Identified WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning has been acquitted of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge faced by the former army intelligence analyst punishable by life in prison over his involvement in the biggest and most sensitive leak of classified information ever in U.S. history after being found to have leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks.
The 25 year old avoided a singular life sentence in jail but can face up to 136 years in prison regardless through an accumulation of charges including five counts of espionage, five of theft, one of computer fraud and a series of other military misdemeanors.
Speaking from his home base in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that Manning’s “aiding the enemy” acquittal, the accusation that Bradley Manning’s leaking of diplomatic cables and war logs to WikiLeaks was tantamount to giving classified information to Al Qaeda because anyone can read the internet, represented a “pleasing” win for the freedom of information.
“That’s one of the pleasing things that came out in this court case,” Assange said. “There
was no evidence presented that WikiLeaks had failed in its duties in
any way whatsoever, no internal material from us, none of our reporters
going over to the other side or anything like that.”
Military judge Colonel Denise Lind found Manning guilty of 20 of the 22
counts he faced, with Manning’s ensuing sentencing hearing likely to be a
drawn out process and slated to begin on Wednesday morning U.S. time at
the Fort Meade military base just outside of Washington.
Yesterday, Assange declared Manning a hero and not a martyr. He later told reporters at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London that the verdict was “a dangerous precedent and an example of national security extremism.”
Via AP
