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The case of a U.S. Army police officer arrested on espionage charges in Alaska over the weekend immediately got compared to Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst currently facing charges of leaking documents to WikiLeaks, but so far there's just no solid evidence to support that. Like Manning, 22-year-old William Millay faces intelligence-related charges,* but that is as far as similarities go for now. The only comment that federal investigators have given about the case was a firm denial that it had anything to do with WikiLeaks. And the connections others have made between the two cases are tenuous at best.
Millay, who was arrested on Friday, remains in custody in Anchorage on suspicion of espionage. According to the Army Times, he's being charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, not in federal criminal court, just like Manning. But the outward similarities stop there. Unlike Manning, Millay didn't have access to lots of classified intelligence. A member of the 164th Military Police Company, 793rd Military Police Battalion, 2nd Engineer Brigade, known as the Arctic Enforcers, Millay stayed in Alaska as part of the company's rear detatchment -- the small group of soldiers that remain behind -- when the Enforcers were deployed in Afghanistan in March, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The military police company is tasked with training Afghan police officers.