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Q Does the President think that the WikiLeak leak of documents has put Afghan informers at risk?
MR. GIBBS: I would say from General Jones' statement last Sunday, from the President's statement -- and I know while we were out here, the Pentagon has -- Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen are briefing on both that situation and on the meeting today itself -- and I said, we believe that this has the potential to put people -- our troops, those that cooperate with our efforts -- into harm's way.
Q Has it identified any points in the documents where people have been named?
MR. GIBBS: I don't want to get into -- I don't want to get into that level of that detail. I will say this, and I know this is -- I just want to be clear. We did not see any of these documents prior to their being put online. We worked with The New York Times on some questions that they had. They were able to see some of the documents beforehand. And, as I said earlier, I think they handled this story in a responsible way. But I reiterate that we have not -- did not -- and did not see those documents, nor were we contacted about seeing those documents beforehand. Let me give you just a little bit of a broad read-through on what was discussed this afternoon -- or this morning. This was the seventh regular meeting of the group on Afghanistan and Pakistan. The meeting began with an update on the situation in Afghanistan where they discussed the success of the recent Kabul Conference, including the absence of significant security disruptions, and the steps that were announced to move forward on strengthening governance and pursuing reintegration.
General Petraeus gave a security update reviewing the progress that has been made across the country. On Pakistan, the group reviewed the recent strategic dialogue that Secretary Clinton held in Pakistan, while also discussing our continued efforts to support the Pakistani military's actions against violent extremists within its -- within its borders.
Q But just to come back to the WikiLeaks, was the sense in the meeting that there's going to be an operational impact?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I would say that that was the --
Q Due to the leaks, I mean.
MR. GIBBS: I will say this. WikiLeaks was not something that took up any real measurable amount of time in today's meeting. I think each of the principals, including the President, has commented on the operational security risks that 90,000-plus secret documents, classified documents being put on the Internet poses to our troops, poses to those that are cooperating in efforts to make Afghanistan and Pakistan more secure. And we'll go from there.
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Q How is the U.S. attempting to monitor who has read the WikiLeaks in terms of, like, bad guys who you wouldn't want it reading it?
MR. GIBBS: I'd point you to the Pentagon, who also won't answer your question. (Laughter.)
Q On a similar note, is the U.S. or NATO, any NATO partners, in the position of considering offering asylum in any way to some of the cooperating parties in Afghanistan who may now be in trouble?
MR. GIBBS: Again, I don't know if this comes up in Secretary Gates' briefing today, but they may have an answer on that. |
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Name(s:) |
Robert Gibbs |
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Title: |
Press Secretary |
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Agency(ies): |
Office of the Press Secretary, White House |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Archive: |
Archive Link
http://archive.is/NSCtq |
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