US military wants concessions from Wikileaks

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 6th August, 2010

The Pentagon has asked whistleblower website Wikileaks hand over thousands of leaked US military documents.

In fact, spokesman for the Pentagon, Geoff Morrell, has demanded that “Wikileaks return immediately to the US government all versions of documents obtained directly or indirectly from Pentagon databases or records.”

Mr Morrell said Wikileaks IS still holding documents on the Afghanistan war that have not yet been published

He said the Pentagon wanted the documents before they could "threaten the safety of our troops, our allies and Afghan citizens who are working with us to help bring about peace and stability in that part of the world."

Some 70,000 classified documents on Afghanistan, containing a string of damaging claims, including allegations that Pakistani spies met directly with the Taliban, were published by Wikileaks in late July.

The documents also included the names of some Afghan informants.

Mr Morrell warned that any additional public disclosure of classified information could only make things worse.

He said while the Pentagon was hoping Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, would heed its warnings, he said he did not "have a high degree of confidence" in Mr Assange.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, 39, is an Australian computer programmer who has pubished the documents, he says, to help focus public debate on the war in Afghanistan and on possible atrocities committed by US-led forces.

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