Army opens probe of its role in WikiLeaks security breach

[unhappycamper]

Army opens probe of its role in WikiLeaks security breach
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, December 23, 2010

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has launched a wide-ranging investigation into how a private allegedly downloaded hundreds of thousands of secret reports and diplomatic cables and handed them to WikiLeaks, McClatchy has learned. The probe could result in a recommendation that other soldiers should face criminal charges in the case.

It's the second time in just over a year that Army practices have come under intense internal scrutiny after a major security failing. A similar probe was undertaken after an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009, killing 13. That investigation focused, in part, on how superiors failed to notice signs that Maj. Nidal Hassan, who'd exchanged e-mails with a radical Yemeni-American cleric, might turn violent. The probe resulted in dozens of changes in Army procedures.

The Army confirmed the new investigation, but wouldn't release details. An Army official familiar with the investigation told McClatchy that the six-member task force has been given until Feb. 1 to complete a report that will look at everything from how Pfc. Bradley Manning was selected for his job and trained to whether his superiors missed warning signs that he was downloading documents he had no need to read.

The report could change how the Army — the largest distributor of government security clearances — grants access to government documents as well as lead to recommendations of charges against soldiers who worked with Manning and may have been aware of his activities.

Manning was working as an intelligence specialist in Baghdad during 2009 and the early months of 2010 when he allegedly downloaded hundreds of thousands of classified documents.