Leak Located...No, Not an Oil Leak

[skyrider 0]

By JULIAN E. BARNES, MIGUEL BUSTILLO and CHRISTOPHER RHOADS
Investigators have found concrete evidence on computers used by Pfc. Bradley Manning that link him with the leak of classified Afghanistan war reports, a U.S. defense official said.

The disclosure came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates pledged Thursday to "aggressively investigate the leak" and find ways to prevent further breaches, and told reporters that he had invited the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist the probe.

Defense officials said the FBI was investigating whether civilians aided Pfc. Manning in providing the information to WikiLeaks, a Web-based group that this week released 76,000 secret reports from Afghanistan.

Pfc. Manning already was charged by the military in July with illegally taking secret State Department files and disseminating a classified video, which defense officials said was the one released by WikiLeaks showing a U.S. military helicopter firing on a group of people in Baghdad. Two Reuters journalists and seven others were killed in the 2007 incident.


PM Report: Gates Says Leaks May Cause Huge Damage
9:25
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Afghan leaks could cause extensive damage to the allied mission. Meanwhile, investigators have found evidence linking Pfc. Bradley Manning to the leaks, according to a defense official. Julian Barnes discusses. Also, Aaron Zitner discusses developments in the probe of Rep. Charles Rangel.

Friends and acquaintances of Pfc. Manning's in Oklahoma said they were interviewed by Army and State Department investigators last month, who asked whether they had received email or packages from Pfc. Manning.

The 22-year-old private worked in intelligence operations in Baghdad. He was supposed to be examining intelligence relevant to Iraq, but defense officials said Pfc. Manning used his "Top Secret/SCI" clearance to tap into documents around the world.

A search of the computers yielded evidence he had downloaded the Afghanistan war logs, the defense official said. It isn't clear precisely what that evidence is. Investigators combing through Pfc. Manning's computers also found other classified material that has not been made public, the same official said.

Pfc. Manning's military counsel didn't return a request for comment.

The release of the documents, Mr. Gates said, potentially harmed U.S. relations with Pakistan and other countries, and put in danger Afghans who had cooperated with the U.S. Defense officials are taking steps to figure if Afghans mentioned in the documents may now require help. "That is one of the worst aspects of this: will people trust us?" Mr. Gates said.

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said WikiLeaks's founder Julian Assange would be responsible for any harm that came from the document release. "Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his sources are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier, or that of an Afghan family."

Childhood friends and acquaintances of Pfc. Manning describe him as smart, interested in current affairs, proficient with computers and not shy about sharing his opinions, which were often at odds with those around him in his hometown of Crescent, Okla. (pop. 1,281.)

Pfc. Manning believed in the theory of evolution, for example, and was intolerant of those who disputed it due to traditional religious views, associates said.

"His views were very different from everyone else's on the world and government, and maybe part of him wanted to take things into his own hands," said Chera Moore, 23, a Crescent classmate from kindergarten on.

Another longtime friend, Jordan Davis, 23, said Pfc. Manning's small size and outspokenness sometimes got him into trouble as a youth, and he was bullied by bigger kids. "I think the difference is that what made him angry was different than what made others angry," said Mr. Davis, who said he had been interviewed by investigators.

Though he earned average grades in school, Pfc. Manning seemed more interested in national and global affairs than his peers, according to associates.

"He was probably one of the more politically aware kids at that time, and he supported the U.S.," said Mark Radford, the editor of the weekly Crescent Courier newspaper, who once chaperoned Pfc. Manning and his class on a Washington trip. Mr. Radford also said he was interviewed by investigators.

Pfc. Manning's mother and father separated before he entered high school. Pfc. Manning's mother, Susan, a native of Wales, moved with him to a small house in Crescent for about a year and then moved to Wales with her son. She couldn't be reached for comment.

After returning to Oklahoma in 2005, Pfc. Manning briefly worked for an Internet firm in Oklahoma City, then moved to Tulsa, where he held a variety of jobs, including at a pizza parlor and a guitar store, according to Mr. Davis, who had also briefly moved to Tulsa.

