| Leaked Classified Documents of Afghan War shows ISI connection with Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists networks. |
Leaks create fresh doubt about
Afghan war, secrets
By ROBERT BURNS
WASHINGTON – The monumental leak of classified Afghan war documents threatened Monday to create deeper doubts about the war at home, cause new
friction with Pakistan over allegations about its spy agency and raise questions around the world about Washington's own ability to protect military secrets.
The White House called the disclosures "alarming."
The torrent of more than 91,000 secret documents, one of the largest unauthorized disclosures in military history, sent the Obama administration scrambling
to assess and repair any damage to the war effort, either abroad or in the U.S. The material could reinforce the view put forth by the war's opponents in
Congress that one of the nation's longest conflicts is hopelessly stalemated.
The leaks come at a time when President Barack Obama's Afghanistan war strategy is under congressional scrutiny and with polls finding that a majority of
Americans no longer think the war there is worth fighting. Still, the leaks are not expected to prevent passage of a $60 billion war funding bill. Despite strong
opposition among liberals who see Afghanistan as an unwinnable quagmire, House Democrats must either approve the bill before leaving at the end of this
week for a six-week vacation, or commit political suicide by leaving troops in the lurch in war zones overseas.
The Pentagon also was looking at possible damage on the ground in Afghanistan.
"Someone inadvertently or on purpose gave the Taliban its new 'enemies list,'" declared Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who said the White House indicated the
disclosures compromised a number of Afghan sources.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs emphasized that the documents covered the period before Obama ordered a major increase in U.S. troops fighting in
Afghanistan, and the administration denied they would cause any policy shift in the fight against Taliban insurgents.
Indeed, despite the furor over the publication of the reports on the WikiLeaks whistleblower website, the information did not reveal any fundamentally new
problems in the war effort. Military officers, current and former, described the documents as mostly tactical spot reports, including hunches about possible
suspects and bomb plots that couldn't be verified. Some of the reports contain errors; others appear to be based on flimsy evidence.
Still, much of the material is anything but encouraging.
Underscoring the difficulties the U.S. faces, the documents include the first publicly released indication that the Taliban has used portable surface-to-air
missiles against U.S. helicopters. One report on a June 2005 incident said a Black Hawk helicopter used evasive measures to avoid getting hit east of
Kandahar by what its crew chief identified as a portable missile.
The documents also report potential Iranian support of an Afghan terrorist group.
They said that on Jan. 30, 2005, Iranian intelligence agencies brought the equivalent of $212,800 in Afghan currency across the Iranian border and
transferred it to a 1990s-model white Toyota Corolla station wagon occupied by members of Hizb-i-Islami, a Taliban-allied insurgent group led by former
Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The money trail was lost.
Col. Dave Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, said the military would probably need "days, if not weeks" to determine "the potential damage to the
lives of our service members and coalition partners."
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the release of documents was just the beginning. He told reporters in London that some 15,000 more files on
Afghanistan were still being vetted by his organization.
The documents are described as battlefield reports compiled by various military units that provide an unflinching view of combat operations between 2004
and 2009, including U.S. frustration over reports that Pakistan secretly aided insurgents fighting U.S. and Afghan forces.
The material portrays Pakistan as playing a double game when it came to the struggle against Afghan militants, with security officials secretly providing
insurgents with aid. Both the U.S. and Pakistan say that view is outdated, but one American analyst said it probably is correct.
"The Pakistan government gave up claiming that it could control its intelligence agencies around the time they invented them. I don't think they even try," said
Paula R. Newberg, director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
In Islamabad, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the leaked documents "misplaced, skewed and contrary to the factual position on the ground."
And it said that U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism cooperation against "our common enemies" will continue.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley argued that there is a "new dynamic" in the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan and Pakistan since the period
covered by the leaked documents. He acknowledged, however, that the U.S. remains concerned about weaknesses in the relationship, including the problem
of corruption in the Afghan government.
"These documents highlight issues we've long known about," Crowley said.
