STOCKHOLM – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says the Pentagon has expressed willingness to discuss the online whistleblower’s request for help in reviewing classified documents from the Afghan war and removing information that could harm civilians. The Pentagon denied any direct contacts with WikiLeaks.
“This week we received contact through our lawyers that the General Counsel” of the Pentagon “says now that they want to discuss the issue,” Assange told The Associated Press by telephone. Assange added that the contacts have been brokered by the US Army Criminal Investigation Command, which “CID” denies.
“Any allegations that we are somehow involved in the redaction or review of material, we flatly deny,” said CID spokesman Chris Grey. Grey declined to comment on whether Army investigators had been approached at all by WikiLeaks to review the war files, but Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there had been no “direct” contact on the matter.
Whitman also said the Pentagon is not interested in cooperating with WikiLeaks to purge the names of Afghan informants from the files. “We are not interested in negotiating some sort of minimised or sanitised version of classified documents,” he said. “These documents are property of the United States government,” Whitman said. “The unauthorised release of them threatens the lives of coalition forces as well as Afghan nationals.”
Assange said that “contact has been established” but added it was not clear whether and how the US military would assist WikiLeaks.
“It is always positive for parties to talk to each other,” Assange said. “We welcome their engagement.” He reiterated that WikiLeaks plans to release its second batch of secret Afghan war documents within “two weeks to a month.” The first files in its “Afghan War Diary” laid bare classified military documents covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The release angered US officials, energised critics of the NATO-led campaign, and drew the attention of the Taleban, which has promised to use the material to track down people it considers traitors.
Non-governmental organisations, including the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, have criticised WikiLeaks as being irresponsible. WikiLeaks describes itself as a public service organisation for whistleblowers, journalists and activists. “We encourage other media and human rights groups who have a genuine concern about reviewing the material to assist us with the difficult and very expensive task of getting a large historical archive into the public’s record,” Assange said.
The Australian was in Sweden in part to prepare an application for a publishing certificate that would allow WikiLeaks to take full advantage of the Scandinavian nation’s press freedom laws. That also means WikiLeaks would have to appoint a publisher that could be held legally responsible for the material. Assange said that person would be “either me or one of our Swedish people.”
WikiLeaks routes its material through Sweden and Belgium because of the whistleblower protection offered by laws in those countries. But it also has backup servers in other countries to make sure the site is not shut down, Assange said.
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