Wikileaks thrilled Washington
Posted on August 13, 2010 by albert
The threat shakes the White House. Wikileaks is preparing to distribute nearly 15,000 documents classified as confidential on the U.S. war in Afghanistan, as the Pentagon increases the warnings. “If they publish new documents after learning of our concerns about the harm it can cause our soldiers, our allies and innocent Afghan civilians, it would be highly irresponsible,” warned the spokesperson of the department Defence, Geoff Morrell. “That would only aggravate an error that has already taken too many lives at risk,” he recalled yet.
A reference to the contentious history between the White House and the website. In July, Wikileaks had already revealed 70,000 documents classified on the Afghan conflict, which then strongly criticized the U.S. government. Especially as the support for the continuation of the war in public opinion seems to be faltering. The Pentagon had explained that the leak, one of the largest American military history, endangering U.S. soldiers and their informants in the field. On Thursday, the White House reiterated its request to remove these files already online and return them to the U.S. government.
“Some very serious consequences”
The case now goes back to the most senior U.S. officials. The Secretary of State for Defence Robert Gates said fear of “serious operational consequences. “There are many names of Afghans who have worked with us and helped us in these documents,” he hammered from San Diego. And note that these cases involved a lot of information on strategy, techniques and U.S. protocols, highlighting the vulnerabilities of the United States. “We have information indicating that the Taliban and Al Qaeda have issued instructions to retrieve these documents and I think the consequences are potentially very serious,” he feared Robert Gates. “We have no information yet on the possible assassination of an Afghan related to the disclosure of these documents. I stress the words ‘not yet’,” he further said.
But Wikileaks does not seem really responsive to threats from Washington. On the contrary. “We have a duty to all persons who may receive the publication of these documents,” argued Thursday its founder, Julian Assange, on the Swedish television channel SVT. “These reports indicate the death of 20,000 people. Last week, more than 100 people have died because of this war. These documents contain essential information on management of this war and the civilian management and how they die “he said. According to him, see the publication of such information would delay or prevent justice from being done.