Pentagon 'Hunting Wikileaks Founder Over Iraq Video' Telegraph UK go to original June 14, 2010
Last week the Pentagon confirmed the arrest of a 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst suspected of passing a classified video of an American military helicopter shooting Baghdad civilians to the Web site Wikileaks.org.
The Pentagon is trying to establish the whereabouts of the founder of Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing website, as it tries to stop the publication of classified documents it says could damage US national security.
According to The Daily Beast website, US officials want to find Julian Assange, who they believe may be in possession of documents leaked by Bradley Manning, 22, a soldier who was detained in Baghdad a week ago.
Manning was detained in connection with the leak of a military video that was provided to Wikileaks and showed Apache helicopters gunning down unarmed men in Iraq, including two journalists. The intelligence specialist is now being held in Kuwait but has not been charged.
The US State Department is studying hard drives from the computers Manning allegedly used to download 260,000 classified diplomatic cables and reports relating to leaders and governments in the Middle East.
Pentagon officials told The Daily Beast they were seeking "co-operation" from Australian-born Mr Assange and it was unclear what they could do to stop further publication even if they found him.
Mr Assange works from different countries, including Iceland and Sweden, and his whereabouts is currently unknown.
In a posting on Twitter, Wikileaks said suggestions it had 260,000 classified cables were "as far as we can tell, incorrect."
It added: "Any signs of unacceptable behaviour by the Pentagon or its agents towards this press will be viewed dimly."