Afghan document leaks a concern: Obama
U.S. President Barack Obama says he is concerned about the leak of thousands of secret documents about the war in Afghanistan that were published by the website WikiLeaks, but he added that they do not reveal any new issues.
"While I'm concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations, the fact is these documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan," Obama said during a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House on Tuesday.
P.O.V.: Should documents have been leaked?
They were Obama's first comments on the leaks.
Obama said the documents point to the same challenges that led him to review U.S. policy last fall.
On Sunday, WikiLeaks published nearly 77,000 documents, revealing new details about the war in Afghanistan, including the relationship of the Pakistani military with Afghan insurgents. The documents were written by soldiers and intelligence officers. WikiLeaks plans to publish another 15,000 soon, bringing the total released to 92,000.
U.S. Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate's foreign relations committee, called the leak illegal but he downplayed its significance, saying the documents revealed little that was not widely known by U.S. officials.
What is WikiLeaks?
WikiLeaks, a non-profit website, is responsible for publishing the Afghanistan war logs, the largest leak in U.S. military history since the release of the so-called Pentagon Papers in 1971 revealed U.S. government information about the Vietnam War.
Read our FAQ on WikiLeaks to find out more.
"I think it's important not to overhype or get excessively excited about the meaning of those documents," Kerry said.
The senator said the files were mainly drawn from raw intelligence, not assessments of trends.
Kerry spoke at a committee meeting to discuss the prospects of negotiating an end to the war in Afghanistan.
Admiral Mark Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military, said in Baghdad that the leaks "appalled" him. Mullen said "there is a real potential threat there to put American lives at risk."
The U.S. army is leading an investigation launched Tuesday into the leak. Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said the criminal probe is meant to find the leak's source.
While the U.S. army has charged Bradley Manning, an army intelligence specialist, with leaking other material to the WikiLeaks website, Lapan said it is not known if Manning was the source of the documents in the latest leak.
Corrections
- An earlier version of this story said more than 92,000 secret U.S. military and intelligence reports were published on the website WikiLeaks on July 25. In fact, WikiLeaks published nearly 77,000 documents on July 25 and planned to later publish about 15,000 more.Jul 28, 2010 3:27 PM ET
With files from The Associated Press