As ‘leaks’ website WikiLeaks prepares to publish documents which reportedly concern the Iraq war, the British public largely disagrees with the decision to do so, our recent poll shows.
- 43% of the population think that WikiLeaks is wrong to publish the leaked documents, while 34% agree with the move.
The website, which claims to be an anonymous online database designed to allow the ‘leaks’ of otherwise unavailable documents into the public arena, is reportedly planning to release around 400,000 leaked documents on Iraq, which are said to include information about battle activity and Iraqi security forces as well as civilian casualties.
Pentagon reaction
The US military has prepared a 120 person team to deal with the publication of the documents, which is expected imminently. Officials from the Pentagon have warned that the leaked files could contain potentially damaging information and threaten national security.
If released, the leak could overshadow the publication of around 70,000 files from the war in Afghanistan released earlier this year. WikiLeaks argued that the controversial publication of documents was in public interest, but the Pentagon warned it could put lives at risk.
On Tuesday WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denied claims that the forthcoming documents would be about Iraq, and hit out at Wired magazine for ‘spreading misinformation’ about WikiLeaks. Wired is so far standing by its report, claiming that their source was a former WikiLeaks employee.
