saying it could endanger the lives of security personnel on the ground but we can leaks founder julian assange told r.t. that revealing the truth was vital to prevent such atrocities from happening again . this is the most accurate description of a war that is being released into the historic record we see that is nearly no

troops but we can leaks founder julian assange argues that the disclosures do more harm than good in an interview with r.t. this weekend a songe explain the significance of the latest leak but it's not good to support things that you do not understand and this is the most accurate description of a war that is ever being released into the historic record. there is nothing comparable it is the details of the deaths of one hundred nine thousand people the wounding of some hundred seventy thousand people that detainment of nearly two hundred thousand people. in jury for the course of six years and of course that is only about half the military action that went on during that period because it's underneath the u.s. . view on things but. now for a closer look at this leak and what it all means i'm joined by a former senior pentagon correspondent at c.n.n. and blogger for the line of departure jamie mcintyre and press that chatter the investigative journalist and senior fellow at the center for american progress gentlemen think thank you so much for being here and welcome now i want to star

leaks imaginative this in its prudence as well daniel ellsberg as you probably know was with julian assangewhich this past week and i think part of that was protection because you know if they're going to take out julian assan and. daniel ellsberg wanted to be there too that's good that's and that's a feeling of camaraderie with people who are truth tellers you know one of the one of the things here is the way the u.s. and the pentagon are playing things they are they are killing the messenger ok the defaming julian song wish and they are calling for prosecution when they should be thanking him for exposing these lies for exposing these abuses one of the one of the main commentators on one of our main channels diane sawyer was was interviewing martha raddatz one of the correspondents from the from the pentagon and martha said you know this is terrible that all kinds of torture going on the u.s. doesn't do anything about it there were fifteen thousand more civilian casualties the u.s. government said that they never counted them but they have been and there are people shooting civilians from

well this is a short clip from the full interview the julian assange gave to us and you can catch it on our website if you haven't already. comb more of his wiki leak i spoke to brian becker of the director of the anti war and soko nation he told me he believes u.s. officials should be held to account for atrocities committed during the war in iraq police forces an army that were trained by the americans who are allegedly the protectors and guarantors of iraqi freedom engaged in systematic torture abuse rape and it was unreported in unpunished by their masters by the u.s. trainers so i think there's no reason to think that this is an ongoing as a result of these revelations the un chief investigator for torture for instance has called on barack obama to investigate those in the u.s. military and civilian government for criminal acts against the iraqi people if the u.s. takes now actions to repress wiki leaks it may very well backlash backfire and instead of repressing them and intimidating them and their supporters create a groundswell of worldwide support for them the people want ju

a slam the release saying it could in danger of lives and national security wiki leaks chief julian assangetold r.t. that revealing the truth is vital to prevent such crimes from happening again. this is the most accurate description of a war that is ever being released into the historic record we see that is nearly no street corner in baghdad that didn't have a body found that is being killed through violence in one form or another but is it every day squalor of war of course for the people in baghdad and other cities in iraq was there everyday life. and we need to understand what the reality of war is if we're going to choose to engage in it in and i mean it's clear that the reasons for getting into this war the weapons of mass destruction and so on this is a clear lie there's no debate about this anymore the second most stated reason that we would weave in the west. would clean up the government system up a rock introduce rule of law and prevent torture has completely failed. during that period of time lawlessness absence of rule of law and the tree killing were much higher than they wer

yesterday i spoke to a general and julian assange is an enemy of the state. what is the pentagon going to declare him as an enemy of the state and prosecute him? >> i hope they do it quickly. i think they need to look at their internal systems first, that is where we start. >> julie: britain pm's calling for an investigation of allegations of abuse, claims that were apparently rules of war that were broken in iraq. what is the u.s.'s response to that? >> i think clearly if there is information in these documents that the rules of war, there is evidence of crimes within this information, sure we need to follow it up. the other thing where does parliament get involved and congress. taking a look at systemic issues here. is our cyber network safe? was there a systemic misinformation coming out of the military to american public or to the american government about what was going on in iraq? i don't think we've seen that. you know, that may be couple of areas where congress or parliament might want to take about the look. >> julie: what the trust factor in united

