Biden: no 'substantive' damage from Wikileaks

US Vice President insists WikiLeaks revelations did not damage essence of relationship with other nations.

Middle East Online

No damages at all? WASHINGTON - US Vice President Joe Biden says there has been no "substantive" damage to US foreign policy from the WikiLeaks drama, despite embarrassment caused by thousands of leaked diplomatic cables. Biden commented on the fallout from the WikiLeaks campaign in an MSNBC interview broadcast on Thursday and recorded a day earlier at the United Nations, where he chaired a Security Council meeting on Iraq. "I don't think there is any substantive damage, no," Biden said, when asked about the WikiLeaks revelations. "Some of the cables that are coming out here and around the world are embarrassing," Biden said. "But nothing that I am aware of that goes to the essence of the relationship that will allow another nation to say 'they lied to me, we don't trust them, they really are not dealing fairly with us'." Last Saturday, President Barack Obama offered his strongest condemnation yet of what he called a "deplorable" WikiLeaks document dump, in a call to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Biden's interview was broadcast as WikLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed to clear his name of allegations of sexual assault after he was freed on bail by a London court. Top Obama administration officials have declined to comment on the court's decision.