Transcript of: Leaks reveal stunning details about civilian toll in Iraq
WILLIAMS:
And good evening from
Chicago
.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor (Chicago):
It has happened again.
The Web
site
WikiLeaks
has released another batch of thousands of documents from inside the
Department of Defense
. This is what they had threatened to do again.
The New York Times
got an early look at some of the documents and now so have we, and a lot of them have to do with civilian deaths in
Iraq
, numbers that soar above previous US estimates. We just had our first look again at the first of these documents. We want to go to our
Pentagon
correspondent
Jim Miklaszewski
, who's on duty tonight.
Jim
, good evening.
JIM MIKLASZEWSKI reporting:
Good evening,
Brian
. This is a massive leak of
America
's military secrets, nearly 400,000 documents in all. That's as thick as a stack of 800 telephone books. And while this is all breaking as we speak, at first blush it appears to be breaking bad for the
US military
and the
Pentagon
. The documents we've seen and have been reported so far reveal that the
US military
knew that
Iraqi security forces
beat, tortured and murdered detainees, but those
US military forces
were actually under orders not to intervene, so instead they looked the other way. In one instance, an American helicopter gunship shot and killed a group of Iraqis who were attempting to surrender. Other documents also reveal that hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed at
US military
checkpoints, a number far higher than previously reported, and that in a five-year period, some 66,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, even though all along the
US military
and
Pentagon
had claimed they never kept such statistics. Now, the
Pentagon
fears that there may be the names of more than 300 Iraqi informants who were working hand in glove with the
American military
, so tonight the
US military in Iraq
is working with the Iraqis to track down and warn each and every one of them that their lives may now be at risk.
Brian
:
WILLIAMS:
All right,
Jim Miklaszewski
. And so far any reaction from the building you're in, from the
Department of Defense
,
Jim
?
MIKLASZEWSKI:
Well, officials here, of course, condemn the
WikiLeaks
leak of all these documents. They say it reveals
American military
tactics and techniques that puts Americans at risk and may even risk
national security
. But at the same time, they understand that they are responsible for the leak of this information, and those documents should never have gotten out into the public
in the first place
.
WILLIAMS:
All right. With this still breaking story tonight, our
Pentagon
correspondent
Jim Miklaszewski
. We want
“ ”