be on in the next hour who said this about the guy who has been leaking all this information, julian assange. take a listen. >> for these documents to be released, its huge national security breach. julian asanction and everybody associated with wikileaks should be declared enemies of the state and should take appropriate government action to deal with the enemy of the state. >> gregg: in other words, capture him and prosecute him for aiding and abetting the enemy. you agree, i take it? >> i do, but there are number of steps we can take. we could look at the finances of the organization and tell technology companies that host it they are facilitating terrorism, they won't be allowed to do business in u.s. or financial transactions. there are number of things that we aren't doing. the pentagon appears to be doing what it can, but the justice department, treasury department, other instrumentalities aren't doing anything. >> gregg: beyond the potential loss of human life, which is considerable, when you think of all the people that have been outed, doesn't it have a severe chilling effect on ou

the founder of wikileaks, julian assange.ths of 109,000 people are documents. internally declared, 66,000 civilians working with the iraq body count we have seen there are approximately 15,000 never previously documents or known cases of civilians who have been killed by violence in iraq. >> iraqis are speaking out about the wikileaks documents. we are live from baghdad. let's start off first, i understand we have an official reaction from iraq. do we know how they are responding to this this morning? >> reporter: well, that's right, suzanne. official reaction from iraqi lawmakers is starting to trickle in. in the past hour, we heard from a lawmaker here. he said he wasn't surprised by the release of the documents. what's contained in them, he hasn't read them, it's stuff he's heard before. looking through all this reminds iraqis and the agony they have gone through since the start of the war. we spoke to a curdish lawmaker that wasn't surprised. with regards to allegations the u.s. turned a blind eye to abuses that happened

officials saying julian assange and wikileaks could have blood on their hands. do iraqis and those kind of concerns that may be putting this information out there puts iraqi citizens in danger? >> reporter: well, t.j., the iraqi prime minister and interior minister have yet to comment on the release of these documents but we have started getting some reaction from some iraqi lawmakers. we spoke earlier with an iraqi lawmaker with the sunni coalition here. earlier today he told us, i haven't reviewed or seen the document but was i've heard about them through media outlets. i'm not shocked and i'm not surprised. it made me remember the agony of the previous events we lived through, all the incidents, we lives through it, cold-blooding killing by the american and iraqi forces torture and secret prisons. we spoke with kurdish lawmakers who are not surprised to see what's in the documents, what's being reported by the media and this will verify what they know, there were torture that happened there were abuses that happened to iraqi detains at hands of iraqi official

in an interview, wikileaks chief julian assange levelled this charge. >> i think a stronger statement in the documents, there is very strong evidence, compelling evidence, of war crimes having been committed by coalition forces and having been committed by iraqi government forces in this material. >> all right. atika shubert joins me now live from london. to our viewers, maybe they couldn't make out what he was saying but he's accusing the u.s. and coalition forces of war crimes. what does he base that on? >> reporter: well, there's several cases he's talking about but one of the most specific examples that of a helicopter gunship that apparently fired on militants trying to surrender. in the log, it appears there is a record where the people in the helicopter basically seemed to acknowledge that the militants are attempting to surrender but given advice that it is, quote, impossible to surrender to an airship, and they are given permission to engage, and they fire upon militants. that's one very specific example of that. wikileaks brought that case to human rights lawyers and those l

wikileaks founder julian assange defended publishing these documents. >> the first casualty of war is the truth. >> reporter: some say these leaks will endanger the lives of u.s. soldiers in iraq and afghanistan. the bbc's jim muir reports on the view in baghdad. >> well, the wikileaks affair is making headlines in the papers here, although for the general iraqi public, the revelations are all pretty old news, but they are having a big political impact. the office of prime minister nuri al maliki issued a furious statement more or less implying it's all a conspiracy to stop him keeping his job. >> reporter: in afghanistan, our alex marquardt says the response to the latest revelations has been muted. >> the last time wikileaks released a batch of classified documents they were about the war here in afghanistan. 75,000 of them the pentagon says could seriously endanger the lives of afghans working with the u.s. >> reporter: but with the prospect of more files being leaked on the war in afghanistan, the firestorm created by wikileaks will not be going away any time soon. and as we've ju

