Admiral Mike Mullen said that the dump of thousands of internal memos by WikiLeaks "frankly appalls me" and accused the activist website of "knowingly placing lives at risk."

But Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the exposed conversations showed that the United States was "a global power with relationships all over the world."

"I don't mean this arrogantly, but I've lived in Europe, I've been a part of NATO, I've lived in the Pacific. I understand what United States leadership means and brings," Mullen said at the Center for American Progress think-tank.

"That doesn't mean we always have it right, that doesn't mean that we don't make mistakes -- because we do," he said.

"But we as a country choose to engage because we think that in engaging and focusing on and trying to solve the problems, it leaves a region, a relationship and a world potentially in a better place," he said.

WikiLeaks has been releasing thousands of cables of internal messages from the State Department, apparently passed along by a disgruntled young army officer.

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