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Pentagon Wants WikiLeaks to Return Classified War Documents

1 year ago
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A week after WikiLeaks dumped 92,000 classified military documents online, the Pentagon is ordering the whistle-blower Web site to give them back.

"The Defense Department demands that WikiLeaks return immediately to the U.S. government all versions of documents obtained directly or indirectly from the Department of Defense databases or records," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters Thursday.

The Pentagon also ordered WikiLeaks to delete all the documents, most of which relate to military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, from its Web site and records, The Associated Press reported.

Morrell didn't say what efforts, besides asking firmly, the Defense Department might be able to take to ensure WikiLeaks complies. Right now, Morrell said, the Defense Department hopes WikiLeaks will "do the right thing."

WikiLeaks has not responded to the Pentagon request.

The Web site posted the reports, mostly raw intelligence reports, July 25. The White House condemned the document dump and military officials said the posting of the names of Afghans who have helped allied forces could jeopardize their safety.

The site reportedly withheld another 15,000 similar documents, and may publish them as well, the AP said.

"Public disclosure of additional Defense Department classified information can only make the damage worse," Morrell said.

Wikileaks is a 3-year-old nonprofit founded by Julian Assange that allows anonymous sources to upload private documents so anyone can read them online.

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8 Comments

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rsswan123

where exactly is wikileaks located? here in the U.S. this nonsense needs to be shut down its time to pull the plug on wiki,, im not even sure what wiki is exactly but maybe its time for the government to take control of the internet. it should be used for education and connecting with people but is only used for porn and a bunch of lies about whats happining

August 06 2010 at 7:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lakelawmcn

To all you non-vets out there who think this is "just information", I have a message: Wrong. The wars we fight today are not the same as we used to fight. There is far more intelligence available and used today. But, the intel used in hunting the bad guys over there is loaded with data about the civilians as we don't fight a uniformed and organized enemy. The good guys and the bad guys look alike.

War is not simple. Our troops give their todays so you may have a tomorrow. I am old, but I remember going to the workplace in the back of a Huey. Freedom is not free, and the video generation has no idea where all this prosperity came from. May God help us all.

August 06 2010 at 10:59 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
burnpdc2

This doesn't make sense, why would the Pentagon demand Wikileaks RETURN the documents, I thought these were electronically uploaded?

August 06 2010 at 9:29 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Raven

Wow, its just beyond sad how the Pentagon has NO IDEA how the internet works. The documents are on the internet where millions of people could have downloaded the files and put them elsewhere. Asking WikiLeaks to remove the files won't erase the problem whatsoever. At this point, they might as well get over it. Those documents are never going to just disappear from the internet just because they asked.

August 06 2010 at 7:12 AM Report abuse +12 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Raven's comment
Tom

All the more reason to shut down this WikiLeaks outfit all together. The part of war and leaking information gathered is not part of Democracy and the right to know everything that is going on, much less having access to that information because it is your right, if you think that way. It is NOT your right. Bring these individuals who are involved in WikiLeaks up on charges,hopefully find them guilty just as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were many years ago, then lock them up and throw the key away.

August 06 2010 at 2:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Randy

Wikileaks did an invaluable job bringing to light the damage being done to the poor country of Afghanistan, This war like Iraq is illegal with crime being committed daily. Stop the war and I hope more "secret info on the wars is released. We tried to make Afghanistan the Vietnam for Russia and look what happened. We are committing the same mistakes for empire.

August 06 2010 at 6:57 AM Report abuse -7 rate up rate down Reply
Jean

We may not agree with soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq but they are there. Nobody has a right to publish any documents exposing information that will harm our troops and compromise our national security. America is a free country but many young people seem to think that anything goes regardless of who is hurt. Whatever happened to loyalty to our own country especially when men are deployed? A strong message needs to be sent to all who engage in treason against America and that is death. Treason is an act deserving of execution. If a person has no loyalty or integrity toward his own country, they are the lowest form of life.

August 05 2010 at 9:59 PM Report abuse +10 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Jean's comment
LEE

It is a question whether Mr. Assange, and how ever many disciples he may command or persuade, are a sort of dilettantish, new media cohort, who do not care in the least whether the United States has a legitimate interest in protection the people of the United States.

They might only know how right they are.

Where is the line where free information, freely disseminated, conflict with the normal requirements and assumptions of national security?

In the digital age, that question seems up in the air.

I don't think Mr. Assange or the Pentagon have the answer.

Regardless, government officials have the obligation to ask about the motive of the Wikileakers.

August 05 2010 at 10:41 PM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
justmejulie518

Implying that these documents can cost lives is just a scare tactic to rile up patriotism. There is probably damning and embarassing information in those documents showing that the U.S. has participated in illegal and unethical behavior. If nothing the past god knows how many years has show us is that our government and leaders fear nothing more than transparency and being forced to be accountable.

August 06 2010 at 9:07 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
ez2cdave

The government's position does not take into account the fact that possibly millions or more people have already downloaded the 1.4 GB file and is only one "code" away from total disclosure of all files by unlocking the AES-256 encryption.

August 05 2010 at 8:54 PM Report abuse +10 rate up rate down Reply
tomlis1451

The documents are stolen property,why are they (Asking) for their return? The so-called soldier should be charged with treason,and the web site idiot charged with pocession of stolen property. I for one am tired of this so-called nation of laws,when you have people in positions deciding which laws will be enforced and which we will just ignore. These two characters are nothing but a shadow of what is running this country.

August 05 2010 at 8:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to tomlis1451's comment
kevinrschmidt

The question should be: Why did the United States engage in an illegal war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

August 06 2010 at 10:38 AM Report abuse -4 rate up rate down Reply
tabor4rack

Most of these acts happened under the brilliant command of Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney. Quit ignoring facts and dates and step up to some good reality. This has nothing to do with the current leadership other than they inherited these two wars. As for the ? of why we are there, although I am a lib and not in favor of either, 9-11 justifies beating out the Taliban who was protecting AlQaeda. The bigger ? in my mind if why any report linking a civilian's name helping our cause to fight terrorism, would be considered necessary public information publishable even by a non profit holier than thou website?

August 06 2010 at 8:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lthrnck68

Were these documents illegally obtained? If they are, the government could probably take them to court and win a big monetary decision on top of a court order stopping the site from making these documents available to the public. Aren't there national security laws in place to prevent things like this from happening?

August 05 2010 at 7:16 PM Report abuse +6 rate up rate down Reply
sysaphus71

Why bother .....isn't the cat already out of the bag.
I think they should be considering treason....for wikileaks
Isn't it time for someone with a pair to step up and say "ENOUGH" ,now someone is going to stop this stuff

August 05 2010 at 5:48 PM Report abuse +24 rate up rate down Reply

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