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| Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi (L), Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense spokesman, and Gen. Josef Blotz, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman, talk with journalists about the recent media reports on the leaking of classified U.S. documents by website Wikileaks, in Kabul July 28, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo) |
WASHINGTON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Investigations into the massive leaks of documents on the Afghan war have begun to enwrap possible civilian involvement as the White House implores the website WikiLeaks to stop posting similar files and new leaks keep on coming.
The U.S. military's criminal investigators have inquired a number of civilians from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University, said an article published on the New York Times website Friday.
These questioned civilians are believed to have connections with Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old private and army intelligence analyst, who has already been charged with leaking classified material to WikiLeaks, including a video clip of a U.S. Apache helicopter shooting civilians in Baghdad and over 50 classified U.S. State Department cables selected from more than 150,000 pieces he illegally downloaded.
He has also been confirmed as a main suspect in the disclosure of over 90,000 Afghan war documents to WikiLeaks. However, whether these leaked papers are those posted on the website remains unclear, said the article.
The military also didn't unveil any further concrete evidence to suggest there is someone in the dark helping Manning to transfer these secret materials to WikiLeaks.
The investigators' questioning of these civilian leads may be warranted by Manning's visits to some of his friends in Boston during a home leave in January.
