Wikileaks Boss: Afghan Log Like 'Opening the Stasi Archives'

Assange accuses US of 'war crimes'
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 26, 2010 9:19 AM CDT
Wikileaks Boss: Afghan Log Like 'Opening the Stasi Archives'
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is seen in this file photo.   (©andygee1)

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange gave an hour-long press conference at the Frontline club in London today, holding forth in front of an iconic Vietnam-era photo of a haunted-looking US solider, the Guardian reports. He defended his group’s decision to leak the documents, calling it “the equivalent of opening the Stasi archives.” He also said they contained evidence of “war crimes,” but wouldn’t elaborate.

“The real story of this material is that it’s war, it’s one damn thing after another,” he said, “the continuous deaths of children, insurgents, armed forces … the maimed people … this is the story of the war.” Assange said he’d released the documents because “the course of the war needs to change,” though he also expressed skepticism that that could happen. He added that the documents were all at least seven months old, and so are “of no current operational consequence" and that the group had tried "make sure that this material does not put innocents at harm." (More Julian Assange stories.)

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