on our broadcast this monday night, telling secrets. thousands of confidential u.s. documents leaked for all the world to see. tonight, we'll look at how much damage this has caused. . hair trigger. a big american show of force in korea. but can it keep the lid on between north and south? getting the word out about a problem shared by millio of people that's still difficult to talk about. and seriously funny. remembering the man whose second career changed comedy forever. just don't call him shirley. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. it has happened again. the website wikileaks has gone public with u.s. state secrets, thousands of them. a massive coordinated leak of documents, seemingly designed to hurt the united states, its power, prestige and influence around the world. as a leading german newspaper put it today, never before in history has a superpower lost control of such vast amounts of such sensitive information. while diplomats will find all the blunt language familiar, it's meant to be secret. and now that it's out, it will no doubt hurt the ability of the u.s. to do business around the world. and there's more on the way. we begin our coverage tonight with our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell on our washington newsroom. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. today, the u.s. tried to project that foreign policy would not be seriously harmed by the flood of leaked cables, even as officials

worked overtime to limit the damage. the damage control started at the state department with an apology. >> the united states deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential. >> reporter: hillary clinton had a scheduled meeting today with one of the many foreign officials slammed in the cables. turkey's foreign minister described as exceptionally dangerous. he told her he would bring it up when they sat down. at the white house, robert gibbs condemned the leaks as a crime. >> the president was, as an understatement, not pleased with -- with this information becoming public. >> reporter: citing significant damage to our national security, the white house today directed government agencies to start restricting access to classified information. but it is too late to stop the torrent of leaks about friends

and adversaries alike. the cables disclosed that saudi arabia and other gulf states secretly urged the u.s. to attack iran's nuclear program. at a meeting with general petraeus in april of 2008, king abdula told you to cut off the head of the snake. a comment that could fuel radical opposition to the king at home. another cable this year says iran obtained 19 advanced missiles from north korea that could, for the first time, reach into western europe or moscow. iran's president today accused the u.s. of organizing the leaks to create mischief in the region. the cables disclose a u.s. plan to safeguard pakistan's nuclear arsenal failed because pakistan was afraid their media would portray it as the united states taking pakistan's nuclear weapons. another cable quotes yemen's president, telling general petraeus, we'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours, to cover up american military strikes against al qaeda. in another cable, afghanistan's

vice president was discovered carrying $52 million in cash during a visit to the united arab emirates last year. all this undermines trust among world leaders already suspicious of the united states. >> when i was secretary of defense, i went to a leader. he said, do not write to me and do not call me. if you have something to say to me, you come here in person and we will talk privately. >> reporter: and a revelation that hillary clinton and before her condoleezza rice both ordered u.s. diplomats to gather information, in essence, spy on foreign officials, including the u.n. secretary-general. >> our diplomats are just that, they're diplomats. >> reporter: less serious but embarrassing is pure gossip. some titillating. libya's gadhafi consorting in new york with a blonde ukrainian nurse. disparaging comments about british prime minister david cameron, german chancellor angela merkel, and reports of russia's vladamir putin lavishing italy's prime minister

with expensive gifts. >> in my conversations, at least one of my counterparts said to me, well, don't worry about it, you should see what we say about you. >> reporter: tonight, more cables released by wikileaks reveal that this year, south korean officials told the u.s. ambassador there that a new generation of chinese leaders would be comfortable with a reunified korea. but other cables reveal the chinese were as surprised as the u.s. was by north korea's recent nuclear advances and by their military steps. brian? >> as we stay, there's still more to come. andrea mitchell starting us off from washington tonight. andrea, thanks. the release of these new secrets just this first new batch has badly damaged already the u.s. around the world. those who once confided in american diplomats can now read those secrets in the paper, as we just heard. while it strikes most people as wrong, the more interesting question is, will anybody go to jail for this? we get more on that from our justice correspondent pete williams at the justice department tonight.

pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, officials here say they are aggressively investigating the leaks. but as surprising as it may seem, when it comes to the website, there is no federal law that explicitly covers something like this. the man at the center of this firestorm, an australian computer hacker who started wikileaks, was nowhere to be seen today. he's already wanted in sweden for questioning in a rape and sexual molestation case. now he's prompting the strongest calls yet for charging him for spying or some say even terrorism. >> we should go after him and the reason i say foreign terrorist organization is they're engaged in terrorist activity. >> reporter: the attorney general emphasized that the government is looking hard at what it can do. >> it's a predicate for us to believe that crimes have been committed here and we are in the process of investigating those crimes. >> reporter: but exactly what law has been broken by wikileaks is not so clear.

