Prosecutors said the chat logs between Manning and Assange came from Manning’s personal computer, which a forensic examiner testified this week were authentic. They show an interlocutor whose user name, prosecutors said, is an alias for Assange.
In a March 8, 2010, chat, Manning asked Assange for help in cracking a password so he could log onto the classified computer anonymously, Fein said.
“Any good at IM-Hash cracking?” Manning asks.
“Yes,” is the reply. “We have rainbow tables for IM,” the interlocutor says, citing a tool that can be used to decipher passwords.
Manning sends a string of numbers.
“Passed it on to our guys,” is the reply.
On March 15, prosecutors said, WikiLeaks published another document that Manning provided, a classified 2008 Army counterintelligence report that discussed the potential for leaks of material to WikiLeaks that could result in an advantage to foreign enemies.
Three days later, prosecutors said, Manning told Assange in a chat that a New York Times article cited an Army spokesman “confirming the authenticity” of the report.
Assange allegedly asked: “Yes?”
Manning replied: “Hilarious.”
Manning transfered classified information “knowing” that U.S. enemies, including al-Qaeda, would have access to the information, Fein said.
He showed an al-Qaeda video clip in which a spokesman, over flashes of the WikiLeaks home page, says followers should not enter battle “before taking advantage of the wide range of resources available on the Internet.”
The material disclosed Thursday not only potentially strengthens the military’s case against Manning but also aids civilian prosecutors in their effort to bring a case against Assange, experts said. The Justice Department has said it has an active grand jury investigation against Assange and WikiLeaks. Lawyers representing him and the group have been in the Fort Meade courtroom all week.
Assange’s apparent role in helping Manning gain access to classified information “would get you closer to the point of charging Assange” with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act, said a former federal prosecutor whose firm did not authorize him to speak publicly on the matter.
As he closed, Coombs repeated his appeal that Manning, who grew up in small-town Oklahoma and thought the Army would give him a future, acted out of pure motives.
“History will ultimately judge my client,” he said, and reprised a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. “An individual who breaks a law” that conscience tells him is unjust, Coombs said, and who risks prison to arouse the conscience of the community is in reality expressing the “very, very highest respect for the law.”
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