WikiLeaks, a self-described whistleblower organization, posted the reports to its website Sunday night. It did not say who provided the documents.
Crowley said it was unclear whether the leak was related to a U.S. military intelligence analyst who is being held in Kuwait, on charges of mishandling
classified information on military computers in Baghdad.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said the documents released so far "reflect the reality, recognized by everyone, that the insurgency was gaining momentum
during these years while our coalition was losing ground."
The Taliban's resurgence led Obama to announce in December 2009 a major increase of forces to Afghanistan as part of a new civil-military strategy,
Lieberman pointed out.
Shortly after the documents were posted on the Internet, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they raised
questions about whether the U.S. was pursuing a realistic policy with Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said they showed the urgency of making the
"calibrations" necessary "to get the policy right."
Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the leak disturbing.
"The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange jump suits," Bond said.
The military has detained Bradley Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst in Baghdad, for allegedly transmitting classified information. But the latest
documents could have come from anyone with a secret-level clearance, Lapan said.
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Anne Flaherty and Andrew Taylor in Washington, Raphael Satter in London, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin
contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_afghanistan_wikileaks
Related links:
Afghan war, secrets
By ROBERT BURNS
WASHINGTON – The monumental leak of classified Afghan war documents threatened Monday to create deeper doubts about the war at home, cause new
friction with Pakistan over allegations about its spy agency and raise questions around the world about Washington's own ability to protect military secrets.
The White House called the disclosures "alarming."
The torrent of more than 91,000 secret documents, one of the largest unauthorized disclosures in military history, sent the Obama administration scrambling
to assess and repair any damage to the war effort, either abroad or in the U.S. The material could reinforce the view put forth by the war's opponents in
Congress that one of the nation's longest conflicts is hopelessly stalemated.
The leaks come at a time when President Barack Obama's Afghanistan war strategy is under congressional scrutiny and with polls finding that a majority of
Americans no longer think the war there is worth fighting. Still, the leaks are not expected to prevent passage of a $60 billion war funding bill. Despite strong
opposition among liberals who see Afghanistan as an unwinnable quagmire, House Democrats must either approve the bill before leaving at the end of this
week for a six-week vacation, or commit political suicide by leaving troops in the lurch in war zones overseas.
The Pentagon also was looking at possible damage on the ground in Afghanistan.
"Someone inadvertently or on purpose gave the Taliban its new 'enemies list,'" declared Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who said the White House indicated the
disclosures compromised a number of Afghan sources.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs emphasized that the documents covered the period before Obama ordered a major increase in U.S. troops fighting in
Afghanistan, and the administration denied they would cause any policy shift in the fight against Taliban insurgents.
Indeed, despite the furor over the publication of the reports on the WikiLeaks whistleblower website, the information did not reveal any fundamentally new
problems in the war effort. Military officers, current and former, described the documents as mostly tactical spot reports, including hunches about possible
suspects and bomb plots that couldn't be verified. Some of the reports contain errors; others appear to be based on flimsy evidence.
Still, much of the material is anything but encouraging.
Underscoring the difficulties the U.S. faces, the documents include the first publicly released indication that the Taliban has used portable surface-to-air
missiles against U.S. helicopters. One report on a June 2005 incident said a Black Hawk helicopter used evasive measures to avoid getting hit east of
Kandahar by what its crew chief identified as a portable missile.
The documents also report potential Iranian support of an Afghan terrorist group.
They said that on Jan. 30, 2005, Iranian intelligence agencies brought the equivalent of $212,800 in Afghan currency across the Iranian border and
transferred it to a 1990s-model white Toyota Corolla station wagon occupied by members of Hizb-i-Islami, a Taliban-allied insurgent group led by former
Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The money trail was lost.
Col. Dave Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, said the military would probably need "days, if not weeks" to determine "the potential damage to the
lives of our service members and coalition partners."
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the release of documents was just the beginning. He told reporters in London that some 15,000 more files on
Afghanistan were still being vetted by his organization.
