U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe

Source: Wired

By Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter June 6, 2010 | 9:31 pm |

Federal officials have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com has learned.

SPC Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad, where he was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. A family member says he’s being held in custody in Kuwait, and has not been formally charged.



Manning was turned in late last month by a former computer hacker with whom he spoke online. In the course of their chats, Manning took credit for leaking a headline-making video of a helicopter attack that Wikileaks posted online in April. The video showed a deadly 2007 U.S. helicopter air strike in Baghdad that claimed the lives of several innocent civilians.

He said he also leaked three other items to Wikileaks: a separate video showing the notorious 2009 Garani air strike in Afghanistan that Wikileaks has previously acknowledged is in its possession; a classified Army document evaluating Wikileaks as a security threat, which the site posted in March; and a previously unreported breach consisting of 260,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables that Manning described as exposing “almost criminal political back dealings.”

“Hillary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning, and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public,” Manning wrote.

Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/leak/#ixzz0q7zSFsO9

arrives sooner or later, one way or another.

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Dumb dumb dumb. No good deed goes unpunished and hoo boy is he ever in for a world of punishment.

Whistleblowing's main strength is anonymity. When you choose to forgo that protection, well... What happens to you isn't right, but it is what happens to you.

protection statute. You gotta obey the established procedures and pick a legitimate outlet. What he did was disregard the law and pass information to those not entitled legally to receive it. If it's classified, it doesn't matter if it's combat-related information, diplomatic traffic, or the classified identity of an intelligence officer.

Scratch "courageous" and insert narcissistic & stupid.

amirite?

"The Whistleblower Protection Act permits disclosure to be made not only to another official of the Executive branch, but to anyone--a reporter, a Member of Congress, an interest group, etc. This has been well-supported by case law."

that would make a leak "almost" qualifying - under your interpretation of the case law. However, when you cross the realm into classified information and especially with the military, there are myriad general and specific orders violated and one of the 1st things noted by the court will be any nondisclosure agreement he signed.

Any soldier knows that you have a legitimate complaint - use the chain of command or the IG. There are military provisions for redress of grievance that are protected when you use the chain of command. Further, Public Law 107-174 (May 15, 2002)codified that
protection from retaliation for civil rights and whistle-blowing up the chain, effectively reversing by legislation, any provisions that a disclosure to a federal supervisor isn't protected.

I don't buy that anyone could conceivably consummate a leak with violating something else that is fully enforceable. Someone with that mindset will inevitably violate another provision such as removing classified information from a secure facility - an act not covered by any whistle-blower statute. Improper transmission of classified information and/or intentionally putting it on an electronic system not accredited for that level of information. (The internet is accred for UNCLAS only) Or if you destroy what you removed, congratulations and welcome to improper destruction of classified information and possible obstruction of justice for destroying evidence of your own wrongdoing.


If you think otherwise, here's recent history: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/15/AR2010041503118.html

"Former NSA official allegedly leaked material to media" (Washington Post 16 April 2010)

"Thomas A. Drake, 52, has not been accused of sharing the most sensitive of the NSA's secrets: the means it uses to intercept e-mails and phone calls around the world, or the tools it employs to crack adversaries' codes. Instead, Drake appears to have provided a steady stream of documents and information to a Baltimore Sun reporter whose work exposed NSA system failures and mismanaged programs."

"Drake faces 10 felony charges, each carrying a maximum penalty of five to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine."

That covers a lot of shit, man.
What side are you on?

Seymour Hersch told us about stuff at Abu Ghrab that hasn't been prosecuted,
videos that were provided by whistleblowers.

Daniel Ellsberg has called for people to come out and blow the whistle on things they've seen.

When someone does wrong, they should apologize and make amends.
What side are you on?

edit to add:
Do you have a conscience?
Some people don't - I'm not judging you - some people don't.

sleeping through the nights.

When I wuz in the Army - many moons ago - we always felt that our life would be great if only those yahoos at Company Hqs could get their act together. But the perspective of a junior soldier is by its nature focused narrowly.

