Manning Acquitted of Aiding the Enemy

FORT MEADE, Md.—A military judge acquitted Pfc. Bradley Manning of the most serious accusation against him—that he aided U.S. enemies—but found him...
guilty Tuesday on most other charges related to his disclosure of documents to the antisecrecy website WikiLeaks.

The acquittal of Private Manning on the paramount charge affirmed arguments by his lawyers and supporters that leaking documents to the news media or Internet doesn't equate to acting in concert with American foes like al Qaeda.

The decision on that charge came as a setback for the Obama administration, which has been seeking a resounding victory in its campaign to discourage the disclosure of government secrets through an aggressive series of leak prosecutions.

Instead, the outcome was a mixed verdict for both sides. Private Manning's conviction on all but one of the 21 charges other than aiding the enemy ensured he would face a substantial prison sentence but denied prosecutors a clear-cut win. Private Manning wanted to prove he leaked the information not to aid enemies, but to influence what he saw as misguided U.S. war policies.

"A lot of Manning supporters are breathing a sigh of relief that he was not convicted on the aiding-the-enemy charge, but it is important not to lose sight that this is really unprecedented that someone could go to jail for his life for disclosing information to the media," said Elizabeth Goitein, a legal expert and co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

She noted that Private Manning faces a potentially much longer prison sentence than anyone accused of providing material to the news media has served. The 25-year-old Oklahoma native faces another proceeding to determine his sentence.

The presiding judge, Col. Denise Lind, asked Private Manning to stand as she announced her verdict.

She convicted Private Manning on charges related to taking information from government databases, bypassing security mechanisms and using classified information for other than its intended purpose. He was convicted of providing a video of an Iraqi airstrike to WikiLeaks, but the judge acquitted him on one count related to the release of a video published by Wikileaks that showed a 2009 airstrike in Afghanistan.

The verdict marks a milestone in a trial that held broad implications for U.S. policy toward leakers, whistleblowers and investigative journalism.

The administration has pursued several other cases against leakers, and at least three still are pending.

One of those involves Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has been stuck in a Moscow airport for more than a month after leaking files of secret information about U.S. surveillance programs.

Mr. Snowden faces criminal charges of stealing and passing secret information, and is trying to avoid returning to face trial in the U.S.

The main facts of the Manning case weren't in dispute. After he deployed to Iraq in 2009 and up until his arrest there in May 2010, Private Manning harvested more than 700,000 classified documents, ranging from battlefield reports to State Department cables, and transferred them to WikiLeaks, where they were published to the Internet beginning in 2010.

To convict Private Manning on the charge of aiding the enemy, prosecutors would have had to persuade Col. Lind that he had actual knowledge his leak would put classified documents in the hands of U.S. foes.

Lead defense attorney David Coombs described the defendant as a naïve but well-intentioned humanist who was stirred to action after viewing video footage of U.S. attacks that showed a "disregard for human life," according to Mr. Coombs.

Private Manning didn't testify.

The crux of defense efforts to counter the most serious charge rested on establishing WikiLeaks as a legitimate news source. Defense lawyers tried to broaden the scope of the trial, in effect forcing Col. Lind to decide whether whistleblowers could be with charged with treason and punished with life imprisonment, or even face execution.

Prosecutors alternatively crafted a narrative of a fame-seeking, "anarchist" hacker whose unprecedented access to classified information combined with an intent to harm the U.S through the largest leak in the nation's history.

In his closing argument, lead prosecutor Maj. Ashden Fein zeroed in on training Private Manning both gave and received to show that he knew documents sent to WikiLeaks would eventually end up with enemies, including Osama bin Laden.

Prosecution lawyers noted that WikiLeaks documents were found in the al Qaeda leader's Pakistan compound during the 2011 Navy Seal raid that killed him.

The trial's sentencing phase is expected to begin Wednesday. Defense attorneys will call witnesses to testify that actual damage from the leak was negligible, in hopes of limiting the sentence Col. Lind will impose.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323854904578637681374754140.html