Army Intel Analyst Seen As Main Suspect In WikiLeaks

CNN is reporting that the Pentagon is focusing on jailed 22-year-old Army Pfc. Bradley Manning as the main suspect in a major scandal in which thousands of secret U.S. military documents related to the war in Afghanistan wound up on the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

In June, Manning was charged with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code for “allegedly illegally transferring classified data,” including a video taken in 2007 that showed U.S troops reigning gunfire from an Apache helicopter upon civilians in Iraq. That video was posted on WikiLeaks earlier this summer.

It is believed that while serving, Manning may have accessed a worldwide military classified internet and e-mail system to download tens of thousands of documents in order to post them to WikiLeaks.

The Army is considering whether he should face the military equivalent of a trial over the charges. Currently, Manning, a resident of Potomac, Md., is being held by the U.S. military in Kuwait while his unit begins to rotate back to the United States…

- Alexa Gitler

Kerry: Best Not To Overhype Wikileaks Scandal, Though It Does Endanger Americans

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) said today that it is important to not overhype the WikiLeaks story, and said the leaks have “no relation whatsoever” to the Pentagon Papers.

Kerry also said that the release of classified documents “breaks the law, undermines the job being done by our troops, and potentially puts people in harms way.” 

- Brandon Kosters

WikiLeaks Release Has Top Pentagon Official Outraged

An article released by American Forces Press Service today says that Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told the press that he is upset about the release of roughly 90,000 classified documents through WikiLeaks, saying that the leak endangers Americans.

Mullen did say, however, that the documents were written between 2004 and 2009, many of them field reports which documented events in Pakistan. 

Mullen said that he is determined to help prevent further leaks of this nature in the future.

- Brandon Kosters

Rep. Dennis Kucinich WikiLeaks, War In Afghanistan

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio.) released the following statement after nearly 90,000 classified reports on the war in Afghanistan leaked via the website Wikileaks:

“These documents provide a fuller picture of what we have long known about Afghanistan: the war is going badly. It’s important to debate our presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan now,” wrote Kucinich in a press release Monday.