the espionage laws have never been used to prosecute anyone from publishing classified documents that were improperly obtained. though they have been used to prosecute government employees who took the documents in the first place. the closest the u.s. supreme court ever came to tissue was 1971 when it struck down an order intended to block publication in advance of vietnam war documents called the pentagon papers. few of the justices said they thought a newspaper could be prosecuted after it printed classified information, but the full court never ruled on that. >> we're not going to argue. >> reporter: daniel elsberg, the contractor who leaked the pentagon papers, says the government's alarm this time is overblown. >> what they're worried about is not the lives of soldiers but the reputations of politicians who have lied, embarrassed themselves, who have soiled their linen, let's say. of course that's embarrassing. >> reporter: the government has filed charges against an army private, bradley manning. now in military custody accused of giving classified material to

wikileaks. he is suspected of downloading documents while working as an intelligence analyst in baghdad, but experts on espionage law say prosecuting the website won't be easy. >> the issue is the first amendment, and how the court is going to look at prosecuting a publisher if it's not going to allow prosecuting "the new york times," then it's probably not going to want to allow prosecuting wikileaks. >> reporter: some officials say it's possible to view wikileaks less as a publisher and more as a middleman that helped the leaker disclose classified materials, and under that legal theory they say it might be possible to prosecute the website. >> pete williams at the department of justice in washington tonight. pete, thanks. one story from overseas today reminded some people of a scene from a hollywood movie. two iranian nuclear scientists, riding in separate cars, were attacked in tehran today by men on motorcycles who reportedly attached bombs to the scientist's moving cars, then

detonated them on the run from a distance. one scientist was killed, the other injured. iran's president blamed outsiders for this and said iran's nuclear program would go forward. this was a deadly and awful day in afghanistan. a gunman dressed as a border policeman opened fire on american soldiers, killing six americans before he was killed by return fire. it happened at an outpost near the pakistan border. the taliban claimed responsibility for this attack. the deadliest of its kind in more than two years of fighting. the president of south korea said in a speech to his people today that he had "failed to protect them from last week's attack by north korea." even as he spoke, a joint u.s.-south korean military exercise was under way in korean waters, an unmistakable show of course. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel has the latest from south korea. >> reporter: it's old fashioned gun boat diplomacy.

just the presence of the 97,000 ton nuclear powered "uss george washington" aircraft carrier and its strike group is meant to send a blunt message to north korea. stop aggression against the south. and american deterrence isn't just at sea. on a snow covered firing range, american soldiers were testing their bradley fighting vehicles. it's a routine drill, not a sign, commanders say, the united states is preparing for war. the 28,500 american troops here in south korea have been put on a heightened state of readiness. they've increased surveillance of north korea and commanders here say they are ready to respond to any north korean aggression at a moment's notice. captain a.j. boise says u.s. troops are mostly waiting, watching and ready. >> if given the call, we are able to help defend the republic of korea against the -- what may

or may not occur. >> reporter: the mood among american forces is calm. >> there's skirmishes all over the world every day. i don't think they should be taken out of context. >> reporter: but the united states and south korea face a tough balancing accused, containing the often unpredictable north without provoking it. today, the south korean president promised repercussions if the north attacked again. tough talk. but hours later, south korea canceled an artillery drill. south korea wants to push back, but doesn't want war. richard engel, nbc news, south korea. followup now to a story that broke over this past weekend about an alleged plot to detonate a car bomb at a christmas tree lighting in portland, oregon. the accused, a 19-year-old somali american appeared in federal court in portland today, pleaded not guilty. his lawyer accused the government of entrapment. here at home, the

thanksgiving travel weekend came to a quiet end, despite all that anxiety over the tsa and the air travelers who were bracing for chaos. a few scattered protests of full body scanners and aggressive pat-downs were reported but no major delays at security lines anywhere in the country. quite the contrary. as for holiday shopping, analysts say americans spent 6% more this weekend than we did last year. a third of it online. when our broadcast continues here in just a moment, president obama's new move to cut the federal budget. that will hit home for a lot of people. and later, the king's speech, specifically his speech problem. a new movie puts the spotlight on those who struggle with stuttering.

i'm lee cowan with breaking news out of wisconsin tonight. police say a student is holding 23 other students and a teacher hostage at a classroom at a high

school some 50 miles north of green bay. the standoff has been going on since about 3:00 p.m. there. the student, believed to be in 10th grade, is armed with a handgun and parts have gathered at a nearby courthouse awaiting word from law enforcement. police say they are in phone contact with the subject. so far, no shots have been fired. we'll continue to follow the situation. for now, back to brian williams in new york. president obama's latest effort to cut the massive federal budget deficit took a lot of people by surprise today, including a lot of those who will be affected by this, because he wants to freeze pay for federal workers. our white house correspondent savannah guthrie with us tonight with more on this. savannah, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. as you said, the president wants to freeze the pay of federal workers for two years, not including u.s. troops. the white house estimates this will save $2 billion over the remaining fiscal year and $28 billion over five years. they acknowledge just a fraction

of the $1.3 trillion deficit, but they want to show the president is serious about starting to make some tough choices on spending. >> the hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government. i did not reach this decision easily. this is not just a line item on the federal ledger. these are people's lives. >> reporter: republicans today welcomed this move. democrats were largely silent, although union leaders were sharply critical of this. all of these issues are going to come to a head later this week when the president's bipartisan deficit commission reports its findings on wednesday, and tomorrow a big showdown at the white house between republican and democratic leaders and the president. their first meeting since the elections. and looming large, whether to extend those bush tax cuts for all americans. brian? >> savannah guthrie at the white house tonight. savannah, thanks. the art world is reeling

tonight after a french newspaper revealed 271 previously unknown works of pablo picasso have been discovered. an electrician who had worked at picasso's house back in the 1970s had stored the paintings in his garage. he said they were gifts for the work he performed. picasso's heirs, however, disputing that. the paintings cover 32 years of picasso's life. it's one of the top brands of imported bottled water in this country and around the world, but fiji water is pulling out of fiji, the south pacific island nation that is the source of their product. the company said it's closing its plant after the government said it would impose steep new taxes on the water company. we're back in a moment with a look at how this nation today remembered a very funny man.

