WikiLeaks Readies Release of 15,000 Additional Documents on Afghanistan

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Thursday that his website is preparing to release another 15,000 documents about the war in Afghanistan, CNN reports.

Assange and WikiLeaks drew the world's attention -- and plenty of outrage from some quarters -- with the disclosure last month of 92,000 leaked classified documents from Afghanistan. The information was shared with The New York Times, the Guardian in Britain and the magazine Der Spiegel in Germany.

Though the Pentagon warned WikiLeaks that releasing more documents "would compound a mistake that has already put far too many lives at risk," Assange said he is "absolutely" committed to moving forward with the release. "A lot of the recent criticism about Afghanistan was totally expected," he said Thursday.

Assange has previously said his organization is redacting information in the new documents that could endanger people named, and that he has asked for Pentagon help in this regard. However, Geoff Morrell, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, insisted Thursday that WikiLeaks "has made no such request directly to the Department of Defense."

Also Thursday, the international journalists' group Reporters Without Borders wrote a letter to Assange that accused him of showing "incredible irresponsibility" by publishing the Afghanistan war documents last month. The letter said that "revealing the identity of hundreds of people who collaborated with the coalition in Afghanistan is highly dangerous. It would not be hard for the Taliban and other armed groups to use these documents to draw up a list of people for targeting in deadly revenge attacks."

It is unclear when the next release of documents will occur.

Filed Under: Afghanistan

Tagged: dailyguidance, Julian Assange, wikile

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dc walker

....if any military or foreign military working with us dies because of this they should enforce the death penalty when they catch this person. You have the right to disagree with your government get on these boards and write your fingers off you don't have the right to put lives in danger.

August 13 2010 at 7:30 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply