WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Wednesday rebutted statements by the WikiLeaks organization that the Defense Department had expressed a willingness to discuss reviewing a trove of classified documents before public release.
“The Department of Defense will not negotiate some ‘minimized’ or ‘sanitized’ version of a release by WikiLeaks of additional U.S. government classified documents,” Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, wrote in a letter to an attorney representing WikiLeaks, the online whistle-blowing organization.
The letter was dated Monday but was provided by Defense Department officials Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.org, was quoted by The Associated Press as having said the Pentagon had agreed to negotiations over how to redact the files to remove names and information that might harm individuals, in a process leading to the eventual release of more documents by his organization.
Assange told The Associated Press that he had received information through his attorney that Pentagon lawyers “want to discuss the issue.”
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said WikiLeaks “misrepresented both the level of engagement we have had as well as our position on this matter.”
The policy has not changed, he said: “We are willing to discuss with them how they can return the stolen documents and expunge them from their records.”
