This video from Al Jazeera covers the latest in the Bradley Manning trial. The WikiLeaks whistle-blower facing the possibility of a life sentence for treason, pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 lesser charges including the misuse of classified information.
Twenty-five-year-old Manning, an Army private accused of leaking the largest number of classified documents in U.S. history, has been awaiting court martial since May 2010. The leak included hundreds of thousands of State Department cables as well as a graphic cockpit video of a US helicopter attack on civilians that killed 12 people including children and two Reuters journalists.
In addition to his plea, which the Washington Post reports could bring a sentence of 20 years in prison, Manning gave his first testimony on how and why he leaked the classified material to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks website. “I believe that if the general public … had access to the information,” said Manning in court, “this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general.”
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Amien Essif is a regular contributor to Working In These Times and maintains a blog called The Gazine, which focuses on consumerism, gentrification, and technology with a Luddite bent. His work has also appeared on the Guardian and CounterPunch. You can find him using Twitter reluctantly: @AmienChicago
