The Foreign Service Journal, March 2011

18 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 1 bassy, citing highly placed sources from within her own Cabinet. Yet the one cable the Argentine press seized upon was a biographical psychoanalysis questionnaire from State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research about whether Mrs. Kirchner had mood swings and, if so, what her doctors pre- scribed for them. This led to repeated headlines along the lines of “Hillary Questions Cristina’s Mental Stability.” Embassy Buenos Aires had fortunately chosen at the time not to respond to those questions, whether for lack of substan- tiated data or prudence — or a combi- nation of both. Still, the question itself became the story. We immediately went out to the media. The information officer ap- peared on selected radio and TV talk shows to answer questions. She and other embassy officials talked to news- paper columnists, and the press section used the embassy Twitter account (a very popular medium in Argentina) ju- diciously to reinforce key points. When one magazine published a made-up story claiming the CIA had passed it a cable on the president’s mental health, the embassy responded aggressively with a categorical denial of the story. S P E A K I N G O U T WikiLeaks should be held accountable for what it has done, not to get even, but to defend our liberty.