We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Page #6

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And so if you Google for

"WikiLeaks Most Wanted 2009, "

you'll see a list

of documents.

If you are in a position or you

know someone who's in a position

to get this material, and get it,

give it to us, no questions asked,

you will help

change history.

[AUDIENCE APPLAUDING]

NARRATOR:
One month

into Manning's deployment,

WikiLeaks published

the 9/11 pager messages.

Manning took notice.

Only days later,

he saved Julian Assange's contact

information to his computer.

Then taking a cue from the

WikiLeaks Most Wanted List,

Manning began searching for CIA

detainee interrogation videos

on the classified networks

that were cleared for his use.

Like other potential

whistle-blowers,

he began to wonder if he had

access to secret information

the public should know.

In the course of his work

he had already downloaded

thousands of military reports

from Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was there that

he captured his flags.

A lot of flags.

NARRATOR:
While Manning was

playing with a new identity,

he was also imagining

a new role for himself.

He visited his

boyfriend in Boston

and went to a party at

a college hackerspace,

where he was

caught on camera.

During this period,

maybe even at this moment,

Manning had in his possession nearly

500, 000 classified documents

about the wars in Iraq

and Afghanistan.

While on leave, he contacted

The Washington Post

and The New York Times.

When neither showed interest

Manning sent the so-called

"war logs" to WikiLeaks.

MEREDITH VIEIRA:

Good morning. Him?

How would an Army private

allegedly gain access

to top secret information?

The Army has detained

a U.S. soldier

in connection with the leak

of this classified video.

REPORTER 1:
The prime suspect is 22-year-old

Army Private First Class Bradley Manning.

For allegedly leaking this

classified gun camera video

of an Apache helicopter

attacking civilians.

DOMSCHEIT-BERG:
Really in the

first few days after we heard

about this problem

with Private Manning,

it felt like the worst

possible scenario.

At that time not really

understanding what it means for us,

and what the hell

was actually going on.

REPORTER 2:
Private First

Class Bradley Manning,

he found a former computer

hacker in Sacramento, California

and that former computer hacker

was growing increasingly alarmed,

eventually turning him in.

LAMO:
He needed a friend, and I wish

that I could have been that friend.

There was a responsibility

to the needs of the many

rather than simply

the needs of Bradley Manning.

NARRATOR:
Lamo

met with federal agents

and gave them a copy of his

chats with Bradley Manning.

He also gave a copy

to Kevin Poulsen,

a friend and former

convicted hacker,

who is now an editor

at Wired. com.

KEVIN POULSEN:
I had just done a story

about Adrian being institutionalized.

While he was institutionalized,

they had adjusted his medications.

I almost had kind

of a suspicion that

maybe his new medications

weren't agreeing with him

and this was A Beautiful Mind situation,

and he was imagining all this.

NARRATOR:
Lamo gave Poulsen the

okay to publish the story,

and days later, Wired.com broke

the news of Manning's arrest.

WEBSTER:
Nobody wanted

Adrian to go to the media,

but apparently

it was already done.

And, well, he ended up approaching

a lot of media after that.

It just sort of exploded.

Did it make you feel patriotic

when you turned Manning in?

It made me feel very sad

that I could not have

interdicted this leak...

I believed that his actions

were endangering lives...

POULSEN:
Adrian lives his life as

though he's writing it like a novel.

And every novelist

wants to be read.

LAMO:
It's my job to play the role that I'm

cast in to the very best of my ability,

the same as any other actor.

You can't possibly be

yourself in the public eye.

All of the little things

that make us human

don't stand up under the

scrutiny of the camera.

I'd like to also point out that

I think that this marks the end

of WikiLeaks's ability to say that

they have never had a source be outed.

[DAVIS SPEAKING]

So what's been the update

on Manning?

Gimme the news,

it's only two days old.

So he has been

charged with espionage.

The allegation being

that he has transferred

at least 50 classified

cables to another party.

The other party is not named.

DAVIS:
After Bradley Manning

was arrested,

attention shifted very much to

Julian, it was no longer a secret.

The pressure through

this period was intense.

Julian won't say where

he got that material,

but he had the material, there

was no question about that.

ASSANGE:
We try extremely hard to

never know who our sources are.

So, all our encryption

technology is designed

to prevent us knowing

who our sources are.

NARRATOR:
Was it

really possible

that Julian didn't know that

Bradley Manning was his source?

Or was saying so

an old Mendax tactic,

telling a lie for

a noble cause?

STEPHEN GREY:
Private First

Class Bradley Manning

is now said to

have confessed

to passing more than 260,000

documents to WikiLeaks.

That's not true.

If he's the one, then that implies

there's much more to be released.

Stephen Grey for

Channel 4 News.

Thanks, Stephen, thanks...

now I have every f***ing gun

pointed at me.

NARRATOR:
Julian knew

how much more there was.

But now that Manning was

arrested, the question became,

would WikiLeaks put Manning

in greater jeopardy

by continuing to

release his materials?

DOMSCHEIT-BERG:
It's certainly

a very problematic situation.

This is about as

serious as it can get.

ASSANGE:
We have a situation where

there's a young man, Bradley Manning,

who's alleged to be a source for

the Collateral Murder video.

We do not know whether Mr. Manning

is our source or not.

But what we do know is that

we promised the source

that we would publish everything

that they gave to us.

NARRATOR:
Even though his potential

source had been arrested,

Assange was undeterred

from the WikiLeaks mission.

And the hundreds of thousands of leaked

U.S. government secrets he possessed

were burning a hole

in his pocket.

Julian traveled around Europe

plotting his next move,

and in Brussels he was tracked down by

investigative journalist Nick Davies.

DAVIES:
My pitch

to Julian was,

instead of posting this secret

material on the WikiLeaks website,

he shared it with an alliance of The

Guardian and other media groups,

including The New York Times.

Who, A, have the impact of reaching

millions of people instantly

and also have natural political

connections in their own jurisdictions.

So we were trying to give him

a kind of political immunity

so that he could do

this clearly provocative

and somewhat dangerous thing

in relative safety and with

an assurance of success.

NARRATOR:
Recognizing that WikiLeaks

could benefit from a louder megaphone,

Julian agreed to

Nick's proposal.

DAVIES:
So, how am I going to get

the documents back to London?

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