Gates: No sensitive info in Wikileaks Afghan papers

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the unauthorized release of some 70,000 classified documents about the Afghanistan war did not reveal sensitive information, but could endanger Afghans who helped the United States, U.S. media reported Sunday.

Gates made his assessment in an August 16 letter to Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, after the website Wikileaks released the documents in July. The New York Times and CNN both were given access to the letter.

"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 also said disclosing the names of cooperating Afghans, who could become targets for the Taliban, could cause "significant harm or damage to national security interests of the United States."



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69G06Z20101017

[howard112211]

1. Hey Gates. Stop being a crybaby. nt

[Hissyspit]

2. Buried in the article:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9334912

[bemildred]

3. Pentagon asks media not to publish war leaks

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is asking media organizations not to publish or post on websites classified war files released by the WikiLeaks Web site.

The Defense Department has been bracing for a possible leak of as many as many as 400,000 documents from a military database on the Iraq war. In July, the self-described whistleblower organization obtained and released nearly 77,000 records on Afgahnistan.

The documents are mostly field reports, summarizing actions taken by troops and intelligence gathered.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has told Congress that the July leak did not expose the nation's most sensitive intelligence secrets. But, he also maintained that the release still put put U.S. interests at risk because it exposed the names of some Afghans who had cooperated with U.S. forces.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101802652.html

[gratuitous]

4. Almost makes you wonder why they were classified in the first place

But I'm confident that it's not for any nefarious reason; prolly some guy wanted to show off for his wife or mistress or girlfriend.