90,000 Classified Documents Leak

On July 25, Internet-based watchdog organization WikiLeaks posted more than 90,000 classified military accounts of the war in Afghanistan. The website's founder, Julian Assange, had shared the documents with several newspapers weeks before publishing them, on the agreement that they not report any of the information until after it appeared on WikiLeaks. The papers consist primarily of secret reports from troops in the field covering local intelligence and recounting clashes — including a number of missives detailing civilian casualties often at the hands of coalition forces. Most notably, some of the numbers noted are not in line with what the military had reported during the near decade-long conflict in Afghanistan. Another important — though not altogether surprising — revelation was that members of the U.S. military suspect what many have long said: that Pakistan's military intelligence agency has secretly helped the Afghan Taliban insurgency.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has come under fire recently for failing to properly combat terrorist activity in his country, responded with this statement: "The recent documents leaked out to the media clearly support and verify Afghanistan's all-time position that success over terrorism does not come with fighting in Afghan villages, but by targeting its sanctuaries and financial and ideological sources across the borders. Our efforts against terrorism will have no effect as long as these sanctuaries and sources remain intact."