Slamming WikiLeaks for compromising its ability to have confidential communication with other countries, the US has said several nations have told it that they will perhaps now be less candid in sharing information with it in the wake of the expose by the whistle- bower website.
These countries have conveyed their concerns to the Obama administration that the confidential information and perspective shared by them with the US have now found their way into the public space, which "is a violation of trust," State Department spokesman P J Crowley told foreign journalists here.
"And certain countries have cautioned us that they perhaps will be less candid in the future than they have in the past. This is of great concern to us because it is this international cooperation that helps us solve real world challenges," he said at a news conference held at the Washington's Foreign Press Centre.
Refusing to go into details of the ongoing investigation, Crowley said that WikiLeaks has damaged America's relations with other countries.
"It has compromised our ability to have confidential communications with other countries. But most importantly, it has put at risk people who have engaged the United States and our diplomats around the world, particularly in authoritarian societies where it is important for us to understand what's happening and where information is difficult to obtain," he said.
Perspective is important as the US tries to find ways to open up these societies to the very kinds of civil society activity that is taken for granted in a country like America, he said.
"As we have indicated publicly, tried to contact as many of these people – they are civil society activists, they are, in some cases, government officials, they are journalists in some cases. And the revelation of their names in the release of these cables has put their careers, and in some cases their lives, at risk.
"We have, in a very small number of instances, helped these people move to safer locations, sometimes in the same country; in a couple of cases, moved them to different countries. So that is our concern," he noted.