Bradley Manning, the source of the massive WikiLeaks trove of secret disclosures, faces a possible maximum sentence of more than 130 years in military jail after he was convicted of most charges on which he stood trial.
Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the court martial of the US soldier, delivered her verdict in curt and pointed language. "Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty," she repeated over and over, as the reality of a prolonged prison sentence for Manning – on top of the three years he has already spent in detention – dawned.
The one ray of light in an otherwise bleak outcome for Manning was that he was found not guilty of the single most serious charge against him – that he knowingly "aided the enemy", in practice al-Qaida, by disclosing information to the WikiLeaks website that in turn made it accessible to all users including enemy groups.
Lind's decision to avoid setting a precedent by applying the swingeing "aiding the enemy" charge to an official leaker will invoke a sigh of relief from news organisations and civil liberties groups who had feared a guilty verdict would send a chill across public interest journalism. » | Ed Pilkington at Fort Meade | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
THE GUARDIAN: Bradley Manning: whistleblower or traitor?: The verdict on the WikiLeaks disclosures is the culmination of a process that has presented two starkly contrasting portraits » | Ed Pilkington in Fort Meade | Tuesday, July 30, 2013
LE MONDE: Bradley Manning coupable "d'espionnage" mais pas de "collusion avec l'ennemi" » | Le Monde.fr avec AFP | mardi 30 juillet 2013
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Keine „Unterstützung des Feindes“ durch Bradley Manning: Der Wikileaks-Informant Bradley Manning ist von einem Militärgericht in 19 von 21 Anklagepunkten schuldig gesprochen worden. Freigesprochen wurde er vom Vorwurf der „Unterstützung des Feindes“. Damit droht ihm keine Todesstrafe. » | Von Matthias Rüb, Washington | Dienstag, 30. Juli 2013
