Wikileaks to release 15,000 more secret files

WASHINGTON - Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks is preparing to release 15,000 more secret intelligence documents about the Afghan war, leading the Pentagon to warn that it has “already put far too many lives at risk”.

An estimated 92,000 secret US military records about the war in Afghanistan were leaked to the media by Wikileaks in July. Countries across the world are now pouring over the documents.

“We are about halfway through them,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was quoted as saying by the CNN. “This is a very expensive process.”

The Pentagon warned WikiLeaks Thursday against releasing more documents.

Geoff Morrell, deputy assistant secretary of defence for public affairs, said: “It would compound a mistake that has already put far too many lives at risk.”

“The only responsible course of action for them is to immediately remove all stolen documents from their website and expunge all classified material from their computers.

“If they were to publish any additional documents after hearing our concerns about the harm it will cause our forces, our allies and innocent Afghan civilians, it would be the height of irresponsibility.”

Assange, however, said he is “absolutely” committed to move forward with the release.

“Every time we take on one of these big organisations, they try and try to find various ways to criticise us, and there might even be some legitimate criticism in this case,” he said. “But we did try hard to keep back some material.”

The Pentagon had earlier asked WikiLeaks to return all documents belonging to it and delete any records of the files.

“The only acceptable course is for WikiLeaks to take steps immediately to return all versions of all of these documents to the US government and permanently delete them from its website, computers and records,” Morrell said.