CIA's Answer to WikiLeaks: WTF

The CIA has launched a special task force to assess the impact of the WikiLeaks' release of 250,000+ sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables, The Washington Post reports.

Its name? The WikiLeaks Task Force, but at the CIA headquarters it's mainly known as WTF — an acronym that carries a set of connotations the CIA probably doesn't want to be associated with.

Funny connotations aside, the WTF's mission is to conduct an extensive inventory of the classified data released by WikiLeaks, as well as assess the released files' impact on activities such as the CIA's ability to recruit informants in a climate where few people believe the U.S. government can keep a secret.

WikiLeaks' release of the secret cables is one of the biggest leaks of confidential information in U.S. history. Although the CIA hasn't been directly damaged by it — partly due to the fact that it doesn't share its classified data with other agencies — it's obvious that monitoring WikiLeaks and the dissemination of the cables, which are gradually being released to the public, is one of CIA's top priorities.

Since the announcement of this latest leak, WikiLeaks and its owner and founder Julian Assange have been heavily criticized by the U.S. government, with some even going so far to call Assange a high-tech terrorist. Assange himself has a separate set of problems as he struggles with an arrest warrant from Sweden, where he is wanted for sex crimes.