Australian Defence Association executive director Neil James said yesterday that WikiLeaks' publication on Monday of tens of thousands of classified United States military reports on the war in Afghanistan constituted reckless assistance to the Taliban insurgency.

Mr James said the vast bulk of material released by WikiLeaks would not be new to anyone familiar with the Afghanistan War. However, he argued the disclosure of thousands of detailed classified reports went ''well beyond justifiable whistleblowing,'' such as WikiLeaks' earlier release of helicopter gun-camera film showing probable breaches of the laws of war by American forces in Iraq.

''Put bluntly, WikiLeaks is not authorised in international or Australian law, nor equipped morally or operationally, to judge whether open publication of such material risks the safety, security, morale and legitimate objectives of Australian and allied troops fighting in a United Nations-endorsed military operation,'' he said.

''Nor should and can groups such as WikiLeaks be so authorised or equipped respectively, especially when they are unaccountable to any responsible authority or international humanitarian law.''

Mr James said this week's disclosures risked endangering Coalition troops and would bolster Taliban insurgent propaganda.

He noted that under 2002 amendments to Australia's treason law it was a serious criminal offence to intentionally assist ''by any means whatever'' an organisation engaged in armed hostilities against the Australian Defence Force.

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