Britain could investigate WikiLeaks allegations

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says the documents on the Iraq war present distressing evidence.

On Friday the whistleblowing organization released 400,000 reports written by U.S. soldiers in Iraq between 2006 and 2009. While the documents contain no completely new revelations, they provide a detailed account of the sectarian violence that erupted in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion and depict a near-lawless country where Iraqi security officials routinely tortured prisoners and engaged in extrajudicial killings. The U.S. military was training Iraqi security forces at the time and transferred thousands of captives to Iraqi prisons. WikiLeaks said the documents show coalition troops did nothing to stop widespread abuses. Clegg joined the Pentagon in condemning the WikiLeaks for releasing classified information, but said that the allegations are serious and that they need to be addressed.