The documents are described as battlefield reports compiled by various military units that provide an unflinching view of combat operations between 2004
and 2009, including U.S. frustration over reports that Pakistan secretly aided insurgents fighting U.S. and Afghan forces.
The material portrays Pakistan as playing a double game when it came to the struggle against Afghan militants, with security officials secretly providing
insurgents with aid. Both the U.S. and Pakistan say that view is outdated, but one American analyst said it probably is correct.
"The Pakistan government gave up claiming that it could control its intelligence agencies around the time they invented them. I don't think they even try," said
Paula R. Newberg, director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
In Islamabad, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the leaked documents "misplaced, skewed and contrary to the factual position on the ground."
And it said that U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism cooperation against "our common enemies" will continue.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley argued that there is a "new dynamic" in the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan and Pakistan since the period
covered by the leaked documents. He acknowledged, however, that the U.S. remains concerned about weaknesses in the relationship, including the problem
of corruption in the Afghan government.
"These documents highlight issues we've long known about," Crowley said.
WikiLeaks, a self-described whistleblower organization, posted the reports to its website Sunday night. It did not say who provided the documents.
Crowley said it was unclear whether the leak was related to a U.S. military intelligence analyst who is being held in Kuwait, on charges of mishandling
classified information on military computers in Baghdad.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said the documents released so far "reflect the reality, recognized by everyone, that the insurgency was gaining momentum
during these years while our coalition was losing ground."
The Taliban's resurgence led Obama to announce in December 2009 a major increase of forces to Afghanistan as part of a new civil-military strategy,
Lieberman pointed out.
Shortly after the documents were posted on the Internet, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they raised
questions about whether the U.S. was pursuing a realistic policy with Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said they showed the urgency of making the
"calibrations" necessary "to get the policy right."
Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the leak disturbing.
"The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange jump suits," Bond said.
The military has detained Bradley Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst in Baghdad, for allegedly transmitting classified information. But the latest
documents could have come from anyone with a secret-level clearance, Lapan said.
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Anne Flaherty and Andrew Taylor in Washington, Raphael Satter in London, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin
contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_afghanistan_wikileaks
Related links:
- http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010
- Wikileaks release classified Afghan war documents
- US paying Pakistan to kill American troops?
- London School of Economics: Pakistan's ISI "is providing funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban"
- Report: Pakistan Is Funding, Training Taliban in Afghanistan
- WikiLeaks publishes 92,000 Afghan war documents
- Wikileaks Afghanistan Document Dump a Restatement of the Obvious
- Pakistani agents 'funding and training Afghan Taliban'
- http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/the-war-logs/?partner=rss&emc=rss#WarLogs
- http://cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2010/07/25/nr.wikileaks.military.reports.cnn
- Pakistan's ISI still supporting Taliban: Report
- http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/the-war-logs/?partner=rss&emc=rss#WarLogs
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsiM4bMki4E&feature=player_embedded
- http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid69900095001?bctid=248208869001
- White House, foreign allies downplay impact of classified document leak
- Gibbs: Leaked documents a potential threat
- A Look at The Washington Post’s ‘Top Secret America’
- Wikileaks releases massive set of Afghan war files
- The War Logs: Reaction to Disclosure of Military Documents on Afghan War
- Exclusive: After Revealing Afghan War Secrets, Wikileaks Prepares Document Dumps on Iraq and Diplomacy
- Angry Pakistani officials deny leaked documents' suggestion of ties to Taliban
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/26/AR2010072602393.html?sid%3DST2010072502561
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/26/AR2010072602393_2.html?sid=ST2010072502561
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/26/AR2010072602393_3.html?sid=ST2010072502561
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/07/26/VI2010072602430.html?sid=ST2010072502561
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/26/AR2010072601570.html
- http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/afghan_secrets_leaked_fb9yVtFryYd9BLeOPAvv4L?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=#ixzz0upRFWToD
- http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/afghan_secrets_leaked_fb9yVtFryYd9BLeOPAvv4L?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=#ixzz0upR9IR5T
Afghanistan says it's 'shocked' by
leaked U.S. documents
From Atika Shubert, CNN
July 26, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Help us get to the heart of the documents. Take a look at them and see what you can find of interest. Then share it on CNN iReport.
