Army Was Advised Not to Send Suspected Leaker Bradley Manning to Iraq

Pfc. Bradley Manning, suspected of leaking classified information to the whistleblower site WikiLeaks, was assessed by a mental health specialist as being unfit for duty in a war zone, but the Army sent him to Iraq anyway.

The decision on whether to deploy a soldier rests with his immediate superiors, but an Army investigation concludes that not going along with the specialist's recommendation may have contributed to the security breach down the road, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, quoting an unnamed military source.

Before his deployment overseas, Manning's behavior was a cause for concern at Fort Drum, N.Y., where he allegedly threw chairs at other soldiers and shouted at higher-ranking colleagues, McClatchy Newspapers said.

Manning, 23, an intelligence analyst, is accused of downloading classified Pentagon and State Department information on his personal computer in Iraq and transmitting some material to an unauthorized person. He is being held in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va.

A Manning support group, Bradleymanning.org, urged followers to phone the White House on Thursday to demand that the soldier's "human rights be respected" during his detention at Quantico.

The Army investigation, which is separate from a criminal probe, is underway to determine whether internal, procedural breakdowns led to the security breach. "There were serious leadership failures within the unit chain of command and gross negligence in the supervision of Pfc. Manning in Iraq," another source, familiar with the inquiry, told the Post.

Manning was deployed to Iraq in 2009 and 2010. His outbursts there got the attention of a master sergeant, who disabled his weapon, Manning's private lawyer said previously. He was later demoted for assaulting another soldier.

He has not been charged with leaking all of the information made available to WikiLeaks. The anti-secrecy site has posted tens of thousands of documents and cables relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The head of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, now under court supervision in London, is contesting extradition to Sweden, where authorities want to question him about sexual misconduct complaints. Assange won't say where WikiLeaks got the secret information.