WikiLeaks to release secret Iraq war files
Source: Agencies |
October 23, 2010, Saturday
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THE WikiLeaks website is poised to release what the Pentagon fears is the largest cache of secret United States documents in history - hundreds of thousands of classified intelligence reports since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
US officials said yesterday they were racing to contain the damage from the imminent release, while NATO's top official told reporters he feared that lives could be put at risk by the mammoth disclosure.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said any release would create "a very unfortunate situation."
"I can't comment on the details of the exact impact on security, but in general I can tell you that such leaks ... may have a very negative security impact for people involved," he told reporters yesterday.
The WikiLeaks documents could amount to a classified history of the war in Iraq. In a posting to Twitter, the secret-spilling website said there would be a "major WikiLeaks announcement in Europe at 10 am (0900GMT) " today.
Sensitive names
In the meantime, a team of more than 100 analysts from across the US military, led by the Defense Intelligence Agency, has been combing through the Iraq documents they think will be released, in anticipation of the leak.
Called the Information Review Task Force, its analysts have pored over the documents and used word searches to try to pull out names and other issues that would be sensitive, officials have said.
The task force has informed the US Central Command of some of the names of Iraqis and allies and other information they believe might be released that could present a danger, officials have said. They noted that - unlike the WikiLeaks previous disclosure of some 77,000 documents from Afghanistan - in this case they had advance notice that names may be exposed.
Once officials see what is publicly released, the command "can quickly push the information down" to forces in Iraq, Marine Corps Colonel Dave Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, said yesterday in Washington.
"Centcom can jump into action and take whatever mitigating steps" might be needed, Lapan said.
Analysts say the documents could shed light on the root causes of the insurgency or the growth of sectarian violence that blighted Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.
US officials said yesterday they were racing to contain the damage from the imminent release, while NATO's top official told reporters he feared that lives could be put at risk by the mammoth disclosure.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said any release would create "a very unfortunate situation."
"I can't comment on the details of the exact impact on security, but in general I can tell you that such leaks ... may have a very negative security impact for people involved," he told reporters yesterday.
The WikiLeaks documents could amount to a classified history of the war in Iraq. In a posting to Twitter, the secret-spilling website said there would be a "major WikiLeaks announcement in Europe at 10 am (0900GMT) " today.
Sensitive names
In the meantime, a team of more than 100 analysts from across the US military, led by the Defense Intelligence Agency, has been combing through the Iraq documents they think will be released, in anticipation of the leak.
Called the Information Review Task Force, its analysts have pored over the documents and used word searches to try to pull out names and other issues that would be sensitive, officials have said.
The task force has informed the US Central Command of some of the names of Iraqis and allies and other information they believe might be released that could present a danger, officials have said. They noted that - unlike the WikiLeaks previous disclosure of some 77,000 documents from Afghanistan - in this case they had advance notice that names may be exposed.
Once officials see what is publicly released, the command "can quickly push the information down" to forces in Iraq, Marine Corps Colonel Dave Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, said yesterday in Washington.
"Centcom can jump into action and take whatever mitigating steps" might be needed, Lapan said.
Analysts say the documents could shed light on the root causes of the insurgency or the growth of sectarian violence that blighted Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.
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