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In
the affidavit submitted to federal court in Alexandria,
Virginia, prosecutors said U.S. military reports from the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq included information about the "identity
and significance of local supporters of U.S. and allied forces
in Afghanistan."
When U.S. forces raided the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin
Laden was hiding out, for example, they found a letter that
showed the Al Qaeda leader was interested in copies of Pentagon
documents published on WikiLeaks, the prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, leaked reports on the Afghan war
included information on militants' improvised explosive device
designs and attacks, including details of U.S. and coalition
countermeasures against such home-made explosive devices and
their limitations.
The prosecution's affidavit is dated Dec. 21, 2017, but was made
public on Monday. It follows the unsealing last week of a U.S.
indictment charging Assange with conspiring with Manning to gain
access to a government computer as part of one of the largest
compromises of classified information in U.S. history.
Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Assange in Washington, said:
"Encouraging sources to provide information, and using methods
to protect their identity, are common practices by all
journalists. There is no new information in the affidavit that
was unavailable to the Department of Justice when it decided in
the Obama administration that pursuing criminal charges against
Mr. Assange would be contrary to the First Amendment."
British police arrested Assange at Washington's request after
Ecuador revoked his seven-year asylum on Thursday. He was
dragged out of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and is being
held in prison while he faces extradition to the United States.
The U.S. indictment, originally issued in secret by an
Alexandria, Virginia-based grand jury in March 2018, said
Assange in March 2010 engaged in a conspiracy to help Manning
crack a password for a classified U.S. government network.
In the unsealed affidavit, prosecutors said Manning also had
access to other U.S. government databases, including one
relating to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
and a State Department database containing military cables.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, editing by G Crosse)
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