Today marks the start of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s historic trial for releasing hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. files to WikiLeaks in 2010, which has been dubbed the largest security breach in U.S. history.
Manning’s court martial is being held at the Army base in Anne Arundel County, Md., after 18 months of pretrial hearings.
As Mint Press News previously reported, Manning admitted in February that he was behind the leaks of more than 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables and activity reports pertaining to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
After his guilty plea for providing documents to WikiLeaks, Manning faces up to twenty years in prison for that act alone. Manning has also been charged with 22 other crimes, the most serious being “Aiding the Enemy” under the Espionage Act. If he is found guilty of that charge, he could face life in prison without parole.
Manning has denied aiding the enemy, prompting Judge Denise Lind to rule that the U.S. government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Manning had “reason to believe such information could be used to the injury of the U.S.” by an armed group like al-Qaeda or another nation.
Laurence Tribe is a professor at Harvard University and considered an expert on constitutional law in the U.S. He told the Guardian that if Manning is convicted of aiding the enemy, it could set a dangerous precedent and impact free speech.
“Charging any individual with the extremely grave offense of ‘aiding the enemy’ on the basis of nothing beyond the fact that the individual posted leaked information on the web and thereby ‘knowingly gave intelligence information’ to whoever could gain access to it there, does indeed seem to break dangerous new ground.”
The U.S. government is expected to introduce more than 100 government witnesses — many of them testifying in secret — which concerns not only Manning supporters, but whistleblowers and journalists in general.
“When it comes to freedom of information, leaks and whistleblowers, this is one of the most important trials in 40 years,”said Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “As even detractors of Manning will say, this really could affect future whistleblowers, and it’s vital to the public to be able to see exactly what arguments the government is making.”
A press release from the Freedom of the Press Foundation reads:
“As has been documented by many media organizations, the pre-trial hearings of Bradley Manning have been hampered by heavy-handed government secrecy. Government briefs are not released to the public, written rulings are rarely given to journalists, and most importantly, there is no official transcript of the proceedings. This has denied the public of opportunities for a range of accurate, timely, and in-depth reporting on the trial.”
One of the government’s witnesses is reportedly one of the Navy SEAL team members who was part of the raid that carried out the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors have reportedly said that the Navy SEAL collected digital evidence that bin Laden had requested and received documents in his Pakistan compound that Manning had leaked to WikiLeaks.
Whistleblower or traitor?
Manning enlisted in the Army in 2007, and was arrested in Baghdad in May 2010 after someone he confided in about the leak went to the FBI.
One of the most significant documents Manning released to WikiLeaks included a video referred to as “Collateral Murder.” The video shows the murder of two Reuters journalists and bystanders by American soldiers in a U.S. Apache helicopter. He said he released the video because he was concerned about the “lack of concern for human life” and lack of “concern for injured children at the scene.”
“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 as well as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan,” Manning said in his statement before the court on Feb. 28.
On Saturday, hundreds of U.S. military veterans and members of the public gathered in Fort Meade, Md., to show support for the 25-year-old whistleblower. Supporters chanted “Free Bradley Manning” and carried signs saying “my hero” and “Americans have the right to know.”
While the largest rally was in Maryland, where Manning’s trial is being held, other demonstrations occurred around the world.
Gerry Condon is a spokesperson for the group Veterans For Peace. He says the group is holding a rally in support of Bradley Manning on Saturday because Manning is a hero who wanted to aid the American public, not the enemy.
“It is a shame that our nation did not pay more attention to the information he shared with us three years ago. Many lives could have been saved — hundreds of Afghani civilians and hundreds of U.S. soldiers,” he said.
Demonstrations in support of Manning, sponsored by Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War, are set to occur in more than 100 cities around the U.S. and internationally from June 1 through June 8.
Notable names in attendance included Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, LGBT activist U.S. Army Lt. Dan Choi, former U.S. diplomat U.S. Army Col. Ann Wright (ret.), and former soldier Ethan McCord.
Ellsberg told local media he “felt an immediate connection to Manning” when he learned there was a young soldier willing to go to prison for his beliefs.
“I have been waiting for years for someone else to say that,” Ellsberg said.
Many groups including Veterans For Peace have demanded that the government drop all charges against Manning and release him from prison immediately.
Barbara Apfelbaum is a 67-year-old teacher and and antiwar activist from New York who was at Saturday’s rally in Fort Meade. She said the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were started on false claims and called Manning a casualty of the war.
“I think Bradley Manning is a courageous, courageous young man and he exposed things the American military didn’t want to believe,” she said. “Or they didn’t want exposed.”
Tom Manzitti, another Manning supporter at Saturday’s rally, agreed.
“I am tired of a government that is literally running amok over the citizens of this country,” he said. “When you speak the truth, you are considered an agitator and a criminal.”
Manning has been held in prison for more than three years and spent much of his time in solitary confinement, sparking outrage from human rights organizations and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.
His trial began today and is expected to continue throughout the summer.
Veterans For Peace members will be holding a daily vigil outside of the front gate of Fort Meade throughout Manning’s trial.