WikiLeaks: Website not anti-American

2010-10-25 16:36

London – WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson insisted on Monday that the whistle-blowing website was not anti-American, as he revealed there was "a lot of material" in the pipeline.

WikiLeaks on Friday released 400 000 classified US army documents on the war in Iraq, which offered a grim snapshot of the conflict, especially of the abuse of Iraqi civilians by Iraqi security forces.

The website released more than 70 000 secret files on the war in Afghanistan in July, to the fury of US and coalition authorities who fear the documents could have put the lives of troops and Afghan informants at risk.

Hrafnsson denied that WikiLeaks had an agenda against Washington.

"It's totally wrong. We are not anti-American," the Icelander told BBC radio.

"A lot of people supporting WikiLeaks are very fond of the basic principles and ideals that are the basis of American society, the First Amendment, et cetera.

"It is a coincidence that the important documents that have been released in the last few months have been with regard to the American military and the war effort."

No harm done

He said US authorities had eventually admitted that no harm had been done by the Afghanistan releases.

"We are hearing the same thing now. We need to have those claims substantiated," he said, referring to complaints from Washington about the releases on the Iraq conflict.

Hrafnsson said there was more to come from WikiLeaks.

"We decline to say exactly what material we are having and preparing to release," he said.

"We are strengthening our technical base, putting up new servers in new countries.

"We do have a lot of material. We need some time to work on it. Our effort, understandably, has been focused very much on the latest release, so a lot of changes will be seen in the next couple of weeks and months to come."

Hrafnsson said at the weekend WikiLeaks was preparing to release 15 000 more documents on the Afghan war.

- AFP