Military Intelligence At Work

Investigators have concluded that Army commanders ignored advice not to send to Iraq an Army private who's accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of sensitive reports and diplomatic cables that ended up on the WikiLeaks website.

Pfc. Bradley Manning's direct supervisor warned that Manning had thrown chairs at colleagues and shouted at higher ranking soldiers in the year he was stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., and advised that Manning shouldn't be sent to Iraq, where his job would entail accessing classified documents through the Defense Department's computer system.

But superior officers decided to ignore the advice because the unit was short of intelligence analysts and needed Manning's skills, two military officials familiar with the investigation told McClatchy.