Report: Army ignored warning signs pointing to Bradley Manning’s instability

Brett Michael Dykes
·National Affairs Reporter

Today, WikiLeaks was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for "disclosing information about corruption, human rights abuses and war crimes." Julian Assange's muckraking website can likely thank Army Private Bradley Manning for the nomination, for he's the person who allegedly turned over the treasure-trove of classified military documents to them.

Then again, if Julian Assange ends up a Nobelist, maybe he should be sure to thank Manning's commanding officers in his acceptance speech -- since they deployed him to process intelligence documents in Iraq over the objections of Army psychologists, who said the young private was too mentally unstable for active duty.

The Washington Post's Greg Jaffe and Ellen Nakashima report today that an Army investigation into the young soldier's alleged transfer of reams classified information into the orbit of WikiLeaks found that an Army mental health specialist at Fort Drum, N.Y. recommended tagging Manning as mentally unfit to serve in a war zone. What's more, Jaffe and Nakashima report that "Manning's immediate supervisors did not follow procedures for overseeing the secure area where the classified information was kept, greatly increasing the risk of a security breach." All told, the warning signs seemed to indicate that Manning was a WikiLeak waiting to happen.

"There were serious leadership failures within the unit chain of command and gross negligence in the supervision of Pfc. Manning in Iraq," an unnamed military official told the paper. "Something happened in his personal life after he joined the Army."

As Jaffe and Nakamisha report:

At Fort Drum, Manning balled up his fists and screamed at higher-ranking soldiers in his unit, said the official familiar with the Army inquiry. In Iraq, a master sergeant who supervised Manning was so concerned about the private's mental health that he disabled Manning's weapon in December 2009, the private's attorney, David E. Coombs, previously said. Also in Iraq, in May 2010, Manning was demoted a rank for assaulting a fellow soldier, the Army said.

(Photo: AP)