Soldier detained in connection with giving Iraq military video to Wikileaks

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The Army has detained a 22-year-old soldier in Baghdad in connection with the leak of a 2007 military video that shows Apache helicopters gunning down unarmed men in Iraq, including two journalists, defense officials said.

Army Spc. Bradley Manning of Potomac, Md., is being held in Kuwait. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom said Manning has not yet been charged with any crime.

The classified video was taken from the cockpit during a 2007 firefight and posted last April on the website Wikileaks.org.

Former computer hacker Adrian Lamo of Sacramento said he alerted the military after Manning confided in him online that he had leaked the video as well as 260,000 classified diplomatic cables.

Lamo, who first provided his account to Wired.com, told the Associated Press that he had agonized over the decision. ‘I turned him in because, for the rest of my life, I’d wonder if something he leaked would have cost a human life,’ Lamo said.

In 2004, Lamo pleaded guilty to breaking into the New York Times’ computer system and still owes $62,800 in federal restitution. He said that he received no financial benefit from turning Manning in and that the money he owes was never discussed.

-- Associated Press