Wikileaks boss scoffs at appeal to halt disclosures

Photo by AP

Founder and editor of the WikiLeaks website, Julian Assange 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LONDON - WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange said yesterday he is preparing to release the rest of the secret Afghan war documents his group has on file. The Pentagon warned that would be even more damaging than the initial release of some 76,000 war files.
That initial disclosure of classified military documents on Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010 angered U.S. officials and was welcomed by the Taliban.
The U.S. military has accused WikiLeaks of endangering the lives of soldiers and Afghan informants and demanded that the group refrain from publishing any more secret data. Speaking via videolink to London’s Frontline Club, Assange said he had no intention of complying. He gave no timeframe for their release but he said that his organization was about halfway through about 15,000 remaining files.

 

“We’re about 7,000 reports in,” he said, claiming a “very expensive and very painstaking” process is under way to ensure no Afghans will be harmed.

U.S. authorities, who have thrown the resources of the military and the FBI into investigating the source of his scoop, focusing on Pfc. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst accused of leaking a classified helicopter gunship video to Wikileaks. The Pentagon has a task force of about 100 people reading the leaked documents to assess the damage and alert Afghans who might be in danger.
Taliban spokesmen have said they would use the material to try to hunt down informants.
Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders accused Wikileaks of recklessness, showing “incredible irresponsibility.”
“WikiLeaks has in the past played a useful role by making information available . . . that exposed serious violations of human rights and civil liberties which the Bush administration committed in the name of its war against terror,” RWB secretary-general Jean-Francois Julliard said in an open letter. “But revealing the identity of hundreds of people who collaborated with the coalition in Afghanistan is highly dangerous.”
Human rights groups have also criticized the disclosure. Meanwhile, the United States has also reportedly urged its allies to look into Assange and his network of activists.