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Obama calls high-level meet over war documents leak

July 29, 2010 12:02 IST
United States President Barack Obama has convened his monthly situation room meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan on Thursday, the first after the leak of more than 92,000 classified documents on Afghan war.

To be chaired by Obama, the meeting would be attended among others by Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Advisor Gen (retd) James Jones.

General David Petraeus, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson would attend the meeting through secure videoconference.

Early this week, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the issue of Wikileaks and the issue raised therein would come up for discussion during the Situation Room meeting.

Obama on Wednesday expressed concern over the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardise individuals or operations.

"The fact is, these documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan. Indeed, they point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall," Obama said.

Reiterating his earlier remarks, Obama said for seven years, the US failed to implement a strategy adequate to the challenge in this region from which the 9/11 attacks were waged and other attacks against the United States and its friends and allies have been planned.

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