(CNN) -- The Afghan government said Monday it was "shocked" as it sifted through tens of thousands of leaked U.S. military and diplomatic reports on the
war in Afghanistan that a whistleblower website posted a day earlier.
"The Afghan government is shocked with the report that has opened the reality of the Afghan war," said Siamak Herawi, a government spokesman.
WikiLeaks.org -- a whistleblower website -- published on Sunday what it says are more than 90,000 United States military and diplomatic reports about
Afghanistan filed between 2004 and January of this year.
Are you reading the documents? Tell us what you find
The first-hand accounts are the military's own raw data on the war, including numbers killed, casualties, threat reports and the like, according to Julian
Assange, the founder of the website.
"It is the total history of the Afghan war from 2004 to 2010, with some important exceptions -- U.S. Special Forces, CIA activity, and most of the activity of other
non-U.S. groups," Assange said.
CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the documents. The Department of Defense will not comment on them until the Pentagon has had a
chance to look at them, a Defense official told CNN.
"What you have here is you have a variety of reports of different types," said New York Times reporter Chris Chivers. "Many of them are simple incident reports.
The military describing ... on the ground what happened. Incident by incident."
The New York Times reported Sunday that military field documents included in the release suggest that Pakistan, an ally of the United States in the war
against terror, has been running something of a "double game," allowing "representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy
sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders."
Herawi charged that Washington needed to deal with Pakistani intelligence, known as the ISI.
"There should be serious action taken against the ISI, who has a direct connection with the terrorists," he said. "These reports show that the U.S. was already
aware of the ISI connection with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The United States is overdue on the ISI issue and now the United States should answer."
But Gen. Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's intelligence service and who is mentioned numerous times in the Wikileaks reports, called the
accusations lies.
"These reports are absolutely and utterly false," Gul said Monday. "I think they [United States] are failing and they're looking for scapegoats."
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, issued a statement Sunday saying the reports "do not reflect the current onground realities."
Rather, they "reflect nothing more than single source comments and rumors, which abound on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and are often
proved wrong after deeper examination," Haqqani's statement said.
"Pakistan's government under the democratically elected leadership of President [Asif Ali] Zardari and Prime Minister [Yousuf Raza] Gilani is following a
clearly laid out strategy of fighting and marginalizing terrorists and our military and intelligence services are effectively executing that policy," the statement
said.
National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones issued a statement Sunday calling the documents' release "irresponsible."
"The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and
our partners at risk, and threaten our national security," the statement said.
"These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common
enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people," the statement said.
Assange declined to tell CNN where he got the documents. Jones' statement said the website made "no effort" to contact the Obama administration about
the documents.
"The United States government learned from news organizations that these documents would be posted," Jones' statement said.
Assange claims the documents reveal the "squalor" of war, uncovering how many relatively small incidents have added up to huge numbers of dead civilians.
The significance lies in "all of these people being killed in the small events that we haven't heard about that numerically eclipse the big casualty events. It's
the boy killed by a shell that missed a target," he told CNN.
"What we haven't seen previously is all those individual deaths," he said. "We've seen just the number and, like Stalin said, 'One man's death is a tragedy, a
million dead is a statistic.' So, we've seen the statistic."
WikiLeaks publishes anonymously submitted documents, video and other sensitive materials after vetting them, it says. It claims never to have fallen for a
forgery.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, said in a statement Sunday that the documents -- regardless of how they
came to light -- "raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Wikileaks has previously made headlines for posting controversial videos of combat in Iraq.
The site gained international attention in April when it posted a 2007 video said to show a U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq killing a dozen civilians, including two
unarmed Reuters journalists.
