Pentagon unhappy over leaked military documents

PENTAGON: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says he has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, to assist in the probe into the leak and publication of classified military documents.

Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen spoke about the issue at a press conference at the Pentagon on Thursday, several days after the Internet website WikiLeaks posted tens of thousands of documents about the war in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Gates told reporters that problems highlighted in the leaked documents about the war in Afghanistan have been publicly known for some time.

But he did not downplay the possible damage caused by the release of what he called “a mountain of raw data and individual impressions” that is “devoid of context or analysis.”

“The battlefield consequences of the release of these documents are potentially severe and dangerous for our troops, our allies and Afghan partners, and may well damage our relationships and reputation in that key part of the world,” said Robert Gates.

Gates said intelligence sources and methods as well as military tactics will become known as a result of the leak.

Gates underscored that he believes the United States has a moral obligation to help Afghans whose security might have been jeopardized by the breach.

“That is one of the worst aspects of this, as far as I”m concerned,” he said. “Will people trust us? Will people whose lives are on the line trust us to keep their identities secret? Will other governments trust us to keep their documents and their intelligence secret?”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen said he is appalled and outraged that the documents were leaked and published on the WikiLeaks website. He lashed out at WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange and anyone who provided that website with the classified information.

US Army Suicides Expected to Hit a New High This Year

US Army Suicides Expected to Hit a New High This Year, Suicides in the US Army will hit a new high this year while US Army Chief Admiral Michael Mullen confesses that soldiers are suffering mental trauma due to Iraq and Afghanistan war.
The findings, released as President Barack Obama inches toward a decision to send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, show the number of active-duty suicides so far in 2009 has already matched last year’s record of 140 deaths. < br> “We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year,” General Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff, told a Pentagon briefing. “This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way.” Another 71 soldiers committed suicide after being taken off active duty in 2009 — nearly 25 percent more than the end-year total for 2008. Some had returned home only weeks before taking their own lives.
After the incident of Fort Hood and increasing depression among troops, tough mental training courses are being initiated.

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US Army Suicides Expected to Hit a New High This Year was first posted on November 18, 2009 at 11:54 am.

Ideological War Against Al-Qaeda Being Losed By US: MMullen

WASHINGTON: US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff said United States losing the ideological war against AlQaeda and Taliban.

The US military chief warning in an article that his country’s public diplomacy efforts in Afghanistan are generally flawed.

In the latest issue of Joint Forces Quarterly, Michael Mullen, wrote: “For all the time we spend thinking about how we communicate our actions, we are failing to actually build relationships and convince the majority Afghans not to hate us. The Taliban, on the other hand, are doing pretty well. ”

The United States has to devise such a Marshall Plan for the war against terrorism, which was formulated for reconstruction of Europe after the second world war, he wrote.

Pentagon has admitted that several innocent people were killed in the Drone attacks causing anger against the United States.

“We hurt ourselves and the message we are trying to send when it appears we are doing something merely for the credit. We hurt ourselves more when our words don’t align with our actions,” he wrote.

The admiral pointed out that the biggest problem in U.S. public diplomacy is lack of credibility.

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Ideological War Against Al-Qaeda Being Losed By US: MMullen was first posted on August 29, 2009 at 12:13 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.