Editor's comment: 22 year old Bradley Manning is one of the very few, true heroes we read about within the U.S. Military. With his release of information leading to the video published as, "Collateral Murder" and other secret US crimes hidden from the people, Manning has distinguished himself as a courageous champion of the truth and his country. He should be released from custody immediately and awarded, not imprisoned. His superiors, on the other hand, in a perfect world, should be charged with murder and conspiracy to withhold information vital to the interests and security of the United States. The U.S. military command in Iraq states, "The Department of Defense takes the management of classified information very seriously because it affects our national security, the lives of our soldiers, and our operations abroad." The Wikileaks video can only be the tip of the iceberg and no rational defense can be made to justify the murder of those unarmed civilians in the name of national security or the protection of US soldiers. Quite the contrary, Manning may be an enemy of a criminal state, but he's not an enemy of the people or his fellow soldiers.

- Les Blough, Editor

U.S. Army analyst detained in leak probe

UPI Report

KUWAIT CITY, June 7 (UPI) -- A U.S. Army specialist is being detained in Kuwait on suspicion of leaking classified information to Wikileaks.org, officials say.

Army Spc. Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Md., is under investigation for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables as well as U.S. combat footage in Iraq to the secret Internet organization based in Berlin, The Washington Post reported Monday.

In late 2009 Manning found video footage of a helicopter attack in Iraq in 2007 that killed several civilians, the report said. Wikileaks released the footage in April 2010 under the title "Collateral Damage," Wired Magazine reported, though it did not confirm Manning was the source of the leak.

Manning said he came across classified information that included "incredible things, awful things … that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington, D.C.," Wired said.

"The Department of Defense takes the management of classified information very seriously because it affects our national security, the lives of our soldiers, and our operations abroad," the U.S. military command in Iraq said in a statement.

Manning was stationed at Forward Operating base Hammer outside Baghdad when he was arrested about two weeks ago.

UPI