THE ARMY PRIVATE who released unprecedented levels of sensitive documentation to Wikileaks has pleaded guilty to certain charges and now faces up to 20 years in prison.
Bradley Manning appeared at a Fort Meade hearing yesterday and was given the opportunity to read a 35-page statement to explain his actions. It was the first time he publicly admitted to distributing the information.
Wikileaks went on to publish the material in what was an embarrassing scandal for the US Army and administration.
Julian Assange’s attorney Michael Ratner described it as a ‘special but devastating day’.
“[We] really saw what a hero Bradley Manning is,” he said. “When he saw wrong, he acted.”
Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the lesser offences he is accused of, including the distribution and transfer of classified files from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He spoke of his first job in Iraq when he began worrying about ‘kill lists’ and the difference between intervening to help and hurting.
“I began to become depressed at the situation we found ourselves mired in year after year. In attempting counterinsurgency operations, we became obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists,” the 25-year-old told the military judge.
I wanted the public to know that not everyone living in Iraq were targets to be neutralised.
Speaking about a 2007 combat video during which 11 men died, Manning described the aerial weapons team as having a “seeming delightful bloodlust”.
The Private said he did not think the release of the information would harm the US.
I believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information … this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general.
Prosecutors say they will continue with a court-martial on 12 remaining charges. That could see Manning face charges of aiding the enemy and espionage meaning life imprisonment.
He will not be sentenced until all proceedings are complete.
WikiLeaks has been careful never to confirm or deny Manning was the source of the documents. The soldier told the court that he corresponded online with someone he believed to be WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
(YouTube: TheRealNews)
-Additional reporting by AP
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