Investigator: Manning’s computer had downloaded secret documents
An Army computer investigator testified late Sunday that a search of military computers used by Pfc. Bradley Manning in Iraq revealed that he had downloaded the same secret documents and videos that were released online by WikiLeaks.
This was the first testimony in Manning’s preliminary military hearing appearing to link him to WikiLeaks.
The Army private faces 22 charges — foremost among them, aiding the enemy — after being accused of distributing hundreds of thousands of secret government documents to the website WikiLeaks, which then posted them online.
The Army investigator, Special Agent David Shaver, said that the search of Manning’s computer revealed the electronic footprints of which documents Manning had collected and when.
He said there were computer code references to hundreds of thousands of secret State and Defense Department documents on the computers, and in some cases the full documents themselves. In addition he mentioned finding on Manning’s computer videos that also were leaked, with one showing a U.S. Apache helicopter attack that killed two Reuters journalists in Baghdad in 2007
And Shaver said a forensic analysis of Manning’s computers showed Manning had searched for information about WikiLeaks more than 100 times, as well as information about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“A lot of the searches seemed out of place,” Shaver testified.
Manning is accused of stealing and leaking State and Defense Department secrets while serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010.
Shaver said his investigation also found that Manning had created a small computer program to download a large amount of files automatically.