(UPDATE, August 2, 2010) The London Telegraph is now reporting that Assange has told the media that he has been advised by “inside sources in the White House” not to return to the US as he could be arrested.

Mr Assange says despite this he still fears he is at risk of being forcefully detained by the US government as a material witness in the prosecution of US intelligence analyst Bradley Manning.

(Hat tip to the Drudge Report.)

The video is not up yet [update: now it is]

, but I was sitting here just now watching Shephard Smith’s Studio B program. Judge Andrew Napolitano reported he had interviewed Mr. Assange from WikiLeaks. Napolitano asked Assange if he contacted the Obama Administration about the documents before releasing them. Assange said WikiLeaks did — so that the Obama Administration would have the opportunity to request redactions of any information that might be especially harmful (gee, like maybe the last names of the Afghan civilian informants?). The response from the Obama Administration? No response at all.

Someone may have blood on his hands.

UPDATE: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the WikiLeaks leaks could cause HUGE DAMAGE (per the Wall Street Journal):

The release of the documents, Mr. Gates said, potentially harmed U.S. relations with Pakistan and other countries, and put in danger Afghans who had cooperated with the U.S. Defense officials are taking steps to figure if Afghans mentioned in the documents may now require help. “That is one of the worst aspects of this: will people trust us?” Mr. Gates said.

Sorry, could not embed the video. Here’s the link:

online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704532204575397141587756232.html#articleTabs%3Dvideo

I believe Judge Napolitano said his interview of Assange will run on a program on Fox this Saturday, but i did not catch which one (due to the shock I was experiencing as I listened to what he was saying).

FURTHER UPDATE: Here’s programming information from Freedom Watch for this weekend.

Sir,

Received your message regarding the Wikileaks case. More breaking news on this will be coming, but please tell everyone to tune in this Saturday 10AM & 8PM EDT or Sunday 7PM & 11PM EDT to Freedom Watch on the Fox Business Network for even more details on this that you will not get anywhere else.

Thank you for your interest and support and please keep in touch.

Sincerely,

BREAKING:

Breaking at HotAir.com: DoD spokesman confirms White House was contacted by The New York Times, contradicting earlier reported comments by the White House that it was never contacted by The New York Times on behalf of WikiLeaks.

Official Rejects Claim WikiLeaks Offered Document Review

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2010 – A claim by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that the U.S. government had an opportunity to review stolen military documents published on the group’s website is untrue, a Pentagon spokesman said today.

“It’s absolutely false that WikiLeaks contacted the White House and offered to have them look through the documents,” Marine Corps Col. David Lapan said.

“We never had the opportunity to look at any of the documents in advance to determine anything,” Lapan said. “The documents were brought to the attention of the White House, but no copies of documents, or opportunities to review were given.”

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that Defense Department officials have asked the FBI to assist in investigating the leak of the classified material. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said those responsible for the leak may have the blood of U.S. servicemembers and Afghan civilians on their hands.

[Bolding added.]

DoD, of course, is talking about one thing and not the other. WikiLeaks said it contacted The New York Times and other intermediaries, not the DoD. Wikileaks claims The New York Times contacted the White House. The White House had denied this. There are two real issues.

First, whether the White House turned down an opportunity to engage in negotiations with WikiLeaks to try to prevent the loss of life the release of these documents might cause (for example, the murder of Afghans otherwise secretly working for NATO forces as informants, etc.).

Second, why did the Obama Administration, which claims to be the most transparent presidential administration in history, first say, as mentioned in the video clip above, “He [Assange] never contacted us and then, later, admitting that The New York Times did contact them, but providing no further explanation.

Now, we learn from the DoD that the White House, learning that 92,000 SECRET and CONFIDENTIAL level classified documents were to be released that relating to an on-going “hot” war, that the White House, may have not even contacted the DoD. Assange from WikiLeaks claims he got no response from the White House. Nothing.

Hmmmm.

For Liberty,
ColdWarrior, PC (that’s “precinct committeeman,” not “political child!”)
Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (97 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)
———–
American first, conservative second, Republican precinct committeeman BY NECESSITY!

ThePrecinctProject, so you can say, “I became a precinct committeeman before it was cool.” Where it all started.

“[Primary e]lections have consequences, my friends.” — John McCain