US Solider Arrested For "Collateral Murder" Video Leak

Back in April, Wikileaks released a highly edited video showing a US helicopter attack on terrorists that killed 2 Reuters reporters who were embedded with the terrorists.

Now federal authorities have arrested an Army soldier in the case.
If it's true, this dirt bag should be breaking rocks in Leavenworth for a long, long time.

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.

...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.

If Manning is guilty, it's disappointing that an American solider would take it upon himself to defame and endanger his fellow servicemen in such away. The incident involving the helicopter attack had already been investigated and there was no criminal culpability. All Manning was doing by leaking the video was helping terror enablers to create a propaganda tool. Some might call that giving aid and comfort to the enemy. I'm not sure they are wrong.

As for the rest of the material he is alleged to have leaked, I don't doubt there are a lot of interesting things in them and that the government abuses it's power to classify things but that's simply not a decision for a 22 year old a Army Specialist to take upon himself.

Added: It appears Manning got caught because he couldn't keep his mouth shut about the diplomatic cables. This apprently crossed some code of honor for one hacker who then reported him.

posted by DrewM. at 01:00 PM

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