I can't help but to think that these series of Intell lapses
is link to Upper Military Personnels' Unhappiness. Change of
Command, Forced Resignation (Four star General), the whole military
operations in Iraq & Afghan is left in limbo.
Policy makers at home have no idea what is in like on the
battlerfields, yet they are making critical decisions.
Outrage over huge leak of Afghan war files
WASHINGTON (AFP) - – The leak of 90,000 secret military files
triggered an outcry from nations fighting in Afghanistan as the
Pentagon scrambled to uncover the source of the security breach and
whether it would endanger lives.
US experts were working to see if the huge cache "could
jeopardize force protection or operational security, or even worse
still, the national security of this country," Pentagon spokesman
Geoff Morrell told Fox News.
"Our big fear of course is that there is information in here
which could potentially put the lives of our troops in Afghanistan
or elsewhere at risk."
Some 92,000 documents dating from 2004 to 2009 were released to
The New York Times, Britain's Guardian newspaper and Germany's Der
Spiegel news weekly by the website WikiLeaks, which posted them on
Sunday.
The most controversial allegations center around claims that
Pakistan, a key US ally in the turbulent region, allows its spies
to meet directly with the Taliban.
According to the Times, Pakistan agents and Taliban
representatives meet regularly "in secret strategy sessions to
organize networks of militant groups that fight against American
soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan
leaders."
The files also maintained that the deaths of innocent civilians
have been covered up, and that Iran is funding Taliban militants
eight years after the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the radical
Islamic regime from power.
Analysis: Wikileaks case puts focus on digital security
challenges
The bombshell revelations triggered outrage, with a top NATO
general calling for increased vigilance against such leaks as the
White House slammed them as "irresponsible."
The coalition needed to be aware that some "documents are pushed
out into the open via leaks, but that obliges us even more to work
with the greatest care," said General Egon Ramms, who is in charge
of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs condemned the leak, warning
the names of service personnel and military operations were now in
the public domain, but laid down the likely strategic and political
impact.
"In terms of broad revelations, there aren't any that we see in
these documents," Gibbs said, pointing out that most of the period
covered by the leaks was during the previous Bush
administration.
Britain, which has some 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, said Monday
it regretted the leak, as Pakistan said the reports were "skewed"
and not based on the reality on the ground.
But WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange defended the decision to
publish the leaked files, saying they showed "thousands" of war
crimes may have been committed in Afghanistan.
Focus: Afghan leaks hand Obama new political nightmare
"It is up to a court to decide clearly whether something is in
the end a crime. That said, prima facie there does appear to be
evidence of war crimes in this material," he said, citing a missile
strike on a house which killed seven children.
In Berlin, a defense ministry spokesman said releasing the
documents "could affect the national security of NATO allies and
the whole NATO mission."
The leaks reportedly link the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence
service, to a failed plot to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai,
attacks on NATO warplanes, a bid to poison the beer supply of
Western troops and the 2008 Indian embassy bombing.
In April 2007, the Guardian said the ISI allegedly sent 1,000
motorbikes to Jalaluddin Haqqani, head of the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network based in Pakistan, to carry out
suicide attacks in Afghanistan.
Related article: Wikileaks founder defends release of Afghan war
files
WikiLeaks has not named its informant. But some observers are
pointing suspicion at a US soldier, Bradley Manning, who has been
arrested and charged in Iraq for allegedly leaking classified
information to the website, including video of a helicopter strike
in Baghdad.
Last month, the Pentagon was probing allegations that Manning
supplied the classified video and 260,000 secret diplomatic cables
to WikiLeaks.
As well as releasing the video, Manning, 22, has been accused of
illegally downloading more than 150,000 diplomatic cables, 50 of
which he is alleged to have transmitted unlawfully to the danger of
US national security.
A top Republican lawmaker, US Senator Kit Bond, blasted the
source of the leak, saying: "It is shocking that any American, much
less someone in the Pentagon, would betray his country and possibly
put our soldiers at risk."