WikiLeaks founder defends release of files

WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief defended the decision to release the files and claims his organization doesn't know who sent it some 91,000 secret U.S. military documents, telling journalists that the Web site was set up to hide the source of its data from those who receive it.

Julian Assange didn't say whether he meant he had no idea who leaked the documents or whether his organization simply could not be sure. But he did say the added layer of secrecy helps protect the site's sources from spy agencies and hostile corporations.

"We never know the source of the leak," he told journalists gathered at London's Frontline Club late Tuesday. "Our whole system is designed such that we don't have to keep that secret."

And while Assange acknowledged that the site's anonymous submissions raised concerns about the authenticity of its material, he said WikiLeaks had yet to be fooled by a bogus document.

U.S. officials say the massive online disclosure may have put soldiers and operatives in danger, and the Pentagon, the Justice Department, and the FBI have all stepped in to investigate.

The 39-year-old Australian was at the Frontline Club, the hub of London's media set, for the second time in as many days to outline his site's mission and methods - and defend it from charges that it endangered lives by putting mountains of classified information in the public domain.

Assange, told Britain's Times newspaper in an interview that it was "extremely important" that the files were in the public domain.

"No one has been harmed, but should anyone come to harm of course that would be a matter of deep regret - our goal is justice to innocents, not to harm to them," said Assange. "That said, if we were forced into a position of publishing all of the archives or none of the archives we would publish all of the archives because it's extremely important to the history of the war."

President Barack Obama said Tuesday the leak of classified information from the battlefield "could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations," while Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Baghdad that there was "a real potential threat there to put American lives at risk."

U.S. officials are worried that the raw data may prove useful not only to the Taliban but to hostile intelligence services in countries such as China and Russia who have the resources to make sense of such vast vaults of data, said Ellen McCarthy, former U.S. intelligence officer and president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.

Former CIA director Michael Hayden described the mass release as a big gift to America's enemies. "If I had gotten this trove on the Taliban or al-Qaeda, I would have called it priceless," he said. "If I'm head of the Russian intelligence, I'm getting my best English speakers and saying: 'Read every document, and I want you to tell me, how good are these guys? What are their approaches, their strengths, their weaknesses and their blind spots?"'

Back in London, Assange agreed that the files offered insight into U.S. tactics. But he said that was none of his concern, and he noted that his Web site already carried a copy of the U.S. Special Forces' 2006 Southern Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Manual, among other sensitive U.S. military documents. "We put out that stuff all the time," he said.

Compiled from AP and AFP stories by the Daily News staff.