The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Files on Manning's computer linked to WikiLeaks site
- Philippines mulls mass graves after typhoon kills hundreds
- North Korea state TV says Kim Jong il has died
| Files on Manning's computer linked to WikiLeaks site Posted: 18 Dec 2011 07:34 PM PST FORT MEADE, MD (Reuters) - Classified files downloaded to the computer of Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning matched those that later showed up on WikiLeaks, an investigator testified on Sunday, the first time the government has linked Manning to the whistleblowing website.
Special Agent David Shaver, a computer crimes investigator with the military, said an analysis of Manning's two classified computers revealed hundreds of sensitive files and file fragments that were accessed or downloaded through the military's secret computer network. Manning's defense attorney, David Coombs, has largely ignored the question of whether his client is to blame for the leaks but has focused instead on why Manning continued to have access to classified material despite warning signs of emotional instability. Coombs noted on Saturday that Manning "got furious and upset" during an outburst, flipped a table and sent a computer crashing to the ground. Manning had to be restrained over fears he was headed for a weapon. Shaver's examination of Manning's computer also found thousands of State Department cables and two versions of an Apache gunsight video that showed an attack that killed several Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists. One version of the video matched the film aired by WikiLeaks in 2010 and the other appeared to be the source, he said. Shaver, who faces cross-examination from the defense on Monday, said he compared the files on Manning's computer to documents he downloaded from WikiLeaks and found to be the same. Manning is suspected of downloading thousands of government files from the military's classified computer network when he was stationed in Iraq, information that later showed up on the WikiLeaks website in the largest unauthorized release of classified documents in U.S. history. Shaver's testimony came on the third day of a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to try the 24-year-old Manning at a general court martial on charges of aiding the enemy and 22 other counts. If convicted of the most serious charges, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment. Shaver said Manning's computer profile had been used to carry out more than 100 searches of the military's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, known as SIPRNet, for documents naming WikiLeaks or its founder Julian Assange. Shaver also recreated a path used on Manning's computer to download assessment documents written about detainees in the U.S. war against al Qaeda who were being held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE? Among files that had been deleted from Manning's user profile were several complete Guantanamo detainee assessments, Shaver testified. The prosecution has portrayed Manning as a well-trained analyst who was particularly knowledgeable about computers and who understood his responsibilities but violated them. But the defense has sought to portray him emotionally unstable and unsuitable for his job as an intelligence analyst. The defense showed Manning sent an email to Sergeant Paul Adkins, a superior in charge of security at his intelligence installation in Iraq, in April 2010 in which he said he suffered from a gender identity disorder that was affecting his life, work and ability to think, according to testimony Saturday. The email included a photo of Manning as a woman. A superior officer said Adkins did not tell him about the email until after Manning's arrest. Manning, it was disclosed during the proceedings, created a female alter-ego online, Breanna Manning. Captain Casey Fulton, an Army intelligence officer who worked in the same secure facility as Manning, testified that she saw Manning curled up on the floor with his arms around his knees as Adkins spoke to him. Adkins invoked his right against self-incrimination on Sunday as he began answering questions in the case against Manning. Coombs argued Adkins should not be excused because he was not under investigation in the case, but the prosecution declined to grant him immunity to testify and he was excused. The defense has portrayed Adkins as someone who should have recognized the private's troubled emotional state and acted to revoke the security clearance that gave him access to classified U.S. documents. As it cross-examined prosecution witnesses on Sunday, the defense team continued to suggest Manning should not have had access to classified documents given his emotional state. Fulton, who used Manning in her work preparing for the Iraqi election, rejected suggestions that supervision of lower-level analysts like Manning was lax. "It's impossible to supervise 100 percent of the time," she said. "There's a limited amount of supervisors and you can't supervise everyone at every second of the day. (You) trust that they'll safeguard the material the way they've been taught." (Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Vicki Allen and Todd Eastham) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Philippines mulls mass graves after typhoon kills hundreds Posted: 18 Dec 2011 07:20 PM PST CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (Reuters) - Disaster agencies Monday rushed to deliver body bags, food, water, and medicine to crowded evacuation centres in the southern Philippines as officials considered digging mass graves for hundreds killed in weekend flash floods.
The national disaster agency said 533 died and 309 remain missing, while the local Red Cross put the toll at 652 killed and more than 800 missing. Casualties from the flashfloods exceeded the more than 450 people killed in 2009 when a tropical storm dumped heavy rains on the main Luzon island, inundating nearly the entire capital Manila. Typhoon Washi slammed ashore in the Mindanao region of the Philippines while residents slept at the weekend, sending torrents of water and mud through riverside villages and sweeping houses out to sea. In the aftermath, radio stations and local governments have been deluged by calls and appeals from survivors asking for help to bury the dead or find missing relatives. "My suggestion is, so that illnesses won't spread, let's have mass graves," Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster agency, said in a radio interview. "This will be the discretion of local governments and the DOH (Department of Health)." "From the helicopter, we saw four major river systems, all houses along the riverbanks were totally destroyed." Josephine Dalangin, a resident of Cagayan de Oro, said she and three other residents, including a boy, survived by clinging on a tree trunk for 11 to 12 hours while floating in the sea before they were rescued by a passing boat. "I did not feel hunger, I did not feel any thirst," Dalangin told a local radio station. "I just prayed to the Lord that the rains, winds and waves would stop." The cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, worst hit by the disaster, are running out of evacuations centres and coffins for the dead, with churches also converted into temporary evacuation. Brigadier General Roland Amarille, head of an army task force in Iligan, said Sunday soldiers had been mobilized to recover bodies and build coffins. "We need body bags and lime to deal with too many cadavers," Amarille said, fearing an outbreak of disease. "Local mortuaries are no longer accepting cadavers and they are even asking people to bury the dead at once because there are too many bodies even in hallways." Mindanao island, the southernmost in the Philippines, is a mineral-rich region that also produces rice and corn but is not normally in the path of an average 20 typhoons that hit the Southeast Asian country each year. (Writing by Rosemarie Francisco) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| North Korea state TV says Kim Jong il has died Posted: 18 Dec 2011 07:14 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died Saturday on a train trip, a tearful state television announcer, dressed in black, reported Monday. The announcer said that the 69-year old had died of physical and mental over-work on his way to give "field guidance."
He had suffered a stroke in 2008, but appeared to have recovered. The reclusive state had begun the process of transferring power to his son Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s. (Created by David Chance; Editing by Jack Kim) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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