i thank god, if there is one, for julian assange.hese people sit here every day and make decisions about sectarian violence in another nation -- an affair between the people there. you have things in this country that are not straightened out. been more astuted have in questioning the bush administration about what they were doing. it is not only about the war plan, but about how and why. week after week they changed of the reason we were there. you are a reporter, going in, supposedly representing the press? you guys were bought and paid for from the beginning. everything that you say right now supports the a the that you have the right to go in and invade, take over, and just run the people into the ground. you come back and it is no big deal. and like you have credibility and someone should listen to you. and you want to demonize mr. julian assange? host: chance to respond michael gordonmichael? guest: first of all, you don't understand the role of the meal. i did not run the invasion. i covered it. i was in iraq for some time, im

wikileaks founder julian assange insisted he bent over backwards to delete sensitive information. >>edacted. it is, in fact, i would say, a bit of a travesty how over redacted this material is. >> reporter: pentagon officials were especially concerned he would reveal the thames of some 300 iraqis who had helped the americans and might now be subject to reprisal. >> we're still reviewing what he's posted on the internet and it does look as though he has redacted many names of iraqis. >> reporter: modern warfare with high-tech weapons was supposed to spare vivians, but in iraq that turned out to be a false promise. david martin, cbs news, the pentagon. >>> this morning on "the early show" the latest on the texas tornado damage. i'm betty nguyen. this is the "cbs morning news." you don't need a rematch, but a rethink. with lunesta. lunesta is thought to interact with gaba receptors associated with sleep. lunesta helps you get the restful sleep you need. lunesta has some risk of dependency. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating,

at a news conference today in london, wikileaks founder julian assange accused the u.s. of hiding the truth. >> iraq, as we can see, was a bloodbath on every corner. >> reporter: according to the documents, many died at the hands of the americans. 681 civilians were killed at u.s. military checkpoints alone. pentagon officials insist, however, u.s. military tactics have improved. >> we have gotten better over the years at protecting ourselves while at ourselves while at the the same time protecting civilians approaching checkpoints, but we have not been perfect. >> reporter: it was also revealed that u.s. military knew that military forces were tortured detainees. it was reported up the chain of command. one document states an american soldier watched an iraqi officer strike a detainee with a baton and whip another detainee's feet and back with an electrical cable. the soldier reported the incident but the document shows there was no investigation. americans also obtained video showing iraqi soldiers and an officer executing a detainee. that incident was also reported, b

julian assange said they did redact the names. listen to pentagon press secretary. >> there are thousands of iraqi names in these documents that have been compromised three hundred of whom we believe are in particularly in danger. we've shared with forces in iraq to protect them. >> we have strong confidence in our redaction process, which is an opt-in process. that statement by the pentagon presumably at its base is referring to their own internal review of their collection of significant actions for iraq. it is not referring to our material. >> in essence julian assange justifying he did not jeopardize the lives of anyone by redacting. new york time and ear newspapers given access to these documents say they also redacted the names. we still have to see whether there are any attacks on the battle field as a result. >> chris: even if there are names redacted there still might be information that the enemy can use to figure how the is adding the u.s. war effort. jennifer give , thanks. >> al-maliki says the timing of the release i

history in order to concentrate on defaming weaken leaks founder julian assange former cia analyst ray mcgovern told r.t. the media purposely diverts public attention from the atrocities the documents reveal. you know goes back to the ancient greek times when you didn't like the message shoot them but you kill the messenger and in those days so what they're trying to do is deflect discussion of the hard details that have come out in these documents and have in on ad hominem arguments against us to make it sort of to trivialize it and to make it sort of a personal sort of thing the the treasure trove of documents is precisely what you would expect from a war of aggression and i don't blame me for that word because that's the way you define what we did in going into iraq and afghanistan i would never in barracks and it was justice jackson our own supreme court justice who said perpetrating a war of aggression is to commit the supreme international crime differing from other war crimes only in so far as it contains the accumulated evil of the whole what's the accumulated evil torture kidn

