The Pentagon has assembled a 120 person review team in anticipation of the release of 400,000 classified documents on the Iraq war through the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Pentagon spokesperson Col. David Lapan told reporers Monday that the team has already reviewed the relevant documents and will put the Defense Department in a position to promptly respond to possible dangers resulting from the release.
Lapan noted that the site has not worked with the Pentagon to redact sensitive information, and that the Department is urging both the site and news organizations to refrain from publishing the material.
Top Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen, said upon the release of 70,000 Afghan documents over the summer that the site endangered the lives of informants. However, in a letter recently obtained by CNN from Robert Gates to sent in August to Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Gates states “the review to date has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised by the disclosure.”
When asked by a reporter Monday if the Defense Department had overstated the risk the documents posed, Lapan responded that he does not believe they did, and explained that there could still be unforeseen consequences from this summer’s documents.
WikiLeaks has recently been wrapped up in legal troubles and staff resignations. The site is currently inactive. Text on the page says it is “underoing scheduled maintenance.” and “will be back online as soon as possible.”