(FOX) Although chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters Tuesday he was “appalled” by this week’s leak of thousands of secret US military documents — President Obama sought to dispel concerns stemming from the matter, addressing it publicly for the first time.   

“While I’m concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations, the fact is these documents don’t reveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate on Afghanistan.” Speaking from the Rose Garden Tuesday, following a meeting with congressional leaders to discuss funding for the war and other issues, the president added, “Indeed, they point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall.”

President Obama ordered an additional thirty thousand troops to Afghanistan last December following months of deliberations and top—level meetings with advisers.  

Meanwhile Admiral Mike Mullen, despite his obvious concerns about the leak and its potential for putting troops’ lives at added risk, echoed the president’s point regarding the time frame. “I think it’s important to recognize or emphasize that these are documents that cover the period 2004 to 2009…much has changed since 2009.”   

More than ninety thousand classified military reports were leaked to the website WikiLeaks and published in the New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and the German publication Der Spiegel on Sunday. The intelligence files document a ground-level account of U.S. efforts in the war in Afghanistan between the years 2004 through 2009, and paint an unflattering picture of friendly fire casualties, Afghan civilian deaths and possible evidence of U.S.-Pakistani distrust.

Despite the grim mosaic, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill appear united on one front — these documents should in no way deter the administration’s prosecution of the war in Afghanistan.

Arizona Republican Senator John McCain labeled the reports as “old news” and insisted, “A concerted effort has been made since 2009…to make changes to our strategy, to increase our commitment of troops and resources. As a result, we are finally beginning to address many of the problems highlighted within these leaked documents.”

And Democratic Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri offered, “These leaked reports pre-date our new strategy in Afghanistan and should not be used as a measure of success or a determining factor in our continued mission there.”

Senator Kit Bond (R—MO) suggested, “Somebody ought to be wearing an orange jumpsuit” and argued against the documents having been made public because, “When you get reports from the battlefield or initial reports from the field, those are not distributed because they may represent one person’s view which may or may not be an accurate view of the total picture.”           

On Monday Senator Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., urged defense secretary Robert Gates to launch an investigation into the leaks, and Tuesday Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan confirmed such action had been taken.

He told reporters, “An investigation has been initiated, and Army CID (Criminal Investigative Division) is the lead.”

Army CID spokesman Christopher Grey told Fox the investigation is, “A continuation of the Bradley Manning investigation.” Manning is the US soldier charged with leaking classified video from 2007 of an apache helicopter firing on a crowd in Baghdad. Grey offered no further comment, noting this is now an active investigation.

But his statement backed up earlier reporting that not only is Manning someone officials labeled as a “person of interest,” but he is the first guy they are looking at as potentially being responsible for the massive intelligence leak.