Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 7/26/2010

1:07 P.M. EDT
 
     MR. GIBBS:  Yes, sir.
 
     Q    Thanks, Robert.  Two questions, a few on WikiLeaks.  What was the President’s reaction once he heard about the leaking –
 
     MR. GIBBS:  Well, I remember talking to the President sometime last week after discussions with news organizations that these stories were coming.  Look, I think our reaction to this type of material, a breach of federal law, is always the same, and that is whenever you have the potential for names and for operations and for programs to be out there in the public domain, that it — besides being against the law — has a potential to be very harmful to those that are in our military, those that are cooperating with our military, and those that are working to keep us safe.
 
     Q    Well, I mean, was he personally angered by this?  Did he demand answers or an investigation?
 
     MR. GIBBS:  Well, there is an ongoing investigation that predated the end of last week into leaks of highly classified secret documents.
 
     Q    Does the White House believe that the documents raise doubts about whether Pakistan is a reliable partner in fighting terrorism?
 
     MR. GIBBS:  Well, let’s understand a few things about the documents.  Based on what we’ve seen, I don’t think that what is being reported hasn’t in many ways been publicly discussed either by you all or by representatives of the U.S. government for quite some time.  We have certainly known about safe havens in Pakistan; we have been concerned about civilian casualties for quite some time — and on both of those aspects we’ve taken steps to make improvements.
 
     I think just the last time General Petreaus testified in front of the Senate there was a fairly robust discussion about the historical relationships that have been had between the Taliban and Pakistan’s intelligence services.
 
     Q    So no doubts about Pakistan’s trustworthiness or reliability?
 
     MR. GIBBS:  No, no, look, I think the President was clear back in March of 2009 that there was no blank check for Pakistan, that Pakistan had to change the way it dealt with us, it had to make progress on safe havens.  Look, it’s in the interest of the Pakistanis because we certainly saw last year those extremists that enjoy the safe haven there turning their eye on innocent Pakistanis.  That’s why you’ve seen Pakistan make progress in moving against extremists in Swat and in South Waziristan