TOMAS BORSA
Opinions Editor

In conjunction with The New York Times, The Guardian, and German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, the online organization Wikileaks has released over 91,000 classified American military incident reports from the war in Afghanistan, in what has been billed as the largest and most significant hemorrhaging of state intelligence since the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, which revealed the grisly and dubious reality of the Vietnam War.

The full trove of documents is available at Wikileaks.org.

Wikileaks is reputed to have withheld an additional 15,000 “time-sensitive” reports too recent or revealing to publish without endangering the lives of coalition troops. The reports outline, in stark and oftentimes blunt details, the “who, what, where, when, and why” of thousands of previously undisclosed incidents involving roadside bombings, civilian casualties, assassinations, weapons-trading and meetings with Afghan warlords and politicians. The documents also reveal candid money laundering and weapons trading between Taliban tribal leaders and Pakistani government officials, which Der Spiegel suggested was evidence “that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is the most important accomplice the Taliban has outside of Afghanistan.”

At very least due to the sheer enormity of incidents contained in the leaked documents — and the promise of more to come — the leak will no doubt have a tremendous impact on the public image of the War in Afghanistan.

Who leaked to Wikileaks?

Wikileaks claims to specialize in the anonymous and untraceable online proliferation of classified or highly sensitive documents relating to government and corporate misconduct, and has refused to reveal the source of the documents. Nevertheless, US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning has been detained for leaking sensitive documents to Wikileaks.

He allegedly smuggled secret files out by downloading them onto blank CDs labelled “Lady Gaga Music” before contacting Wikileaks. Wikileaks does not acknowledge Manning as the source of the leak, in line with their policy of protecting sources’ anonymity, but Manning reportedly confided in a Californian hacker named Adrian Lamo under the online name BradAss87, who subsequently notified authorities. Because Wikileaks did not solicit the documents — and were instead approached by a very willing and enthusiastic Manning — the publication of the documents does not violate the American Espionage Act of 1917 and is allowed legally.

Manning is also allegedly the source of a previous Wikileaks publication entitled “Collateral Murder,” which shows 19 minutes of footage from an American Apache helicopter during an apparently unprovoked attack on civilians and a photojournalist. After mistaking the journalist’s camera for a rocket-propelled grenade, the pilot is overheard muttering “fucking prick” before opening fire on a crowd of men gathered near a courtyard; in the aftermath of the shooting, as the camera pans to reveal a pool of blood so large that it stretches from one side of the road to the other, the pilot emphatically congratulates the co-pilot: “Nice! Good Shootin’!” Four minutes later, as a van arrives to transport the lone survivor to medical aid, 60 additional cannon rounds are fired into the van and the surrounding area. The death toll of the encounter was listed at 12 dead, with 2 children also seriously injured, and no shots fired at the American helicopter. Manning is awaiting a military trial in a Kuwaiti prison, where he has been promised “a heavy sentence.”

What the Afghan War Logs reveal

The 91,000 published reports reveal that contrary to official government figures, the accuracy and frequency of Taliban suicide and roadside bombings have increased dramatically every year since the war began in 2001. In 2004, for example, the documents record a total of 308 home-made bombs employed against NATO forces and Afghan civilians. Last year, the newly uncovered figures show that there were 7,155.

The logs reveal a tremendous under-reporting of the true number of civilian casualties and injuries as a result of the negligence, misunderstanding or often-times unprovoked aggression of coalition troops during the period between January 2004 and December 2009. Previously tucked-away incidents range from Polish troops’ mortaring of a wedding party in the village of Nangar Khel, American troops’ “precautionary” machine-gunning of civilian transport buses, and the murder of an Afghan civilian who failed to stop when ordered by American personnel to do so. The man, Shum Khan, was deaf and mute and did not hear their warnings.

Some entries reveal a complete failure on the part of coalition forces to accurately identify or strike enemies during attacks. One report, for example, lists the aftermath of an American-led attack as “one girl killed, one woman, four men, one donkey, one dog, several chickens. No enemy killed, no enemy wounded, no enemy detained.”

Conversely, other entries show a tendency on the part of American personnel toward complete omission of unsavory incidents. An entry from March 4, 2007, failed to mention anything but the fact that during a routine patrol, U.S. Marines had encountered a roadside bomb and had shortly afterward heard gunshots from three separate locations. The entire entry read: “The patrol returned to base.” Fair enough.

However, it has since emerged that in actuality, the incident triggered “a frenzied escape” over the six-mile road back to the base, during which time the Marines opened automatic fire on and ran over civilians, killing 19 and wounding 50 others.

If verifiable, many of the aforementioned events — particularly those involving civilian casualties or disregard for the rules of engagement — could be investigated for potential war crimes. (The United States never ratified membership in the International Criminal Court, and U.S. forces are thus exempt from prosecution there.)

The leaked documents have also uncovered the existence of a special “black-ops” unit of the United States Special Forces named Task Force 373, which is alleged to carry out assassinations and capture suspected enemy combatants for detention or execution without trial. The small and ultra-selective unit has been accused of stirring up Afghan resentment toward coalition forces by single-handedly killing 195 civilians — as well as an unknown number of Afghan national police — during botched covert operations. Task Force 373 has also been implicated in at least 62 instances of detention without trial.

A significant number of the documents also describe unreported or misreported friendly fire incidents between Afghan police and army forces, coalition forces, and the US military. In the fall of 2006, four Canadian soldiers were killed and seven others injured when, it is alleged, an American jet dropped a bomb on a building that they were patrolling. Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon refused to comment on the documents, saying that they “had nothing to do with Canada.” The Canadian military had previously insisted that the four soldiers had died during a gunfight with Taliban militants, an account of events which it has rather perplexingly continued to defend.

Response to the leak

In response to the leak, The White House has taken a predictably defensive stance, downplaying the significance of the reports and labeling them an inflammatory and unwelcome attempt at influencing American foreign policy.

“The United States strongly condemn the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations, which could put the lives of the U.S. and partner service members at risk and threatens our national security,” said General James L. Jones, the U.S. National Security Advisor. “(Wikileaks) is not an objective news outlet but rather an organization that opposes U.S. policy in Afghanistan.”

The federal government of Germany, a country which currently has 4,600 troops posted in Afghanistan, has also condemned the leak over its potential to reveal outpost coordinates and increase attacks on German soldiers.

Nevertheless, condemnation of the leaks has been far from unanimous. The British parliament has responded by demanding an enquiry into the country’s handling of the war, while German members of parliament have similarly voiced their distrust and insisted that they would “push with all force for answers.”

Dennis Kucinich, American member of Congress from Ohio, boldly claimed “these documents provide a fuller picture of what we have long known about Afghanistan: The war is going badly. We have to show the ability to respond to what’s right in front of our face. This war is no longer justifiable under any circumstances.”