WikiLeaks strikes at DoD on Twitter

A little-noted tweet from the Pentagon sent WikiLeaks back into defense mode Thursday as the controversy continued over what the group promises is a forthcoming release of 15,000 more secret war documents.

WikiLeaks, which maintains an aggressive Twitter presence, has used its feed consistently since late July to publicize its conflict with the Defense Department.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, had not weighed in on its feed since Aug. 2.

"We are not interested in negotiating," it said Thursday morning, directing the message to the group with the hashtag #WikiLeaks.

The tweet linked to a press release saying that WikiLeaks had "contacted no 'competent authorities' in the Defense Department" about its July 25 document release and repeated its order that the documents pending publication be returned.

"'These documents are property of the United States government. ... The unauthorized release of them threatens the lives of coalition forces, as well as Afghan nationals,'" it said in a quote from Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

WikiLeaks tweeted back less than an hour later.



"DoD's General Counsel is apparently an 'incompetent authority,'" it said, linking to the text of a letter sent from lead Pentagon attorney Jeh Charles Johnson to WikiLeaks on Aug. 16. The letter implies that the parties had been in previous contact.

"Pentagon: The free press trying to do the right thing are worse than Iran," WikiLeaks continued Thursday, linking back to the DoD's original tweet.

"Pentagon won't negotiate, but can't count. 15k documents out in PR," it added, linking back to the original DoD press release, which includes links to related statements published by the department.

WikiLeaks had previously used its Twitter feed to characterize Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell as "obnoxious," saying he issued a "formal threat" against the group.

It also said, re-linking to the Aug. 16 letter from DoD lead counsel to WikiLeaks, that the Pentagon "wants 'total censorship,'" and that it "doesn't give a damn about Afghans."



A related dispute arose Wednesday when WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange suggested to The Associated Press that the Pentagon was willing at one point to negotiate with the group about how to redact the pending documents.

"The Department of Defense will not negotiate some 'minimized' or 'sanitized' version of a release by WikiLeaks of additional U.S. Government classified documents," the Pentagon wrote in the Aug. 16 letter.

"The Department demands that nothing further be released by WikiLeaks, that all of the U.S. Government classified documents that WikiLeaks has obtained be returned immediately, and that WikiLeaks remove and destroy all of these records from its databases."

An additional Pentagon statement said that any official that helped WikiLeaks edit the files would "still would be guilty" of releasing them.

Assange has said he is waiting to publish the documents until they are fully edited for names, and that the group is about halfway through the set.