US offered techie cash to infiltrate WikiLeaks: Report

American investigators probing the leak of classified documents related to Afghan war offered cash to a computer expert to infiltrate whistle-blower website WikiLeaks to prevent further disclosures,a media report said Sunday....

American investigators probing the leak of classified documents related to Afghan war offered cash to a computer expert to infiltrate whistle-blower website WikiLeaks to prevent further disclosures,a media report said Sunday.

The investigators interviewed the Boston area acquaintance of Bradley E Manning,accused of giving WikiLeaks State Department cables and a video of a helicopter attack in which unarmed civilians were killed in Baghdad,to contain further leaks,The Washington Post reported.

The man,a computer expert who met Manning in January,said he told the investigators in mid-June that he knew of no such documents. Officials have said they are investigating whether Manning leaked the Afghanistan documents made public last week,a disclosure that prompted condemnation from the Obama administration.

The computer expert said the Army offered him cash to,in his word,infiltrate WikiLeaks. I turned them down, he said. I dont want anything to do with this cloak-and-dagger stuff.

Army Criminal Investigation Division spokesman Chris Grey declined to comment on the claim. Weve got an ongoing investigation, he said. We dont discuss our techniques and tactics.

Another Manning acquaintance said investigators assumed that he was the one who did it and were trying to understand why,what was going on with him psychologically,to either make it so nobody gets to this point in the future or spot people whove gotten to this point and make sure they didnt do any damage. This acquaintance,also a computer expert,is affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

WikiLeaks guilty morally,says Gates

WikiLeaks is at least morally guilty over the release of classified US documents on the Afghan war,Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.

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Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen,the top US military officer,appeared on television renewing those concerns amid fears WikiLeaks may publish more documents.

My attitude on this is that there are two areas of culpability. One is legal culpability. And thats up to the Justice Department and others, Gates told the ABC News show This Week with Christiane Amanpour. But theres also a moral culpability. And thats where I think the verdict is guilty on WikiLeaks.

REUTERS