WASHINGTON — Investigators have concluded that Army commanders ignored advice not to send to Iraq an Army private who is now accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of reports and diplomatic cables that ended up on the WikiLeaks website, McClatchy Newspapers has learned.
Pfc. Bradley Manning’s direct supervisor warned that Manning had thrown chairs at colleagues and shouted at higher-ranking soldiers at Fort Drum, N.Y., and advised that Manning shouldn’t be sent to Iraq, where his job would entail accessing classified documents.
Superior officers decided to ignore the advice because the unit was short of intelligence analysts and needed Manning’s skills, two military officials familiar with the investigation told McClatchy Newspapers.
Also Thursday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it had executed more than 40 search warrants in the United States as part of an investigation into an international group of computer hackers who attacked corporate websites last year in a show of support for WikiLeaks.
