3 Weeks After Arrest, Still No Charges in Wikileaks Probe

3 Weeks After Arrest, Still No Charges in Wikileaks Probe :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dal medio oriente :: information from middle east :: [reg.de]

An Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking classified information to Wikileaks has still not been charged with any crime, three weeks after being arrested and put in pre-trial confinement.

PFC Bradley Manning, 22, is being held at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, and has been assigned a military defense attorney. The Army and State Department are investigating claims Manning made to an ex-hacker in online chats that he disclosed classified information.

An Army legal advisor in Washington, D.C., says the delay in filing charges is unusual but is not a violation of regulations.

"I think if you were able to make a timeline of all the cases, [three weeks] would be at the high end," said Lt. Col. Chris Carrier, chief of the policy branch of the criminal law division in the Judge Advocate General’s office (JAG) in Washington, D.C.

Carrier, who has no direct knowledge of the Manning case, said the military is required to produce a charge sheet "in a timely fashion," but the complexity of this case may be causing the delay.

"It strikes me that this [case] may be relatively complicated in terms of obtaining, handling, managing the evidence and explaining things," he said. "They have to figure out what they’re dealing with."