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.
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.
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."