London: WikiLeaks` editor-in-chief claims
his organisation doesn`t know who sent it some 91,000 secret
US military documents, telling journalists that the website
was set up to hide the source of its data from those who
receive it.
Julian Assange didn`t say whether he meant that he had
no idea who leaked the documents, or whether his organisation
simply could not be sure. But he did say the added layer of
secrecy helped protect the site`s sources from spy agencies
and hostile corporations.
"We never the know the source of the leak," he told
journalists gathered at London`s Frontline Club yesterday.
"Our whole system is designed such that we don`t have
to keep that secret."
While Assange acknowledged that the site`s anonymous
submissions raised concerns about authenticity, he said
WikiLeaks had yet to be fooled by a bogus document.
"We do see wholly fabricated submissions, usually
around election time," he said, but added that they were
"quite rare."
Operatives inside Afghanistan and Pakistan who have
worked for the US against the Taliban or al-Qaida may be at
risk following the disclosure of thousands of classified US
military documents, former and current US officials said.
Speaking in Washington yesterday, President Barack
Obama said he was concerned about the massive leak of
sensitive documents about the Afghanistan war, but that the
papers did not reveal any concerns that were not already part
of the debate.
In his first public comments on the matter, Obama
said the disclosure of classified information from the
battlefield "could potentially jeopardize individuals or
operations."
PTI
