THE SHADOW OF VIETNAM

More than 90,000 leaked USA military records have been published on the website WIKILEAKS, on Sunday 07/25/2010, reportedly revealing hidden details of the Afghan war. The huge cache of classified papers is described as one of the biggest leaks in USA military history. Wikileaks already embraced the USA military establishment when about half a year ago they published a video footage of an USA helicopter gunship killing civilians including two reporters, in Sadr City, East Baghdad, during fighting with the Shiaa Mahdi Army militia in summer 2007.  

Three major news publications which have been shown the documents say they include unreported killings of Afghan civilians.

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The Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani in Washington said the "unprocessed" reports did "not reflect the current on ground realities". "The United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan are strategic partners and are jointly endeavouring to defeat Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies militarily and politically," he said (see - Terror Epicenter).

According to the documents The Taliban has had access to portable heat-seeking missiles to shoot at aircraft. A secret USA unit of army and navy special forces has been engaged on missions to "capture or kill" top insurgents.

Many civilian casualties have gone unreported, both as a result of Taliban roadside bombs and NATO missions that went wrong. The reports offer an unvarnished and grim picture of the Afghan war.

In a statement, US National Security Adviser Gen James Jones said such classified information "could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security". He said the documents covered the period from 2004 to 2009, before President Barack Obama "announced a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan" (see - Obama's Surge).

Another US official said that Wikileaks - which specialises in making public untraceable material from whistleblowers - was not an objective news outlet and described it as an organisation that opposes USA policy in Afghanistan.

But the head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Senate John Kerry said that "however illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan" (see - Petraeus Mission).

The Guardian and the New York Times say they had no contact with the original source of the leak, but spent weeks crosschecking the information.

The reports come as NATO says it is investigating reports that as many as 45 civilians died in an air strike in Helmand province on Friday 07/23/2010 (see also- Sharply-Up).