Witnesses Testify About WikiLeaks Suspect’s Computer Skills

[struggle4progress]

June 5, 2013, 5:20 pm ET by Arun Rath

... Manning’s defense has agreed to stipulations of testimony from a number of prosecution witnesses, eliminating the need for them to testify in person. Already having reached the end of the witness list for this week, court sessions have been cancelled for Thursday and Friday, and will resume on Monday ....

According to <Chief Warrant Officer Kyle Balonek>, Manning was hardly alone in copying sensitive files to local drives or even CDs. One of the main computers at the facility was sensitive to the heat and dust that defined Baghdad, and when it would crash, access to the SIPRNet was lost; creating backup files allowed the analysts to keep working without a connection to the network ...

Balonek had previously refused to testify during Manning’s pre-trial Article 32 hearing in 2011, invoking the prohibition on “compulsory self-incrimination” under Article 31 of the UCMJ (similar to a civilian invoking 5th Amendment right). The judge announced today that CWO Balonek had been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Balonek was presumably concerned about being pursued for issues around failing to stop or detect Manning’s activities, but no reason has been cited for his previous refusal to testify.

Several additional witnesses commented on Manning’s remarkable skill with computers. Jihrleah Showman, a former Army specialist who supervised Manning for two months in Iraq, had him install a chat program on her computer even though he was unauthorized to do so. He said Manning once boasted that he found most government passwords “not complicated; he could always get through them.” Chief Warrant Officer Hondo Hack, who supervised the day shift of analysts, said that in 20 years in the Army he had never seen the level of organization he saw in Manning’s work and computer files ...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/wikisecrets/witnesses-testify-about-wikileaks-suspects-computer-skills/

[John2]

1. So you

are saying, his immediate supervisor was a Warrant Officer and a specialist, but no NCO? They were also in a War Zone, within Iraq. Officers don't supervise soldiers, NCOs do. So the Army didn't have enough NCOs in this specialty to send to Iraq? Just how much training would a Private First Class have in this specialty, to work un supervised in Iraq? Privates need supervision, that is why they are Privates.

[struggle4progress]

2. I posted a short linked excerpt from Frontline, regarding the trial today

If you feel it's inaccurate, perhaps you should contact Frontline with your concerns