White House: Not given access to documents

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White House: Not given access to documents

WASHINGTON, A claim that U.S. officials were offered a chance to review stolen military documents before they were posted on the WikiLeaks site is untrue, officials say.

"It's absolutely false that WikiLeaks contacted the White House and offered to have them look through the documents," Marine Corps spokesman Col. David Lapan said in a Defense Department release.

The Web site published tens of thousands of classified documents that detailed field reports from Afghanistan and an alleged Pakistani partnership with the Taliban. Also published were documents with identifying information on Afghan informants who work or have worked with the U.S. military, the release said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the White House was contacted prior to the release of the documents for help in reviewing them to make sure innocent names were not released. White House officials

declined, Assange said.

"We never had the opportunity to look at any of the documents in advance to determine anything," Lapan said. "The documents were brought to the attention of the White House, but no copies of documents, or opportunities to review were given."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Defense Department has asked the FBI to assist in investigating the leak of the classified material.
 
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