Pentagon Refuses WikiLeaks' Offer to Help Review Classified War Documents

The Pentagon has said thanks, but no thanks, to WikiLeaks' offer to help the military review about 15,000 classified Afghanistan war documents the whistleblower website intends to publish.

The Defense Department Wednesday refused the request by a lawyer for WikiLeaks and again demanded the site return all the documents and abandon its plans to make them public, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Military officials fear the documents could contain the names of Afghans who helped with the U.S. war effort, and who could end up being targeted by insurgents. WikiLeaks had reached out to the Pentagon to discuss ways to minimize the risk to civilians who may be identified, the Journal said.

"The department demands that nothing further be released by WikiLeaks, that all of the U.S. government classified documents that WikiLeaks has obtained be returned immediately, and that WikiLeaks remove and destroy all of these records from its databases," Johnson added.

WikiLeaks posted about 76,000 war documents, mostly raw intelligence reports, July 25. The Web site would not say who the leaker was. 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.

Army Pvt. Bradley Manning is in jail on suspicion of an earlier release to WikiLeaks, but he has also been called a "person of interest" in the current controversy.