The voluminous classified documents on the Afghan war leaked by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks has the potential to put American troops in harm's way, the White House said on Friday.
The issue was discussed at the monthly situation room Af-Pak meeting at the White House convened by United States President Barack Obama.
"We believe that this has the potential to put troops, those that cooperate with our efforts, into harm's way," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.
Gibbs clarified that the White House did not see any of these documents prior to their being put online.
"We worked with The New York Times on some questions that they had. They were able to see some of the documents beforehand," he said.
The New York Times was one of the three media outlets which were given prior access to the documents before it was released by WikiLeaks.
"I think they (The New York Times) handled this story in a responsible way. I reiterate that we did not see those documents, nor were we contacted about seeing those documents beforehand," Gibbs said.
"I think each of the principals, including the President, has commented on the operational security risks that 90,000-plus secret documents, classified documents being put on the Internet poses to our troops, poses to those that are cooperating in efforts to make Afghanistan and Pakistan more secure. And we'll go from there," he said.
In his remarks to the press, Obama on Tuesday had expressed concern over the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardise individuals or operations.
