"I don't think so," Gates told CNN's "State of the Union" program in response to a question on the matter.

Documents released by whistleblowers' website WikiLeaks one week ago suggested Taliban insurgents had the shoulder-fired, heat-seeking, surface-to-air missiles.

The use of stingers against US forces would be a step-up in the insurgency's capabilities although there have been no reports of US aircraft in the country being brought down by one during the near nine-year war.

The CIA delivered hundreds of stingers to Afghan fighters during the 1980s Soviet occupation. They destroyed up to 300 helicopter gunships, fighter jets and transport aircraft, prompting Russia's humiliating withdrawal.

earlier related report
Wikileaks 'guilty' on moral grounds: Gates
Washington (AFP) Aug 1, 2010 - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday pronounced the Wikileaks website "guilty" on moral grounds for releasing secret US documents on the Afghan war, saying the move was reckless.

Gates said it remained unclear if the website would face legal charges for leaking some 92,000 classified documents on Afghanistan, but the organization deserved condemnation for its actions.

"My attitude on this is that there are two areas of culpability," he told ABC television's "This Week."

"One is legal culpability. And that's up to the Justice Department and others. That's not my arena.

"But there's also a moral culpability. And that's where I think the verdict is guilty on WikiLeaks. They have put this out without any regard whatsoever for the consequences."

As a former CIA analyst who rose to become director of the spy agency, Gates said "protecting our sources is sancrosanct" and the leak jeopardized the trust that underpinned ties to informants.

The massive leak of documents, which in some cases contained names of those cooperating with the United States, showed "no sense of responsibility or accountability associated with it," he said.

As the Pentagon and the FBI launched an investigation into the case, US officials have engaged in a war of words with the Wikileaks' founder, Julian Assange, who has defended the release of the files.

Assange has argued the leak would help focus public debate on the war in Afghanistan and on possible atrocities by US-led forces.

The leak comes weeks after a magazine profile led to the abrupt dismissal of the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.

The general and his aides made disparaging remarks in a Rolling Stone article about top civilian officials as well as President Barack Obama.

Despite the incidents, the US military remained committed to engaging the media, said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Mullen said neither episode would lead to more restrictions press relations.

He said it was "very important that we have a good relationship with the press and that we keep telling our story."

"I've been a big believer that we engage with the press and we need to continue to do that. I don't feel any additional tension with the press based on the Wikileaks, per se," he said.

The US military, however, needed to tell its side "correctly," he added.

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