saying it could endanger the lives of security personnel on the ground but we can reach founder julian assange told r.t. the revealing the truth was vital to prevent such atrocities from happening again. this is the most accurate description of a war that is ever being released into the historic record we see that is nearly no street corner in baghdad didn't have a body found that is being killed through violence in one form or another but is it everyday squalor of war of course for the people in baghdad and other cities in iraq was there everyday life for years and years and we need to understand what the reality of war is if we're going to choose to engage in it and for our full interview with the founder of whistleblower wiki leaks log onto our web site r t dot com and in the meantime i'm brian becker the director of the anti war as are coalition says the united states is directly responsible for atrocities committed in the iraq war. the police force is an army that were trained by the americans who are allegedly the protectors and guarantors of iraqi freedom engaged in systematic torture a

the founder and head of wiki leaks julian assange spoke to us at our to a little earlier after his press conference in london he says that understanding the sheer number of iraqi deaths is vital to making sure that such atrocities don't happen again. this is the most accurate description of a war that is being released into the historical record we see that is new he knows street corners in baghdad didn't have a body found that being killed through violence of one form or another for the everyday squalor of war of course for the people in the. cities in iraq was their everyday life for years and years and we need to understand what the reality of war is if we're going to choose to engage in it. must be more common more insight now into this latest wiki leak leak quick joined from washington by the director of the antiwar i'm so coalition brian becker mr becker thanks very much the sun r.t. tonight so more revelations today about what's allegedly happened in the past is there any reason to think to believe that this situation is ongoing as we speak well i think we know it's ongoing i thin

london, julian assange accused of u.s. of hiding the truth. >> iraq, as we can see was a blood back bath on every corner. >> 861 were killed at u.s. checkpoints alone. they insist military tactics were have improved. >> we have gotten better borough texting ourselves while at the same time protecting civilians approaching checkpoints, but we have not been perfect. >> it was also revealed that u.s. military knew that military forces were tortured detainees. it was reported up the chain of command. one document states an american soldier watch an iraqi off ter ser strike a detainee with a batten and one. the soldier reported the incident but the document shows there was no investigation. amicans also obtained video showing iraqi soldiers and an officer executing a detainee. that incident was also reported, butine days later, the case was closed. >> it is very good that this data has been collected. but is it wrong and unjustifiable that it has been kept secret for so long. >> perhaps more troubling in the long run, the secre

posting a trove of classified documents from the iraq war given to them by the whistle-blower julian assange and his wikileak web site. it first appeared on the arab network al jazeera. >> found within the files, the real civilian casualties. the prison torture coverup, the extent of deadly checkpoint encounters. >> reporter: wikileaks is believed to have 390,000 documents, which would make this the largest publication of secret material in history. pentagon officials say their biggest concern is that the documents contain the names of iraqis who might be subject to reprisal. >> there are 300-plus iraqi names that we thought were considerably exposed here because they were ones who were cooperating with us. >> reporter: the documents are reports sent in by american units in the field from 2004 through 2009. civilian casualties. 100,000, according to one tabulation. greater than numbers previously made public. many killed by american troops, but most of them by other iraqis. secret prisons. iraqis tortured and abused by other iraqis. some cases the u.s. investigated, others were ignored or si

the founder and head of wiki leaks julian assange spoke to us at r.t. a little earlier after his press conference in london he says understanding the sheer number of iraqi deaths is vital to making sure such atrocities don't happen again. this is the most accurate description of a war that is being released into the historical record received it is nearly no street corner in baghdad didn't have a body found. through violence of one form or another for the everyday squalor or of course for the people in baghdad and cities in iraq was there everyday life for use in the us and we need to understand what the reality you or if we're going to choose to engage in it. he said removed has been following washington's reaction to the latest wiki leak and as he's found that u.s. officials who haven't yet forgotten about the previously can now have more concerned about this new one let's go ahead and go to the defense department the u.s. defense department about their reaction their reaction is a lot more stronger they use the words we deplore we could look for inducing individuals to break the law