US Army lawyers claim to have found emails between alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning and the website’s founder Julian Assange.
A data card containing hundreds of thousands of classified reports on Iraq and Afghanistan that was allegedly found among Manning’s belongings was accompanied by text in which he boasted he was changing history, the Associated Press reported.
It said: “This is possibly one of the most significant documents of our time, removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare. Have a good day”, the pretrial hearing in a military courtroom at Fort Meade heard.
The text added the recipient might want to “sit on this information to figure out how best to release such a large amount of data.”
Further files apparently belonging to Manning contained contact information for Assange and instructions on how to upload data to WikiLeaks, the Maryland court heard.
Computer forensics expert Mark Johnson also testified he had found references to a contact known as “Press Association” – which is claimed to be an alias for Assange, the Guardian reported.
The prosecution allege Manning sent nearly 500,000 classified battlefield reports to WikiLeaks and bragged about leaking video of a 2007 helicopter attack to the anti-secrecy website.
Manning, 24, could face a court-martial for allegedly making the leaks while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. If convicted, he could face life in prison.