The White House ordered a government-wide review of how agencies safeguard sensitive information today in response to the weekend release of more than a quarter million classified State Department documents on the online website WikiLeaks.

The administration is conducting a criminal investigation of the incident and will prosecute if violations of the federal law are found, said Attorney General Eric Holder to reporters at the Justice Department today.

The secret memos and documents contain unflattering assessments of world leaders; unveiled U.S. pressure tactics in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea; as well as the nuclear ambitions of Iran, North Korea and Pakistan; China’s growth as a superpower; and the frustrations of combating terrorism.

“The catastrophic issue here is just a breakdown in trust. Many countries, allies and foes alike, are likely to ask, ‘Can the United States be trusted? Can the United States keep a secret?’” said Peter Hoekstra, the Senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

“These cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and opposition leaders, and when the substance of private conversations is printed on the front pages of newspapers across the world, it can deeply impact not only U.S. foreign policy interests, but those of our allies and friends around the world,” the White House said.

The leaks disclosed comments such as the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi being “feckless” and “vain” and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as “risk averse and rarely creative.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to address the diplomatic repercussions later today. She is scheduled to leave on a four-nation tour of Central Asia and the Middle East tomorrow, regions prominently discussed in the leaked documents.

The White House condemned the documents’ release, saying “such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government.”

The documents also revealed that the U.S. has gathered more personal information than normally expected on other countries’ diplomats, citing American memos encouraging U.S. diplomats at the United Nations to collect detailed data about the U.N. Secretary General, his team and foreign diplomats.

“Our diplomats are just that, diplomats,” said State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley, “They collect information that shapes our policies and actions. This is what diplomats from our country and other countries have done for hundreds of years.”

“Field reporting to Washington is candid and often includes incomplete information. It is not an expression of policy, nor does it always shape final policy decisions,” the White House said.

The leaks also uncovered new information about nuclear trouble spots, detailing world fears of Iran’s growing nuclear program, American concerns about Pakistan’s atomic arsenal and U.S. discussions about a United Korean Peninsula as a long-term solution to North Korean aggression.

“This is the September 11 of world diplomacy,” said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

“It’s important that governments are able to operate on the basis of confidentiality of information,” said Steve Field, a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The New York Times, France’s Le Monde, Britain’s Guardian Newspaper, German magazine Der Spiegel and others published the behind-the-scenes conduct of Washington’s international relations.

“The documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match,” said The New York Times on its website.

The Times cited diplomatic messages describing unsuccessful U.S. efforts to prod Pakistani officials to remove highly enriched uranium from a reactor out of fear that the material could be used to make an illicit atomic device.

They also cited exchanges showing Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh telling U.S. Gen. David Petraeus that his country would pretend that American missile strikes against a local Al-Qaida group had come from Yemen’s forces.

A message from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing alleging that China’s Politburo directed a cyber intrusion into Google’s computer systems as part of a “coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and internet outlaws,” was also cited by the New York Times.

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, claimed that the U.S. administration was trying to cover up evidence of serious “human rights abuse and other criminal behavior.”

Law enforcement officials in Australia, Assange’s home country, are investigating whether WikiLeaks broke any laws, according to Attorney General Robert McClelland.