The US military's top officer Tuesday said information in leaked documents on the war in Afghanistan did not call into question the US strategy or Washington's relationship with Pakistan. Admiral Mike Mullen said he was “appalled” at the leak of 90,000 secret military files on the Afghan mission, but that the information about Pakistan's activities and other details were taken into account during a major strategy review on the war last year. “Certainly the information that I've seen so far in the documents, there's nothing in there that wasn't reviewed or considered in the strategic review” on the war last year, Mullen told reporters on his plane before landing in Iraq. He said the administration of US President Barack Obama was still “working through” all the documents, adding that most of the files appeared to be “field level information, raw intelligence.” The documents, made public by the website WikiLeaks, allege Pakistan – a key ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and its associates – allows its spies to meet directly with the Taliban and even plot to assassinate Afghan leaders. US relations with Pakistan have “dramatically” improved in the past year and Pakistan has launched offensives against extremists in the northwest, involving tens of thousands of troops, Mullen said. “I've seen some very positive steps,” he said. But intelligence officials, past and present, are raising concerns that the WikiLeaks.org revelations could endanger US counterterror networks in the Afghan region, and damage information sharing with US allies. Meanwhile, US allies are asking whether they can trust America to keep secrets. And the Obama administration is scrambling to repair any political damage to the war effort back home. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the military doesn't know who was behind the leaks, although it has launched an investigation.
