What’s interesting about the Army intelligence analyst charged with leaking classified material, including more than 76,900 secret Afghanistan war records, to the WikiLeaks Web site is how this could be carried out by a private first class for so long without being observed, notes Grumpy Editor.
The alleged leaker, Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, of Crescent, Okla., marks three years in the Army in October.
He is being held in the brig at Quantico, Va.
Apparently no print or broadcast reporter has inquired how a 22-year-old enlisted man got the sensitive position working in intelligence operations in Baghdad when, according to a news report, his jobs prior to joining the Army in October, 2007, included working at a pizza parlor and a guitar store.
Army enlistees’ civilian work is considered in assigning them to specialized positions in the military. Civilian truck drivers become Army truck drivers, civilian cooks become Army cooks, etc.
That doesn’t always work out, of course, and it isn’t unusual for a civilian commercial photographer to wind up as an Army cook or a civilian newspaper reporter to be placed as an Army medic.
Perhaps with the guitar store work background, someone matched that job with specialization in military intelligence with access to secret files.
And continuing to hold a private first class rank (that’s one stripe on sleeves) in a highly specialized and sensitive position also should raise eyebrows.
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