U.S. Defense Department demanded that whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks return all U.S. secret documents on the war in Afghanistan and erase the classified data already posted on the Internet.

Last month, WikiLeaks released some 71,000 U.S. military secret files on the war in Afghanistan dating from September 2004 to December 2009. The website is believed to have at least 15,000 more files with classified data.

“The Defense Department demands that WikiLeaks return immediately to the U.S. government all versions of documents obtained directly or indirectly from the Department of Defense databases or records,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said on Thursday.

“We are asking them [WikiLeaks] to do the right thing. This is the appropriate course of action given the damage that has been done,” Morrell said.

The leaked documents contain a massive amount of classified data, from reports on the killings of civilians and lists of names of Afghan informers helping NATO troops, to reports that Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency is helping the Taliban in Afghanistan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier said the publication of Afghan war files may lead to serious consequences for NATO troops and their Afghan assets.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has denounced leaking the names of Afghan informants, saying “their lives will be in danger now.”

The Pentagon, the FBI and the Justice Department are jointly investigating the leaks.

The main suspect in the leak of the documents is jailed U.S. Private Bradley Manning, who had top-secret clearance as an intelligence analyst for the Army when he was stationed in Iraq.

Pentagon investigators believe that Manning has accessed a worldwide military classified Internet and e-mail system to download the documents.

Manning, 22, was charged in June with several violations of the U.S. Criminal Code for allegedly transferring classified data without authorization.

Earlier this year, the Wikileaks website posted a video showing U.S. troops firing repeatedly on a group of men, some of whom were unarmed, walking down a Baghdad street.

The website does not have a central office or any paid staff and its operations are run only by a small dedicated team and some 800 volunteers.

Wikileaks’ founder, Australian activist Julian Assange, has no home address but he often pops up in Sweden and Iceland, where Internet anonymity is protected by laws. He is being hunted by Pentagon investigators and as is suspected of releasing confidential U.S. State Department documents.

WASHINGTON, August 6 (RIA Novosti)

We messed up in these wars and America should get out now…

Coffee Talk!

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BAGHDAD – A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, spotlighting Iraqi complaints that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation.

The $8.7 billion in question was Iraqi money managed by the Pentagon, not part of the $53 billion that Congress has allocated for rebuilding. It’s cash that Iraq, which relies on volatile oil revenues to fuel its spending, can ill afford to lose.

“Iraq should take legal action to get back this huge amount of money,” said Sabah al-Saedi, chairman of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee. The money “should be spent for rebuilding the country and providing services for this poor nation.”

The report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction accused the Defense Department of lax oversight and weak controls, though not fraud.

“The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” the audit said.

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