Approximately 91,000 classified U.S. military documents were published this morning on WikiLeaks. And that’s just the beginning—founder Julian Assange says he has more than 15,000 additional files his organization is still vetting.
“We have built up an enormous backlog of whistleblower disclosures,” he says.
U.S. forces targeting militants without trial, accidental killings, anger over Pakistani intelligence cooperating with anti-U.S. insurgent groups, unreported civilian killings and covert operations against the Taliban are some of the topics the documents, which date from January 2004 through December 2009, cover.
One of the incidents the leak sheds light on is a missile strike ordered by Taskforce 373, a group allegedly designed to take out senior Taliban targets. Assange points to that operation, and evidence suggesting the killing of civilians was covered up by attributing them to ricochet wounds.
WikiLeaks serves as the go-to source for 21st century whistleblowing. The site was started in January of 2007 and quickly rose in influence as more and more highly sensitive documents were published. Earlier this year in April, WikiLeaks released a video titled “Collateral Murder” which contained aerial footage from July 2007 of an air strike which killed Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists.
With Associated Press
