Wikileaks - Page 20

On October 17 2010 20:02 chongu wrote:

The wikileaks founder guy has a guarantee for that: more unreleased sensitive documents

On October 17 2010 20:00 icystorage wrote:
are these stuff classified? coz if it is, then why leak them right? there's probably a reason they are classified

Pentagon leaders were furious over the Afghanistan documents, but the American public largely greeted them with yawns. Iraqis might not be so sanguine.

Wikileaks' publication of 70,000 classified military documents in July did not out any critical sources of intelligence in Afghanistan, according to a letter from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) dated august 16 and obtained by CNN, Gates asserts that while the online whistleblower's publication of the documents did pose a risk to national security, it did not compromise any key sources of intel. Gates said most of the information published related to "tactical military operations."

"The initial assessment in no way discounts the risk to national security," Gates wrote. "However, the review to date has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised by the disclosure."

Gates said the documents did contain the names of some Afghans who cooperate with the United States and could potentially face reprisal from the Taliban, but a NATO official told CNN there hasn't been any instances of Afghans needing protection or having to be oved because of the leak.

Gates also said the Pentagon still views the leak as likely to cause significant harm to U.S. national security and said the military is working closely with its allies to mitigate the damage. He also said there is the possibility of more documents being published, a possibility the Pentagon is bracing itself for. Military officials are holding Army Pfc. Bradley Manning in Quantico on suspicion he leaked the documents to Wikileaks.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said the site is in possession of more than 15,000 additional documents on the Afghan war it is planning to publish after redacting for names and other sensitive information. Wikileaks is also expected to publish roughly 400,000 documents from the Iraq war as early as next week.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is bracing for the imminent disclosure by the WikiLeaks website of a vast cache of secret U.S. Iraq war documents, which could throw a light on some of the darkest episodes of that conflict.
WikiLeaks, a self-described whistle-blower website, is expected to post up to 400,000 documents online this week after having shared them in advance with several news organizations.
It would be the second major release of classified U.S. war reports by WikiLeaks in the past four months. In July, despite objections by the U.S. government, the international anti-secrecy group posted nearly 77,000 documents from the Afghan conflict on its website.

Despite a vigorous attempt by the Pentagon to stop WikiLeaks from releasing 400,000 pages of documents about the Iraq War, the group is going ahead with its document dump on Friday night.

The documents show that the US ignored systemic abuse, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers, reports The Guardian:

• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.
  
  
• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
  
  
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

Although US generals have claimed their army does not carry out body counts and British ministers still say no official statistics exist, the war logs show these claims are untrue. The field reports purport to identify all civilian and insurgent casualties, as well as numbers of coalition forces wounded and killed in action. They give a total of more than 109,000 violent deaths from all causes between 2004 and the end of 2009.

On October 23 2010 08:55 Brambled wrote:
Is there a better time frame then "coming up"

On October 23 2010 10:43 Fraidnot wrote:
Are the non combatant death tolls listed as 66,081 the American kills or is it total number?

On October 23 2010 11:37 Chelmar wrote:


Total. Is it surprising? "According to the reports, most Iraqi civilians were killed by other Iraqis in violence that was driven by sectarian cleansing."

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/war-logs.html

On October 23 2010 23:10 VIB wrote:
This website by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is the most in-depth so far:

http://www.iraqwarlogs.com/

They detail:
"Members of US-funded militia turn to al Qaeda"
"15,000 new civilian deaths uncovered in files"
"Allegations of prisoner abuse by US troops after Abu Ghraib"
"US Apache guns down surrendering insurgents"
"US troops ordered not to investigate Iraqi torture"
"Obama administration handed over detainees despite reports of torture"