday by State Department officials.
“Team — Despite our efforts, [the Washington Post] will proceed with its story on US-Turkey intel cooperation against [the Kurdistan Workers’ Party],” wrote former National Security Council spokesman Michael Hammer in a 2011 group email addressed to multiple State officials, including Clinton’s then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills. “They will not make redactions we requested so expect the Wikileaks cables to be published in full.”
The Post did exactly that.
“Since 2007, the United States has given the Turkish military video surveillance from Predator drones flying over northern Iraq so Turkey can launch attacks on Kurdish militant hideouts,” the Post reported in an article titled “Alleged PKK warning to U.S. against providing [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] to Turkey.”
“U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks provide a detailed inside look at how Turkey and the U.S. have collaborated to fight the militant group, known as the PKK. View all the related cables,” added the story, which included the full cables obtained by Wikileaks.
Prior to the Post’s report, Hammer provided top State and White House officials guidance on how to deal with reports based on leaked cables, writing in an email that he wished he “had better news to share.”
“We condemn the illegal disclosure of classified information. In addition to damaging our diplomatic efforts, it threatens our national security and undermines our effort to work with countries to solve shared problems,” he wrote. “We do not comment on intelligence matters.”
Further guidance advised federal officials to maintain that, “Turkey is a longstanding ally and partner of the United States and we continue to support Turkey in its struggle against PKK terrorism through various forms of cooperation. We support continued cooperation between Iraq and Turkey in combating the PKK, which is a common enemy of Turkey, Iraq, and the United States.”
“We condemn the PKK as a terrorist organization and demand that it cease its terrorist actions and unconditionally lay down arms,” Hammer’s guidance added.
