Massive U.S. Security Breach Revealed As Thousands Of Documents Released By Wikileaks

Key incidents from the Wikileaks Afghanistan data mapped. Image from The Guardian

Afghanistan War Logs: Massive Leak Of Secret Files Exposes Truth Of Occupation -- The Guardian

• Hundreds of civilians killed by coalition troops
• Covert unit hunts leaders for 'kill or capture'
• Steep rise in Taliban bomb attacks on Nato
• Read the Guardian's full war logs investigation

A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.

The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and over 1,000 US troops.

Read more ....

More News On Wikileaks

Wikileaks Afghanistan files: download the key incidents as a spreadsheet -- The Guardian
Tens of thousands of alleged Afghan war documents go online -- CNN
Afghanistan War Logs: 90,000 classified documents revealed by Wikileaks -- The Telegraph
'Hidden US Afghan War Details' Revealed By Wikileaks As Thousands Of Top Secret Files Go Online -- BBC News
Wikileaks releases massive set of Afghan war files -- CNET
Papers: Leaks Show Unreported Afghan Deaths -- NPR/AP
Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert -- New York Times
The big leak -- Politico
Jones lashes out at Wikileaks for putting lives at risk with Afghanistan files -- The Hill
U.S. Denounces Publication of Classified Documents on War in Afghanistan -- Bloomberg
The War Logs: Reaction to Disclosure of Military Documents on Afghan War -- New York Times

My Comment: I have been spending the past two hours reading some of this stuff. I am not surprised by what I am reading .... but it is good to finally know that much of what this blog and others have been saying about the Afghanistan war for the past few years are also expressed in some of these classified documents.

Update: Depressing .... what I am reading is depressing. This leak is the mother of all leaks .... and a sad indictment not only on how the U.S. protects its most sensitive documents (they clearly do not), but (more importantly) it is an indictment on how badly the Afghan war is being managed.