well, let's see if spiderman can rescue himself from this one. there was a meltdown on broadway last night for the most expensive broadway show ever produced. "spiderman the musical" has cost an estimated $65 million to produce. the music was composed by bono and edge of u-2 fame and last night, before a preview audience, it melted down. cables broke, one actress was

stranded, suspended on a wire above the audience for several minutes. the play stopped cold several times. the producers say, however, they'll get it all fixed and the show will go on. a shocker from the folks who hand out the oscars. the academy awards in february will be hosted by the actors james franco and anne hathaway. one "l.a. times" columnist says tonight the reaction in hollywood has been incredulous. it's an attempt to lure younger viewers and buck the trend of declining ratings by going against the tradition of having an established comic usually host the awards. all day today, americans have been remembering, with a smile, a laugh, with great affection and with the help of a lot of video clips, the great leslie nielsen who died yesterday at his home in florida. and if his work doesn't make you laugh, it is possible nothing will. >> can you fly this plane and land it? >> surely you can't be serious. >> i am serious, and don't call

me shirley. >> the canadian born leslie nielsen had a serious movie career as a handsome leading man in dramatic roles for decades. but that's not important right now. instead, he will be remembered most for careening his career into comedy and for changing comedy forever. "airplane," "naked gun," he understood these went against type. that was part of the gag, because he looked like a serious man and the lines he left us will live forever. >> you better tell the captain we've got to land as soon as we can. this woman has to be gotten to a hospital. >> a hospital, what is it? >> it's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now. >> cigarette? >> yes, i know. >> can i interest you in a night cap? >> no, thank you, i don't wear them. >> new coat, sir? >> yes, it, is and i have a receipt to prove it. >> his second career in comedy brought joy to millions, even less well known are aspects of his past. a horribly abusive father, his stint in the royal canadian air

force and his life-long deafness for which he constantly wore hearing aids. for some reason, he always insisted he was made for comedy, and of course, he turned out to be right. so when we were left today with the sadness of leslie nielsen's death and the question what to make of it, there is only one answer. we can make a hat or a broach or a pterodactyl. the great leslie nielsen was 84 years old. we'll take one last break here tonight. when we come back, what the average american can learn about struggle from a member of the british royal family.

the list of names is long and surprising. joe biden, julia roberts, jimmy stewart, carly simon, james earl jones. they all have one thing in common, they stuttered. as impediments go, it can be crippling. but it can also be fixed. it's the subject of a new film called "the king's speech." it's already an academy award favorite. it's about the real-life king of england who needed to speak to his people and overcome his own stutter. our report from nbc's lee cowan. >> reporter: in hollywood, screen writers make a living by writing words for others to

speak. a perfect career for david siedler, a man once terrified of speaking himself. >> a childhood of stuttering is something that no sane person would choose. >> reporter: it was crippling. >> you live in dread, in absolute dread. >> reporter: but it is that dread that makes his latest screenplay, "the king's speech," so realistic. >> george, the stammerer. >> reporter: his hero is the stutterer. britain's king george vi. determined to overcome his stammering with his speech therapist. >> do you know any jokes? timing isn't my strong suit. >> reporter: it is funny. but at times, it's also difficult to watch. >> i wanted him to exist in those terrifying silences that stammerers have to suffer when

they're just trying to get to that next word. >> reporter: pathologists still don't no why people stutter. but 1 out of 100 americans does. >> just identifying one's self as a person who stutters is hugely feared. >> reporter: edward neufeld is an attorney that stutters. >> your chest is very compressed, and your heart is racing. >> reporter: even with therapy, words like court remain troublesome. but not as troublesome as the stigma. >> i remember having a telephone interview with a lawyer in las vegas and he told me two seconds in, this will not work. >> reporter: it's just that kind of negative perception that many hope this film will combat. as for the speechwriter, he says the message is simple. every stutterer deserves the royal treatment and not just the king. >> to be heard at last, to have a voice, is a very marvelous thing. >> reporter: hollywood has

listened and he hopes those suffering in silence will too. lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. >> and that's our broadcast for this monday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams and as always, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ritd right now the big chill taking its toll on people and their cars. >> get ready for another cold night, especially in the south bay this time. these cold temperatures are taking a lot of people by surprise. we have team coverage tonight. nbc bay area's damion has