This guy has a TS clearance with SCI access. Washington Post says he's a Specialist (E-4) and an Intel Analyst (that covers a wide range of specialties). That means he worked in a SCIF and signed a nondisclosure agreement as a precondition to access.

His own claim is providing somewhere north of 250,000 diplomatic cables. Last time I went through an Army school, folks in his grade weren't being trained to recognize the synoptic "what was" & "what wasn't" that's why units have lots of people to divide up the effort. We make it following classification rules easy by requiring originators to apply classification either by original or derivative authorities.

We the people did not invest in him the authority to apply his "expert judgment" that those 250,000 documents were no longer classified and should be sent to someone outside government without the clearance and need to know. But we did train him where he could go with complaints. He chose to disregard it and inflate his own sense of importance by acting outside the law.

And now there will be consequences for his poor choices. The Army probably will not hang him for this. With apologies to Monty Python, "First Offense? Crucification."

And with the earlier Abu G reference - the biggest chain breakdown there was insufficient seniority on the night shift. All the Company officers had "day" jobs. (There was one Battalion - commanded by a LTC - responsible for multiple sites - and one Company commanded by a CPT running Abu G.) But God forbid a LT get a Combat Area OER for "Night Shift Leader" rather than "Company Training Officer."

Do you know offhand? (Just asking, not disputing, in case that's not clear.)

The statute goes only to whether the whistleblower gets certain protections or not.

There's no basis for saying whistle blowing that is protected by statute is more courageous than whistle-blowing that is totally unprotected. Just the opposite.

Bragging online about it, however, is a separate issue.

This young man needs to learn the Best of Best good deeds are the ones that only you know you did!!!

I would imagine at this point in this kids mind he is wishing he had not bragged about what he did.

It is not espionage when you expose the truth about nefarious deeds your own government is up to. It is true patriotism. He is deserving of a medal. Of course at this time in our history we are far from giving it to him. Bush and his cronies get promoted but a true good soldier with a spine like this young man will end up behind bars. And not even our dem leaders will speak up for him. Because we are a spineless fucked up country.

society we live in. Capitalism produces the lowest common denominator ironically. We reward the bad and punish the good.

the French Revolution, then think of today.

We ceased being a people who would fight for a principle like "Taxation without representation is tyranny." We became a nation of apathy, inertia, or even unconditional cheerleading (be it Republican or Democcratic), some of whom sneer at lawmakers and voters who give even momentary lip service to their principles, rather than falling in line immediately.

The man is a patriot for exposing criminal conduct by our government.

I don't see why covering someone's ass after they murdered someone is important to national security.

doing floating around Iraq? Was it being used as a training film?

And what kind of security does the military have on their documents?

Sounds as if he may have earned a spot there.

Before he did it. If he truly believes what he did was right he should be willing to take the punishment for it .

Of course, in a sane world he wouldn't have had to do it...

On a sane, sustainable Earth there would be no war and no need for military "secrets"...

But we live in bat-crap crazy USAmerikan Empire-land...

Piaa on ALL Flags!

Whether members here like it or not, members of the US Intel community take a legally binding oath to safe guard classified US government information. Whether we agree with what he did does not change the fact that there is a law against this. The DoD has the right to keep its classified info from the public in order to protect the force.

Since it was classified not to protect the force, but to hide war crimes.

Prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. He knew the consequences of his actions

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I thought (maybe just hoped) that as most of the Americans who
I've met were good, honest, decent folk that the Bush years were
an unfortunate period where the political "temperature" had caused
an inversion event and the crap that normal lined the bottom of
the pond had floated to the top.

I suspect that I misled myself (confirmation bias from the fact that
most of my interactions have been positive, friendly and respectful)
and that the numbers of the pro-"Bushlike behaviour" are far larger
than admitted.

:shrug:

It *might* be that there are a number of RW sock-puppets (like the
"usual suspects" who piled in together upthread) but I'm starting
to doubt it.

