STORY 18. BRAZEN EXPOSURE: MASSIVE INTEL LEAK
DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS): (OC) 안녕하십니까.
Good evening.
‘위키리키스’라는 단체가 아프간 전쟁에 대한 비밀 문서를 공개한 지 3개월, 위키리크스가 다시 공개에 나섰습니다.
Three months after a group called WikiLeaks exposed secret documents on the Afghanistan war, the WikiLeaks group is back again.
그리고 오늘 밤은, 역사상 최대 규모의 국방부 관련 문건이 공개되었습니다.
And tonight, the biggest leak of pentagon documents in history.
미국과 이라크 전에 관한 40만 건의 문서입니다.
400,000 documents about the US and the war in Iraq.
STORY 18. BRAZEN EXPOSURE: MASSIVE INTEL LEAK
DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS): (OC) Good evening. Three months after a group called WikiLeaks exposed secret documents on the Afghanistan war, the WikiLeaks group is back again. And tonight, the biggest leak of pentagon documents in history. 400,000 documents about the US and the war in Iraq. Arab television is already trumpeting the revelations and our Martha Raddatz, who travels the world covering security and defense issues, has been looking at what these latest documents say. She's with us now. Martha?
MARTHA RADDATZ (ABC NEWS): (OC) Diane, the massive amount of once secret field reports reveal startling detail about civilian deaths, torture of detainees at the hands of the Iraqis and deadly US helicopter assaults on insurgents trying to surrender.
(VO) The classified reports put the Iraqi civilian death toll far higher than the US has acknowledged before.
(VO) At more than 100,000 from 2004 to 2009. 15,000 more than the US has reported. Many deaths were at the hands of the Iraqis. But the documents show the US Military was responsible for many more than previously thought, including 681 civilians who were killed at check points during the war.
(VO) And there is graphic detail about torture of detainees by the Iraqi military with prisoners being shackled, blindfolded, kicked and punched. The report says the US military would sometimes turn a blind eye. The secret documents contain at least four cases of lethal shootings from helicopters. One, in February 2007, says that an apache helicopter pilot asked what to do about two Iraqi men believed to have been firing mortars who are trying to surrender. Word comes back, "they cannot surrender to aircraft and are still valid targets." The helicopter then shot and killed the men. Arab-based news organizations are already playing up the reports.
REPORTER (AL JAZEERA): Torture, claims of murder at checkpoints.
MARTHA RADDATZ: (VO) The Arab stations are reporting 285,000 dead and wounded.
GEOFF MORRELL (PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY): I don't know the numbers. I'm not going to get into a numbers game. I'm not gonna speak to the specifics of classified information.
MARTHA RADDATZ: (VO) It is this soldier, 23-year-old former army intelligence analyst Brad Manning, who the pentagon believes is the source of the leaked documents. He is now in a military detention facility in Quantico, Virginia.
(OC) There is also a reference to the American hikers now held in Iran. The US military reports say the hikers were picked up on the Iraqi side of the border, and also, that Iran had been providing help to Iraqi Shiite insurgents throughout the war, Diane.
DIANE SAWYER: (OC) I know there's a lot of outrage about this again tonight, Martha. But tell me, anything more about prosecuting the WikiLeaks group?
MARTHA RADDATZ: (OC) Well, the head of WikiLeaks said this afternoon that he said the FBI has actually interviewed people and there might be espionage charges against him.
DIANE SAWYER: (OC) Might be. Okay, Martha Raddatz reporting tonight as this is developing today.