Timothy Matusheski, a lawyer from Hattiesburg, Miss., who says he represents whistleblowers and has been in touch with both Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and at least one government official involved in investigations of Wikileaks, said Wikileaks had set up a “secure channel” through which authorized users could access the unpublished material. He said credentials for using this Web site had been forwarded to representatives of the U.S. government whom he did not identify. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Matusheski indicated that the reason Wikileaks had taken these steps was to make good on its offer to try to work with U.S. authorities to remove from reports, published in the future by the Web site, sensitive information that could put innocent lives in jeopardy.