SUNBURY —
U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-10 of Dimock, lashed out Tuesday at a former Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking Afghanistan war documents, while a 30-year journalism professor defended the publication of the material.
Carney was furious about the release of the reports and said Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst considered a "person of interest" in the leak investigation, should be charged with treason. Manning is already charged in a separate case with illegally downloading classified material.
The website "WikiLeaks" has released a set of documents called the Afghan War Diary, which is a series of more than 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
The reports were written by soldiers and intelligence officers, describing lethal actions involving the U.S. military, and also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures and related details.
Manning, 22, was arrested by the Army Criminal Investigation Command in May and detained without charge for more than a month in a military jail at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.
Earlier this month, he faced two charges of misconduct, transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system and communicating, transmitting and delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source.
The maximum jail sentence Bradley faces is 52 years.
Right to publish
Walter Brasch, a professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, said it is a First Amendment right to publish these documents, and anyone who disagrees needs to understand this is not treason.
"People who say these shouldn't be published just don't get (that) we don't live in a dictatorship," he said. "We shouldn't reveal tactics and strategies, but we should reveal the secrets of the why."
Carney disagreed.
"He (Bradley) doesn't get the First Amendment privileges for taking classified information off of a computer," Carney said. "This is harming the nation to conduct war, and it is treason."
Carney, who is a commander in the Navy Reserve, will go on active duty Sunday.
"This guy was an Army intelligence analyst and to release these papers is going against the nation and is a threat," the congressman said.
Brasch said: "It was wrong of the Bush administration to abandon Afghanistan and go to Iraq. The best thing that could happen over there is we don't lose, and that's what the papers are showing."
Brasch said he didn't expect Carney to be thrilled after learning the documents were leaked.
"Carney is a naval officer, and I wouldn't think he would agree with this," he said. "It's a conflict for him to even comment on this because of him being in the military."
Wikileaks.com claims that reports cover most units in the Army with the exception of most U.S. Special Forces.
The website operators also claim to have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm-minimization process, but after further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.
WikiLeaks records no source identifying information.
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