:-(

He knew there were going to be consequences when he started down this road. If he believed enough to do it then he should believe enough to take responsibility for his actions.

how to turn an immature teenager into a cold-blooded killer for capitalism...

Anything else is Foma...

I did my time I don't see myself as a killer.

slapping the wrists of a couple of very low level folk at Abu Ghraib.

There's no law or oath more important than that.

I wonder if we might have experienced enough outrage by now to end both of these mindless and illegal wars if there were more soldiers and Marines with this kind of courage.

The Pentagon Papers? Should he have been thrown in jail too?

Cheney believed he had good reasons for disclosing the status of Valerie Plame.

reasons for the Iraq War.

Fortunately for Cheney, Bushco lawyers came up with the "power to de-classify" defense and Bush went along with the delegatio fiction. And, Cheney was never indicted.

Comparable to Ellsberg?

what he did, even though you and I know it would be deeply frowned upon by the overlords, was exposing twisted anti-humanity warmongering.

seriously...

just ICK!

Some laws are more important than others. Among spies, leaking is seen as being a huge crime. Perhaps this is your field, since you feel so strongly. But, this man leaked material that exposed illegal activity. The question is thus:

Which is more important?

A - To know of illegal activity, including war crimes, but maintain their secrecy to protect the perpetrators, justifying your actions with the protection of an oath to keep the secrets and laws to protect the criminals, under the threat of imprisonment should you expose the illegal activities?

B - To know of illegal activity, including war crimes, and act to expose these crimes as damaging to the U.S. in order to defend her constitution, in spite of laws designed to protect the perpetrators and threaten informants?

Is it more important to prosecute this person for leaking information about war crimes? Or is it more important to discover the war crimes and prosecute those perpetrators?

In a free and open society, the later would be the choice and in fact has been honored in the U.S. in the past (i.e. Daniel Elsberg).

In a criminal government with a propagandized public where deception rules, the former takes precedence. If the former is what you advocate, I suggest it indicates that our government is not the open democracy we are lead to believe it is.

Many DU'ers are caught up in supporting our military no matter what. I call that "Good German Syndrome". This soldier is a true American and deserves our thanks not time behind bars as many here are suggesting. As someone above posted it does show the world how Bush and Cheney got away with their crimes.

war criminals. Nor is he obligated to follow illegal orders, which he may have felt he was doing once he realized the extent of the crimes being committed.

I don't know why people always forget exactly what the oaths taken by members of our government and of the military obligate them to do.

With a really good defense team I could see him getting off as he was only doing his duty exposing people who are basically domestic enemies.

:sarcasm:

Just ask these guys about that crap...



All nations and their military tools constantly commit war crimes!

This man is a hero for exposing a few...

I misspoke.

Could jeopardize the safety of other American soldiers.

http://file.wikileaks.org/file/us-intel-wikileaks.pdf

Sorry- he deserves to be tried under the UCMJ.

Some may disagree, but that is what will happen.

by this sort of information being made public.

But as for "deserves"...

Only in the USAmerikan Imperial death culture's perverted military minds could that be true...

During all the controversy about this video, I never wanted this to happen. I know I caused a lot of discussion over my stance of what the "Collateral Murder" video depicted, but I'd never concerned myself about who actually leaked the video or with Wikileaks for putting the video out there. The leaker was obviously someone who wanted it discussed and hashed over, as did Wikileaks.

So here he is, allegedly. And Manning was NOT turned in because of the video, according to Lamo, but because of the "previously unreported breach consisting of 260,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables" and more. And he was only able to be turned in because he was bragging about it to someone.

Lamo is tweeting about this (there his handle is 6):



So Manning can look forward to prison while the fucker George Bush offhandedly brags about ordering people to commit actual war crimes. What a world.

n/t

"good riddance" to a true humanitarian, brave but apparently foolish and trusting perhaps naive young person with a real conscience.

and once more my disgust at people posing as "Democrats," who apparently have no soul, grows ever deeper.