At the time, Maj. Shawn Turner, a U.S. military spokesman, said that "all evidence available supported the conclusion by those forces that they were engaging
armed insurgents and not civilians."
Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, suspected of leaking a classified 2007 video, has been charged by the U.S. military with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code
for transferring classified data, according to a charge sheet released by the military earlier this month.
Attempts to reach Manning's military defense attorney, Capt. Paul Bouchard, were unsuccessful Sunday. However, U.S. Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins
has said Bouchard would not speak to the media about the charges.
Assange says WikiLeaks has attempted to put together a legal team to defend Manning, something it will do for any "alleged" whistleblower that runs into
legal trouble because of WikiLeaks.
Assange -- a former teen hacker who launched the site in 2007 -- denies that WikiLeaks has put troops in danger.
"There certainly have been people who have lost elections as a result of material being on WikiLeaks," he said.
"There have been prosecutions because of material being on WikiLeaks. There have been legislative reforms because of material being on WikiLeaks," he
said. "What has not happened is anyone being physically harmed as a result."
The website held back about 15,000 documents from Afghanistan to protect individuals who informed on the Taliban, he said.
But he said he hoped his website would be "very dangerous" to "people who want to conduct wars in an abusive way."
"This material doesn't just reveal occasional abuse by the U.S. military," he said. "Of course it has U.S. military reporting on all sort of abuses by the Taliban.
... So it does describe the abuses by both sides in this war and that's how people can understand what's really going on and if they choose to support it or
not."
Assange said the organization gets material from whistle-blowers in a variety of ways -- including via postal mail -- vets it, releases it to the public and then
defends itself against "the regular political or legal attack."
He said the organization rarely knows the identity of the source of the leak. "If we find out at some stage, we destroy that information as soon as possible," he
said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/26/afganistan.wikileaks/index.html#fbid=zhekQ5F9a1S
leaked U.S. documents
From Atika Shubert, CNN
July 26, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Afghan government said it's "shocked" by reports
- Former head of Pakistani intelligence says reports are lies
- Some documents allege Pakistan is aiding the insurgency, New York Times reports
- Senator says the documents "raise serious questions" about foreign policy
Help us get to the heart of the documents. Take a look at them and see what you can find of interest. Then share it on CNN iReport.
(CNN) -- The Afghan government said Monday it was "shocked" as it sifted through tens of thousands of leaked U.S. military and diplomatic reports on the
war in Afghanistan that a whistleblower website posted a day earlier.
"The Afghan government is shocked with the report that has opened the reality of the Afghan war," said Siamak Herawi, a government spokesman.
WikiLeaks.org -- a whistleblower website -- published on Sunday what it says are more than 90,000 United States military and diplomatic reports about
Afghanistan filed between 2004 and January of this year.
Are you reading the documents? Tell us what you find
The first-hand accounts are the military's own raw data on the war, including numbers killed, casualties, threat reports and the like, according to Julian
Assange, the founder of the website.
"It is the total history of the Afghan war from 2004 to 2010, with some important exceptions -- U.S. Special Forces, CIA activity, and most of the activity of other
non-U.S. groups," Assange said.
CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the documents. The Department of Defense will not comment on them until the Pentagon has had a
chance to look at them, a Defense official told CNN.
"What you have here is you have a variety of reports of different types," said New York Times reporter Chris Chivers. "Many of them are simple incident reports.
The military describing ... on the ground what happened. Incident by incident."
The New York Times reported Sunday that military field documents included in the release suggest that Pakistan, an ally of the United States in the war
against terror, has been running something of a "double game," allowing "representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy
sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders."
Herawi charged that Washington needed to deal with Pakistani intelligence, known as the ISI.
"There should be serious action taken against the ISI, who has a direct connection with the terrorists," he said. "These reports show that the U.S. was already
aware of the ISI connection with the al Qaeda terrorist network. The United States is overdue on the ISI issue and now the United States should answer."
But Gen. Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's intelligence service and who is mentioned numerous times in the Wikileaks reports, called the
accusations lies.
