Of Wars, Warmongers and Warriors: Sid Harth
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Of Wars, Warmongers and Warriors: Sid Harth
Afghanistan
The War Logs
Afghanistan war logs: Wikileaks founder rebuts White House criticism
Julian Assange rejects accusation that publishing thousands of secret
US military files about the war in Afghanistan has compromised
America’s national security
Alexandra Topping and Jo Adetunji guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 July 2010
15.45 BST
Article History
Afghanistan war logs: Wikileaks founder rebuts White House criticism
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 15.45 BST on Monday 26
July 2010. It was last modified at 16.11 BST on Monday 26 July 2010.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks a news conference at the
Frontline Club in central London. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters
The founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks today defended his
decision to publish thousands of secret US military files about the
war in Afghanistan, faced with criticism from the White House for
placing troops in danger.
Julian Assange said his organisation was currently working through a
backlog of further secret material and was expecting a “substantial
increase in submissions” from whistleblowers after one of the biggest
leaks in US military history.
The documents have revealed unreported incidents of Afghan civilian
killings and information about secret operations against Taliban
leaders, as well as highlighting US fears that Pakistan’s intelligence
service was aiding the Afghan uprising.
Assange rejected accusations that the leak had compromised America’s
national security. “We are familiar with groups whose abuse we expose
attempting to criticise the messenger to distract from the power of
the message,” he said.
“We don’t see any difference in the White House’s response to this
case to the other groups that we have exposed. We have tried hard to
make sure that this material does not put innocents at harm. All the
material is over seven months old so is of no current operational
consequence, even though it may be of very significant investigative
consequence.”
Speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club in central
London, Assange said that the 90,000 leaked US military documents
about the war in Afghanistan would help shape understanding of the
past six years of fighting.
Earlier, the White House said the leaks “could put the lives of
Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national
security”.
It said that Wikileaks had made no effort to contact US security
services, but insisted that what it called the “irresponsible leaks”
would not “impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships
with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common enemies; and to
support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people”.
In London, the security minister Lady Neville-Jones, former chair of
the UK’s joint intelligence committee, described the leak as “really
serious stuff” and questioned how the documents had been obtained.
“We don’t know how they got that material – it may be a combination of
leaking of documents, but also one strongly suspects they have hacked
into systems as well.
“This is a very, very big story. But if you stop to think about it for
a moment, military systems have to be secure because people’s lives
are at stake.”
The Guardian, along with the New York Times and German weekly Der
Spiegel, were given access to the archive and have spent several weeks
investigating the logs. In order not to compromise intelligence
sources or to put forces at risk, the Guardian has only published a
selection of the logs, relating to significant events.
The White House national security adviser, General Jim Jones, stressed
that the documents related to a period from January 2004 to December
2009, during the administration of President George Bush and before
President Obama ordered a “surge” in Afghanistan.
“President Obama announced a new strategy with a substantial increase
in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on al-Qaida and
Taliban safe havens in Pakistan, precisely because of the grave
situation that had developed over several years,” he said.
Labour leadership candidate David Miliband, said the “war logs” showed
that the war could not be won by military means alone.
“We cannot kill our way out of an insurgency. Instead, the battle for
power is fought in the minds of the local population, insurgents and
western publics. The purpose of military effort and civilian
improvement is to create the conditions for political settlement.
“There is now a race against time to persuade the Afghan people that
the correct strategy is in place and show our own people it can
succeed. Better Afghan security forces, better police, better
schooling and economic opportunities are all vital but not enough.
None of them are durable or possible without a political settlement.”
Miliband, the former foreign secretary, said any peace settlement
“must include the vanquished as well as the victors” and urged the
government in Kabul to involve Afghans in “defining a political
endgame”.
Elsewhere, experts analysed the damage inflicted on the war effort by
the leak. British military expert professor Michael Clarke, director
of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said the leaked
files were less damaging than the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse
scandal but would prove awkward for politicians.
“There is no doubt that the leaks are politically pretty damaging. The
papers give an impression of a lack of military discrimination in how
operations were conducted. They are also appearing at the worst
possible time, particularly in the United States, because people are
looking for an exit strategy. This is old bad news at a new bad time.”
In the US, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and
former Democrat presidential candidate, John Kerry, responded to the
leak with a direct challenge to the administration. “However illegally
these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the
reality of America’s policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said.
“Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very
well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the
policy right.”
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Afghanistan war logs: live blog
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War logs reveal hand of Osama bin Laden
Iran’s covert operations in Afghanistan
How the IED became Taliban’s weapon of choice
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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: more revelations to come
Wikileaks Afghanistan files: download the key incidents as a
spreadsheet
Secret war along the Pakistan border
‘Green on green’ fights between Afghan police and troops
Nato feared Taliban could tap its mobile phones
Will Kabul turn on Pakistan?
Video tutorial: How to read the Afghanistan war logs
Afghanistan war logs: the glossary
Wikileaks Afghanistan files: every IED attack, with co-ordinates
Afghanistan war logs: IED attacks on civilians, coalition and Afghan
troops
Afghan war: portraits from the ground
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…and I am Sid Harth
1 Votes
By navanavonmilita, on 26/07/2010 at 12:31 pm, under Conflict, News,
Views and Reviews. Tags:AfghanistanWar, CIA, IED Weapon, ISI, Julian
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