DOD sharply criticizes leaks of classified war documents

DOD officials continue to sharply criticize a massive collection of leaked information about U.S. government activities in Iraq and Afghanistan — much of it classified — provided by unknown or undisclosed sources to the Web-based organization WikiLeaks.

The published mass of leaks in late October follows a prior and smaller leak made last July.

“This is an extraordinary disservice to America’s men and women in uniform,” DOD Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Oct. 22 of the recent release, which includes approximately 400,000 classified military documents concerning Iraq alone.

Morrell also termed the website’s actions as “shameful” — and cited the increase in danger in could mean for U.S. forces in the area. 

“[The] danger is now exponentially multiplied as a result of this leak because it gives our enemies the wherewithal to look for vulnerabilities in how we operate and to exploit those opportunities and potentially kill our forces. That is just shameful.”

“This document leak is four times as large as the Afghan document leak,” Morrell said. “It gives our enemies that much more to mine, and it puts our forces that much more in danger, so we condemn it, we deplore it.”

An agency task force is continuing its investigation into the leaks, attempting to assess the potential danger they pose to U.S. servicemembers, other government employees and allies in the region.