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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
This week, the website WikiLeaks published more than 75,000 American military documents on the war in Afghanistan. These documents from the Army and Marine Corps included secret reports from the past six years.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the problems they describe are not new. But he says their release could harm troops and damage American relationships in that part of the world.
He says intelligence sources and methods will become known, and Afghans who have helped American forces may now be in danger.
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 Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen at the Pentagon on Thursday. |
Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticized the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.
MICHAEL MULLEN: "Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing. But the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family."
In London, Mr. Assange said WikiLeaks is still examining 15,000 more documents. He says the released documents do not include any top-secret reports or names ofinformants or information like troop movements.
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 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a press conference in London on Monday. |
WikiLeaks is a nonprofit organization that publishes documents from governments and businesses. It released the military documents on Sunday. It gave early copies to three news organizations in the United States, Germany and Britain.
The White House is urging WikiLeaks not to publish any more classified documents about the Afghan war.
In April, the site posted video of an American helicopter strike in Iraq in 2007. That attack killed two Iraqis working for the Reuters news agency.
An American soldier is charged with releasing that video. Army Private Bradley Manning has also come under interest in the latest release of documents.
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 Afghan War Diary on WikiLeaks. |
Pakistan denies that. And Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says: "These are not new allegations."
JOHN KERRY: "We have been wrestling with these allegations, and we have made some progress."
But a vote in Congress this week showed weakening support for President Obama's war policy among members of his own party.
More than 100 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against an emergency spending measure. It included 33 billion dollars to send more troops to Afghanistan.
But the bill passed with strong Republican support. The president requested the money in February and the Senate agreed in May.
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 US Marines south of Kabul in Afghanistan. |
Democrat David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, explained why he could not support the measure.
DAVID OBEY: "Military experts tell us that it could take up to ten more years to achieve any acceptable outcome in Afghanistan. We have already been there nine years. I believe that is too high a price to pay."
Sixty-six deaths made July the deadliest month yet for American troops in Afghanistan.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Katherine Cole.
informant:提供消息的人
WikiLeaks fuels negative war debate for US
Admiral Mullen: Afghanistan can 'turn' by Obama deadline
UK troops may start leaving next year
Analysts have mixed expectations before Afghan donor conference
（來源：VOA 編輯：陳丹妮）
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