Service Record
October 2007: Bradley Manning joins the Army, becomes intelligence analyst.

November 2009: He first contacts WikiLeaks, according to transcripts of online conversations between him and ex-hacker Adrian Lamo., after scouring classified networks for more than a year with top secret clearance

February 2010: Allegedly leaks 2007 video of Army helicopter attack on group of men in Iraq, some unarmed, killing two Reuters employees.

April: WikiLeaks releases Army helicopter-attack video.

May: Manning contacts Lamo, confessing his other leaks, including 260,000 diplomatic cables, according to the transcript.

Late May: Manning is arrested after Lamo notifies authorities.

Early July: Manning is charged with violating Uniform Code of Military Justice.

July 25: Afghan leaks are published.

Pfc. Manning eventually moved to Potomac, Md., to live with an aunt, and then in 2007 enlisted in the military.

When Mr. Davis, the childhood friend, last saw Pfc. Manning about nine months ago, Mr. Davis said he could sense a change in his friend, who he said "wasn't having an easy time" in the military and "felt he wasn't being treated fairly."

Pfc. Manning was demoted from specialist to private first class while in Iraq for an incident unrelated to the leak, a defense official said.

Crescent, Okla., is perhaps best known as part of the setting for the 1983 film "Silkwood" about a whistleblower who was killed in a suspicious car accident after exposing wrongdoing at a nearby plutonium plant. Ms. Moore said her class watched the film, but didn't know if Pfc. Manning was ever inspired by it.

"If he did it, it was not to make money or be famous," Mr. Davis said. "He would only do something like this if he thought it was right."

More at link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704532204575397141587756232.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

[champu 1]

From a link in another thread:

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WikiLeaks' founder has said the organization held back thousands of documents in order to redact information that could put people at risk. But CNN's own review of documents found instances of names of informants and those who cooperated against the Taliban, as well as names of suspected insurgents who were being watched.

Assange is a "useful idiot" with an agenda but he hasn't done anything illegal so all the scolding he's getting is going to fall on deaf ears. As I've said before, there will always be unscrupulous media outlets.

Manning, while earlier this year could have been argued to be a conscientious whistleblower regarding what he felt was an incident that didn't receive enough attention, has now exposed himself as someone who does things out of emotion and just doesn't think.

I'm sorry, but "Whistle-blowing" is not a valid defense for an encyclopedic leak like this.

[theonlyski 8]

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The 22-year-old private worked in intelligence operations in Baghdad. He was supposed to be examining intelligence relevant to Iraq, but defense officials said Pfc. Manning used his "Top Secret/SCI" clearance to tap into documents around the world.

Theres ALOT one has to go thru and be investigated for to get this clearance... why throw your life away just to get even with the military that you VOLUNTEERED for?

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When Mr. Davis, the childhood friend, last saw Pfc. Manning about nine months ago, Mr. Davis said he could sense a change in his friend, who he said "wasn't having an easy time" in the military and "felt he wasn't being treated fairly."

Suck it the fuck up cupcake... This is NOT an easy job, intel guys usually have it better than many others!

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Pfc. Manning was demoted from specialist to private first class while in Iraq for an incident unrelated to the leak, a defense official said.
...
"If he did it, it was not to make money or be famous," Mr. Davis said. "He would only do something like this if he thought it was right."

No, he was pissed off for getting the UCMJ (probably an article 15 and reduction in rank) either you soldier up and take the punishment like a man (or woman, if thats the case) or you turn into more of a shitbag. Sounds like he took the low road. If he didn't like the way someone handled something, go talk to IG, don't go posting videos and documents that YOU HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH... AT ALL that can very easily put lives of your brothers and sisters at stake.

About everyone thats ever been in the military has thier disagreements about the service at some point or another... posting classified material on the internet for all to see is NOT the way to solve them. Lock his ass in a dark hole!

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[nanook 1]

Call it comfirmation bias on my part if you will, but why does it always seem that the anti-social ones tend to be the common trait with these kind of violations? Does being socially inept open one to paranoid or delusional opinions, or is it the other way around

_____________________________

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[skyrider 0]

I'm still a bit confused as to how a "Private" had access to so much....

