(Image Source: The Guardian)

BY STEVEN HSIEH

It’s the biggest military leak in U.S. history. Wikileaks released some 400,000 Iraq war documents, including field reports from U.S. soldiers.  Some say the war logs shed new light on the Iraq war but military officials say the leak will put coalition troops in danger.

CNN’s James King highlights some of the war logs’ revelations.

“This breach details major problems in the Iraq war: Iraqi military mistreatment of detainees, Iranian meddling that put U.S. troops at risk, abuses by private contractors hired by the United States and Iraqi government, and stark assessments about massive civilian casualties in Iraq.”

The Guardian reports the war logs reveal 15,000 previously unknown civilian deaths.  A representative from the organization Iraq Body Count says the leak provides much needed disclosure for victims’ families and the public.

“Any human death is a public tragedy.  The moment an American soldier or British soldier dies, the next page in the newspaper—the fact of it is announced—their name, their age, where they were, some humanizing detail about them.  All victims of war, including civilians, deserve that same level of respect and acknowledgement.”

More revelations-- Al Jazeera focused on documents that revealed that Iraqis tortured prisoners-- and the U.S turned a blind eye toward the abuse.

“U.S. soldiers reported to their superiors 41 separate incidents of Iraqi abuse in the same period.  They include multiple claims of detainees being beaten, including with chains.  And a detainee who says he was electrocuted . . . The U.S. had chosen to turn its back.”

But Pentagon Press  Secretary Geof Morrell denies that the U.S. ignored torture in prisons.  He tells NBC’s Today Show the leak will put coalition lives in danger.

“The bottom line is our forces are still very much in forces as a result of this exposure, given that our tactics, techniques, and procedures are exposed in these documents, and our enemies will undoubtedly use them against us, making their jobs even more difficult and dangerous.”

German newspaper Der Spiegel was one of the three news organizations Wikileaks granted first access to the documents, along with The New York Times and The Guardian. Der Spiegel defends its decision to publish the documents-- highlighting fatal accidents at routine checkpoints.

“What is new about these documents is that they are written from the perspective of the Americans themselves. It is the US soldiers themselves who depict the drama of the war. Dramatic events that occurred again and again at checkpoints, where the excessive nervousness of the soldiers led to hundreds of deadly incidents.”

The New York Times emphasizes field reports that detail Iran’s aid to Iraq, which President Bush was previously criticized for over-emphasizing.

“...the field reports recount Iran’s role in providing Iraqi militia fighters with rockets, magnetic bombs that can be attached to the underside of cars, ‘explosively formed penetrators,’ or E.F.P.’s, which are the most lethal type of roadside bomb in Iraq, and other weapons.”

The AP reports the UN has called for President Obama to conduct an investigation into human rights abuses revealed in the leak.