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White House: Afghan war leaks put lives 'at risk' Posted on 7/26/2010
The online whistle-blower WikiLeaks posted 91,000 leaked U.S. military records online.
It is a blow-by-blow account of six years of the Afghanistan war.
The documents describe a period from January 2004 to December 2009, mostly during the administration of President George W. Bush.
Julian Assange Comments Julian Assange, the founder of the website WikiLeaks, said the first-hand accounts are the military's own raw data on the war, including numbers killed, casualties, threat reports and the like.
Assange said, "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."
White House Condemns Leak White House national security adviser Gen. Jim Jones said, "That was before President Obama announced a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on al-Qaida and Taliban safe havens in Pakistan, precisely because of the grave situation that had developed over several years."
Jones said, "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."
He 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."
Secret Special Operations Unit The leaked records include detailed descriptions of raids carried out by a secretive U.S. special operations unit called Task Force 373 against what U.S. officials considered high-value insurgent and terrorist targets.
Some of the raids resulted in unintended killings of Afghan civilians.
New York Times Report The New York Times said the documents describe U.S. fears that ally Pakistan's intelligence service was actually aiding the Afghan insurgency.
According to the Times, the documents suggest Pakistan "allows 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."
Sen. Kerry Comments Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-MA, said, "However illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Sen. Kerry said, "Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent."