Pity that he'll have to suffer for it.

...exposing war crimes is not a violation of his oath to protect the Constitution.

was blabbing about his accomplishment.

In that sense he was just naive or stupid.

Otherwise he will be remembered as a hero for exposing the truth about the monsters who are directing these war crimes.

The video he passed to Wikileaks was a huge public relations disaster for the war-mongers running the USA but the quarter million+ documents and communications he has divulged might be more damning when released and examined.

and now I have a whole new set of keyboard chickenhawks on ignore.

Source: AP

Leaked video showed death of two journalists

Updated: Monday, 07 Jun 2010, 1:04 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 07 Jun 2010, 12:42 PM EDT

* By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) - The Army has arrested a 22-year-old soldier in Baghdad in connection with the leak of a military video that shows Apache helicopters gunning down unarmed men in Iraq, including two journalists, defense officials said Monday.

Read more: http://www.wpri.com/dpps/military/US-military-detains-soldier-linked-to-Iraq-video_3408034

when committed by folks in uniform? Huh?


Yeah, me, too.

I hate that this kid got caught. He was doing the right thing.

Meanwhile, Shrub gets to BRAG about waterboarding, a crime we executed Japanese officers for after WWII.

This, god damn it was a heroic act.

Source: BBC

Mr Lamo says that he was responsible for reporting Specialist (SPC) Brad Manning to the military authorities after the analyst boasted to him that he had handed over thousands of classified documents and classified military video to whistle-blower site Wikileaks.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10255887.stm

maybe there was a lot of reward cash in it for him...

K&R

for security reasons the government won't disclose the process and surveillance techniques they used.

exposing what we know is going on over there..then it was worthwhile bravado.

Don't know if there's something more to come out of this that would disprove him...but am sure the Military is working on discrediting his information one way or the other.

Base security really sucked.

This real patriot is exactly the kind of person Daniel Ellsburg has been asking to come forth.

I hope he makes out as well as Daniel Ellsburg did although I doubt it. There isn't the kind of courage in the media (the OLD New York Times) or the Congress (Mike Gravel) as there was when the Pentagon Papers were released.

Since we've lost what few Civil Rights (white people) had back then I doubt that SPC Manning will get a fair shake. They're probably warming up (actually cooling down) a cell in some supermax for this patriot, this hero to the human race!

Piss on all Flags!!!

Snitches get stitches and end up in ditches.

Is that what you are implying?

What about the breach "consisting of 260,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables."

I know the majority here hippity hops for joy when anything comes out that can make the govt or military cringe but is everyone really that ok with dispersing diplomatic secrets? With all the cries of "What about diplomacy?!" How can you have diplomacy if all your cards are laid on the table and the other side still has theirs hidden?

He deserves to rot.

Also as for this bit...."He discussed personal issues that got him into trouble with his superiors and left him socially isolated, and said he had been demoted and was headed for an early discharge from the Army."

It just screams shitbag Soldier trying to get back at his chain who was "mean" to him.

US!

The "American" people are the only pertinent party that OUR government wants to keep unaware of what they are really doing around the world.

And who benefits... It isn't you or me, or anybody we know. Heaven forbid the sheeple ever have the (uncluttered with propaganda) time to consider that fact. We are circling the drain and headed towards a third world life-style quickly.

Believe me, every other government, either allied, antagonistic, or not, knows exactly what perverse machinations for which our "leaders" are responsible.

They know, and the complicit and compromised go along. This is obvious when considering the recent sinking of the South Korean Navel vessel. The usual sycophants are enthusiastically, supposedly, parroting the "talking points" while demonizing North Korea. After the Tonkin Gulf, the USS Maine and other such provocative, manufactured, convenient set-ups any responsible entity would be hesitant to rush to judgement.

Really!

Still, if you do something like this, you must be ready to accept the consequences, even if war criminals not only get off scot free, but get assigned humanitarian missions.

Life is unfair.