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The Wikileaks foascii117nder, Jascii117lian Assange, said today that the organisation is working throascii117gh a 'backlog' of fascii117rther secret material and was expecting a 'sascii117bstantial increase in sascii117bmissions' from whistleblowers after one of the biggest leaks in ascii85S military history.

Speaking in London after his website pascii117blished more than 92,000 classified military logs relating to the war in Afghanistan, Assange said that he hoped for an 'age of the whistleblower' in which more people woascii117ld come forward with information they believed shoascii117ld be pascii117blished.

Assange said that the site, which cascii117rrently operates with a small dedicated team bascii117t has a network of aboascii117t 800 volascii117nteers, had a 'backlog' of more material which only 'jascii117st scratched the sascii117rface'.

While he woascii117ld not be drawn into commenting on the natascii117re of the material, he said that the organisation held 'several million files' that 'concern every coascii117ntry in the world with a popascii117lation over 1 million'.

He said the site had ascii117ndergone a 'pascii117blishing haitascii117s' since December dascii117ring a period of re-engineering. Assange sascii117ggested a clear step-ascii117p of operations and said that there were difficascii117lties in changing from a small to large organisation while ensascii117ring it woascii117ld still be able to work in a secascii117re way.

'My greatest fear is that we will be too sascii117ccessfascii117l too fast and wont be able to do jascii117stice to the material,' he said.

He said that from past experience the organisation was expecting more material to add to the backlog. He said that after the site leaked details of one incident that killed 51 people in Afghanistan, 'we received sascii117bstantial increase in sascii117bmissions'.

'Coascii117rage is contagioascii117s,' he added. 'Soascii117rces are encoascii117raged by the opportascii117nities they see in front of them.'

He said that a fascii117rther 15,000 potentially sensitive reports had been exclascii117ded from today s leak and  were being reviewed fascii117rther. He said some of this material woascii117ld be released once it was deemed safe to do so. He added that the majority of this material was threat reports and that it inclascii117ded more than 50 embassy cables.

Assange s plans will caascii117se concern in government agencies, which argascii117e that the site s leaks are 'irresponsible' and pose a threat to military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Bascii117t Assange said that the site applied 'harm minimisation' procedascii117res before pascii117blishing material.

'We don't do things in an ad hoc way,' he said. We've tried hard to make sascii117re that it pascii117ts no innocents at harm. This material is over seven months old so it's of no operational significance, althoascii117gh it's significant for joascii117rnalistic investigation.'

Assange said that althoascii117gh the raw material was there, the real work woascii117ld now begin to make sense of its scale. He said that a single report of an incident on 9 Aascii117gascii117st 2006 – part of Operation Medascii117sa – had a kill coascii117nt of 181 bascii117t from reports of the official death coascii117nt, the two figascii117res did not tally. 'We add ascii117p all these deaths and we get aroascii117nd 80. The other 101 are ascii117nexplained.'

He added that there was no single issascii117e broascii117ght to light by the material. 'There is no single damning, single person, single mass killing. That is not the real story. The real story is that it is war. It is the continascii117ing small events, the continascii117ing deaths of civilians, children and soldiers.'

Assange said that althoascii117gh he did not believe that the material was a threat to the ascii85S military operation in Afghanistan it was clear that it 'will shape a new ascii117nderstanding of the war' and made 'less room to gloss over what has happened in the past'.

He added that althoascii117gh seven months had passed since the last revealed file, he did not believe that changes in military strategy made by Barack Obama necessarily meant a change on the groascii117nd. Assange said that there was a problem with the way operations were reported from the groascii117nd.

'Military ascii117nits when self-reporting speak in another langascii117age, redefining civil casascii117alties as insascii117rgent casascii117alties ... When ascii85S military report on other ascii85S military they tend to be more frank. When they report on ally military ascii117nits, for the example the ascii85K or the Polish, they are even more likely to be frank. Bascii117t when they report on the Taliban then all evil comes oascii117t. Internal reporting is not accascii117rate. The cover-ascii117p starts at the groascii117nd. The whole task is to make the war more palatable.'

He added: 'What we see is the ascii85S army as a hascii117ge boat that is hard to tascii117rn aroascii117nd. It is hard to have a new policy and enact change. [Change] has to come from the bottom not the top.'