"These reports are absolutely and utterly false," Gul said Monday. "I think they [United States] are failing and they're looking for scapegoats."
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, issued a statement Sunday saying the reports "do not reflect the current onground realities."
Rather, they "reflect nothing more than single source comments and rumors, which abound on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and are often
proved wrong after deeper examination," Haqqani's statement said.
"Pakistan's government under the democratically elected leadership of President [Asif Ali] Zardari and Prime Minister [Yousuf Raza] Gilani is following a
clearly laid out strategy of fighting and marginalizing terrorists and our military and intelligence services are effectively executing that policy," the statement
said.
National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones issued a statement Sunday calling the documents' release "irresponsible."
"The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and
our partners at risk, and threaten our national security," the statement said.
"These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common
enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people," the statement said.
Assange declined to tell CNN where he got the documents. Jones' statement said the website made "no effort" to contact the Obama administration about
the documents.
"The United States government learned from news organizations that these documents would be posted," Jones' statement said.
Assange claims the documents reveal the "squalor" of war, uncovering how many relatively small incidents have added up to huge numbers of dead civilians.
The significance lies in "all of these people being killed in the small events that we haven't heard about that numerically eclipse the big casualty events. It's
the boy killed by a shell that missed a target," he told CNN.
"What we haven't seen previously is all those individual deaths," he said. "We've seen just the number and, like Stalin said, 'One man's death is a tragedy, a
million dead is a statistic.' So, we've seen the statistic."
WikiLeaks publishes anonymously submitted documents, video and other sensitive materials after vetting them, it says. It claims never to have fallen for a
forgery.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, said in a statement Sunday that the documents -- regardless of how they
came to light -- "raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Wikileaks has previously made headlines for posting controversial videos of combat in Iraq.
The site gained international attention in April when it posted a 2007 video said to show a U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq killing a dozen civilians, including two
unarmed Reuters journalists.
At the time, Maj. Shawn Turner, a U.S. military spokesman, said that "all evidence available supported the conclusion by those forces that they were engaging
armed insurgents and not civilians."
Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, suspected of leaking a classified 2007 video, has been charged by the U.S. military with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code
for transferring classified data, according to a charge sheet released by the military earlier this month.
Attempts to reach Manning's military defense attorney, Capt. Paul Bouchard, were unsuccessful Sunday. However, U.S. Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins
has said Bouchard would not speak to the media about the charges.
Assange says WikiLeaks has attempted to put together a legal team to defend Manning, something it will do for any "alleged" whistleblower that runs into
legal trouble because of WikiLeaks.
Assange -- a former teen hacker who launched the site in 2007 -- denies that WikiLeaks has put troops in danger.
"There certainly have been people who have lost elections as a result of material being on WikiLeaks," he said.
"There have been prosecutions because of material being on WikiLeaks. There have been legislative reforms because of material being on WikiLeaks," he
said. "What has not happened is anyone being physically harmed as a result."
The website held back about 15,000 documents from Afghanistan to protect individuals who informed on the Taliban, he said.
But he said he hoped his website would be "very dangerous" to "people who want to conduct wars in an abusive way."
"This material doesn't just reveal occasional abuse by the U.S. military," he said. "Of course it has U.S. military reporting on all sort of abuses by the Taliban.
... So it does describe the abuses by both sides in this war and that's how people can understand what's really going on and if they choose to support it or
not."
Assange said the organization gets material from whistle-blowers in a variety of ways -- including via postal mail -- vets it, releases it to the public and then
defends itself against "the regular political or legal attack."
He said the organization rarely knows the identity of the source of the leak. "If we find out at some stage, we destroy that information as soon as possible," he
said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/26/afganistan.wikileaks/index.html#fbid=zhekQ5F9a1S
| Leaked Classified Document of Afghan War shows ISI connection with Taliban and al Qaeda terrorist networks. The documents included in the release suggest that Pakistan, a so called ally of the United States in the war against terror, has been running something of a "double game," allowing "representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders." |
