Thaindian News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) — U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday, in phone calls to the leaders of Turkey and Mexico, expressed regret for “the deplorable action by Wikileaks.”

According to readouts provided by the White House, Obama “expressed his regrets for the deplorable action by Wikileaks” to Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and “the two leaders agreed that it will not influence or disrupt the close cooperation between the United States and Turkey.”

President Obama also called Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and both leaders “agreed [Wikileaks'] irresponsible acts should not distract our two countries from our important cooperation.”

The whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has made headlines several times this year. On April 5, the organization released a classified video which showed a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq which left several people killed, including two Reuters journalists.

And in July, WikiLeaks released the so-called ‘Afghan War Diary’, more than 92,000 documents with sensitive details about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. It was one of the largest leaks in the history of the U.S. military, but also exposed the names of Afghans who have provided information to NATO.

Then, in late October, WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 U.S. Army field reports of the Iraq War from 2004 to 2009. It led to several revelations, including new reports of civilian deaths. It was the biggest leak in U.S. military history.

Now the U.S. has announced the launch of a criminal investigation into the release of some 250,000 diplomatic cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to several news organizations.