julian assange
Wikileaks’ Julian Assange (pictures below) claims newly released Afghanistan documents show war crimes. Wikileaks’ Julian Assange released last weekend over 90,000 classified U.S. documents about the war on Afghanistan from 2004-2009. The means in which Assange released the documents is the subject outrage by White House officials today.
The secret reports were first given to The New York Times, The Guardian (England), and Der Spiegel (Germany) and then posted online. The White House says it found out about the documents through the news.
National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones said Sunday “The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security. Wikileaks made no effort to contact us about these documents – the United States government learned from news organizations that these documents would be posted.”
The papers claim the documents are no longer military sensitive. The Guardian wrote “most of the material, though classified ‘secret’ at the time, is no longer militarily sensitive.” Der Spiegel added “For years, a major effort was made to keep a lid on the details of their deployment. With the leaking of the war logs on Sunday, however, their work is an open secret.”
Today Assange met with local news in London. He said “just like dealing with any source you should exercise some common sense. That doesn’t mean you should close your eyes.” When asked about his claim of war crimes, he responded “it is up to a court to decide really if something in the end is a crime. That said … there does appear to be evidence of war crimes in this material.”
source:(LALATE)
