WikiLeaks: Pentagon ready to discuss files

August 19, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

STOCKHOLM

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Wednesday the Pentagon has expressed willingness to discuss the online whistleblower’s request for help in reviewing classified documents from the Afghan war and removing information that could harm civilians.

“This week, we received contact through our lawyers that the General Counsel” of the Pentagon “says now that they want to discuss the issue,” Assange told The Associated Press by telephone.

The Pentagon denied it was willing to collaborate with the group but acknowledged that it had arranged for a phone call last Sunday between its general counsel and a person claiming to be a lawyer for WikiLeaks.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the lawyer, Timothy Matusheski, was a “no show” for the call.

The Pentagon followed up with a letter to Matusheski on Monday demanding that WikiLeaks return the war files.

“The Defense Department will not negotiate some ‘minimized’ or ‘sanitized’ version of the release by WikiLeaks of additional U.S. government classified documents,” wrote Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer.

Whitman had initially told reporters there had been no “direct” contact between the Defense Department and WikiLeaks. He said he still stands by that assessment, because the phone call between Johnson and Matusheski never took place.

In an interview Wednesday, Matusheski told The Associated Press that he never had a scheduled phone call with Pentagon officials Sunday. Instead, he said he has had several recent phone conversations with an agent from the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, which is investigating the document leak.

The agent, he said, also called him twice Sunday morning but never reached him.

Matusheski added that the agent has asked about setting up a meeting between Assange and Defense Department officials but did not seek to set up a conversation between Matusheski and the Pentagon.

Matusheski said he provides free legal work for Assange as a way of supporting the whistleblower website.