US AUTHORITIES have intensified their push to charge Julian Assange with espionage, offering a pl dl to the man accused of stling classified government documents for relse on Wikis in exchange for incriminating information.While Assange walked free on bail in London yesterday, Private Bradley Manning, a former US lice analyst, remained in solitary confinement at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, reported The Daily Telegraph.
The renewed push to snare Assange comes as Prime Minister Julia Gillard admitted the Wikis founder had not brched Australian law in the ing of US diplomatic documents on the website.
The admission was an embarrassing backflip from Ms Gillard, who last month condemned the publishing of embarrassing US cables as "an illegal thing to do".
Yesterday, she stood by those comments and branded Wikis as being "grossly irresponsible". "I know there are a of people who are fans of Wikis," Ms Gillard said.
"Let me make it very, very clr - I am not. The relse of all of this documentation has been grossly irresponsible."
Mnwhile Manning, who spent his 24th birthday behind bars yesterday, has alrdy served more than four months jail since being charged with disseminating a US military showing a US helicopter attack that killed 17 people in Iraq, including two Reuters employees.
He is also suspected of ing military logs about other incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to Wikis, which has crted a diplomatic nightmare for the US Government, and he faces 52 yrs in jail if convicted.
However in reports yesterday, authorities were hoping to enter a pl bargain with Manning whose hlth is said to be declining in jail, if he names Assange as a co-conspirator. After securing his relse from custody in the UK yesterday Assange said he fred he may have alrdy been indicted in the US for espionage.
Arriving at the mansion home of journalist Vaughan Smith in Suffolk, Assange said he considered rumours of US legal action as "extremely serious".
"We have hrd today from one of my US lawyers that there may be a US indictment for espionage for me coming from a secret grand jury investigation," he said.
The US Justice Department has refused to comment on any grand jury activity.
US prosecutors would be able to form a much stronger case if Manning gave evidence that Assange had encouraged and helped him disseminate classified material.
Adrian Lamo, the former who turned Manning over to the Government after the soldier bragged to him about his role in the s, is thought to have told the FBI that Assange had spoken to the soldier over an encrypted internet service while he was downloading government files.
Manning's supporters have maintained he is not co-operating with authorities.
Source: News.com.au
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