BIG gap in the security fence there!

[winsor 236]

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I'm still a bit confused as to how a "Private" had access to so much....

BIG gap in the security fence there!

It is characteristic of intelligence services in general that the higher up you go, the more compartmentalized are the data to which you have access. During preparation for a high-level presentation, I had access to a variety of dossiers marked "Secret" without having any particular clearance myself - though the Generals in attendance only had access to their own folders.

FWIW, I did not peruse the contents, but recall having it pointed out to me that the presentation included a "Beetle Bailey" Sunday comic strip that had been stamped "Secret" when included in the "Secret" folders.

The person with the greatest access to "secrets" is often the clerk who distributes them. Witness Chris Boyce et al.

The biggest means of security is a culture of integrity. To keep the details of Operation Overlord under wraps, Dwight Eisenhower gave a detailed briefing of the details of the plan to the press, who thereafter were afraid to drink or to talk in their sleep for fear of leaking information that might get Allied troops killed.

Most engineers working on secure systems do not discuss the details of their work with unauthorized people - ever. Their spouses and offspring are used to knowing no specifics at all regarding what they do during the work day.

If (as is likely) the information this guy leaked results in fatalities for people he outed, he should be granted the treatment Timothy McVeigh received. The consequences for his actions are hardly secret, and he knowingly made his choices.


BSBD,

Winsor

[Guest]

From The Strategy Page:

July 25, 2010: A web site released 91,000 operational, intelligence and diplomatic reports generated by U.S. forces in Afghanistan between 2004-9. The only things held back were 15,000 documents that contained information on Afghans who reported on Taliban operations. Such people are often targets of Taliban death squads, even though many of these informants are in areas where the Taliban are still struggling to establish a presence. While classified, none of the released documents were top secret (as in covering Special Forces operations). The essence of these reports has long been available to the media, but often ignored (or downplayed) for one reason or another. One item the U.S. has downplayed is enemy casualties. Not wanting to repeat the problems with "body count" during Vietnam (especially pressure on commanders to increase it for the enemy), it indicated that since 2002, some 17,000 enemy fighters have died, along with at least 4,000 Afghan security personnel and 4,500 civilians. Also covered was lots of evidence of Pakistani support (via their version of the CIA and some army officers) for the Taliban (which Pakistan created 16 years ago, as a tool to control Afghanistan). There were also a lot of details about Iranian support for the Taliban. The leaked documents also provide a lot more of the day-to-day detail of the war, including the heavy use of commando type operations and UAVs.
********************************************

In other words. a lot of this was already known. I'm not downplaying PFC Snuffy's betrayal of this mission, but everyone knows that the Pakistani ISI (military intelligence) CREATED THE TALIBAN. READ IT AGAIN, MOTHERFUCKERS...CREATED THE TALIBAN, and have thus far refused to divest themselves of their Frankenstein creature, because of a peculiar quirk in Pakistani psychology; to wit: Anything that we can use against our arch-enemy India (which, BTW is hell-bent on invading us) is worth our while, international and US criticism notwithstanding.

Old spook habits die hard, very hard, especially in the Third World.

So those of you who wish to blame the USA for everything that's fucked up in the Middle East please take note: they are pretty fucked up on their own, they don't really need (nor do they want) US help. US influence is not as pervasive or all-powerful as the bleeding-heart media would have you believe.

mh
.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[nanook 1]

He would have to. One has to be able to start from somewhere when dealing with that kind of info; Windsor has provided more insight with his post. I worked with Army Intel types and I can say only that the Specialist has an important part in the equasion and has to have that access to assist the Chain of Command in generating great Intel. For the most part, these kids have the dicipline and responsibility to have such access. This guy was a rare, bad egg.

_____________________________

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[nanook 1]

Quote

Most engineers working on secure systems do not discuss the details of their work with unauthorized people - ever.

You know. . .i have always been wanting to say this to you all who have developed the systems that are responsible for saving and protecting lives in this war and previous conflicts: Thank you for all you have ever done. You are greatly appreciated.

_____________________________

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln