Military Files Charges Against Soldier Suspected of Sending Video to Wikileaks

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The Hill:



Military files charges against soldier suspected of sending video to Wikileaks
By Gautham Nagesh - 07/06/10 12:45 PM ET

The U.S. military announced Tuesday it will press charges against a U.S. soldier who is suspected of leaking a video showing civilian casualties to Wikileaks.

Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, will be charged with eight violations of federal criminal law including one violation of the Espionage Act, according to a statement from the military. It alleges he transferred classified military data onto his personal computer and added unauthorized software to a classified computer system.

The military accuses Manning of transmitting a video of a July 2007 military operation filmed in Baghdad "to a person not entitled to receive it" in violation of federal law. The video was widely viewed on the Internet after being posted in April on Wikileaks, a whistleblower web site that lets users anonymously upload classified information.

Manning allegedly confessed to former hacker Adrian Lamo earlier this year that he was the source of the controversial Wikileaks video of the 2007 American airstrike in Afghanistan that killed several civilians.

In his conversations with Lamo, Manning also allegedly claimed to have leaked a video of the 2009 Garani airstrike in Afghanistan as well as thousands of classified diplomatic cables. The charging documents allege Manning obtained more than 150,000 diplomatic cables as well as a classified PowerPoint presentation. The Potomac, Md., native has been held in Kuwait since his May arrest.