WikiLeaks spy Bradley Manning is sentenced to 35 years in prison

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-sentenced-35-years-prison--EIGHT-years.html

Bradley Manning has today been sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking an unprecedented volume of classified documents to WikiLeaks.

Flanked by his lawyers, the 25-year-old first class Army private appeared not to show any emotion when his long-awaited fate was read out, though spectators gasped inside the military courtroom at Fort Meade near Baltimore.

Because of the 1,294 days he has already spent in custody, Manning will immediately shave three and a half years off his 35-year term. He is eligible for parole after serving at least one-third of the sentence, which means he could be free in eight years, when he's 33 or 34 years old. However, his lawyer said seven years could be all he serves.


Fate is sealed: US Army Private Bradley Manning is escorted out of the courthouse after being sentenced to 35 years in prison at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, on Wednesday, August 21, 2013


No emotion: Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison but showed little emotion when the jail term was read out

Manning also learned he will be reduced in grade to the rank of private E1, dishonorably discharged from the military and forfeit all pay and allowances.

In a press conference following the hearing defense attorney David Coombs said he was saddened by the sentence, adding that it didn't represent the harm his client had caused.

'When I heard the sentence I thought to myself "I have represented hundreds of clients some of them have committed murders and some have molested children and those clients received less time than private Manning."'

He added that he was surprised by the decision to dishonorably discharge Manning from the military, adding 'Bradley Manning is a man of honor.'

Coombs said: 'I'm hoping he gets out in the near term and he can go on with his life and be productive. This doesn't have to define him.'

Manning's sentencing, lasting just a couple of minutes, capped off a 12-week trial and a much longer legal battle over the former intelligence analyst's intentions when he reached out to WikiLeaks.

Following the hearing, Manning was quickly ushered out of the court where he was met by supporters who shouted 'we'll keep fighting for you Bradley' and 'you're our hero.'

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I can not believe this thread went unnoticed. The military is shooting innocent people and not a single one of the gunners get prison time but Manning gets 35 years. insanity.

Manning should have done what snowden did. It isn't your job to serve consequences for doing the right thing.

 

This is ridiculous. People like Clayton Lonetree, who actually gave information to enemies of the US, were given significantly shorter sentences.

 

Manning is different than Snowden. Manning took an oath to the country to protect and was given the leverage to do that. He revealed names to our enemies, which put specific Americans in jeopardy. Snowden did not, he merely put the NSA on blast to let AMERICANS know that we are being tapped to an invasive, unconstitutional degree.

Who are the military shooters you are referring to?(there's a few) Who didn't get time?

 

Doing the right thing is ahead of an oath.

Who are these specific Americans in jeopardy? Did they name them at the trial?

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I don't know who that is doing the shooting but no consequences for shooting unarmed people.

 

I believe the emails he exposed had names in them.

Yes, you are so right @ the gunners he exposed not doing time. I didn't know they were never held accountable. Pretty shocking. Wonder if it was deemed as war activity?

 

They may have names in them but there wasn't any retaliation.

 

chain of command

you wouldn't punish a gunner for following orders/being cleared to engage

you would instead look at the chain and hassle his superiors to see what happened

then again...it was the gunner's fault for saying they had AKs

eh

 

so the guy who shoots you isn't the guy responsible for pulling the trigger. It is the guy who ordered it. I'm also not sure if the chain of command got punished for it.

Don't get me wrong. I understand if the chain makes a mistake. There was a firefighter that killed a woman. Had the leader of the firefighters had better communication, It wouldn't have happened. That was an accident.

 

if you are ordered to engage and don't, you are disobeying a direct order and subject to punishment

if you open fire on order and kill civilians, that is not looked upon as 'your' fault

that's a command mistake and his NCOs/CO will be held responsible

 

I like the 'your' even though it is. I know I'd be subject to punishment because I wouldn't fire on civilians.

 

imagine how air and armor guys feel when they can barely see a target, but are told to level it anyway

should they feel responsible if they find out later they bombed a school or shelled a church?

they were just following orders, right?

civilian casualties of war are just unavoidable

 

Yes, they should feel responsible. They did it. They aren't going to line you up against a wall and kill you for disobeying orders to kill civilians but forget all of that.

lets go with the military moral system. The chain of command was never punished for this incident as far as I know.

 

There's a lack of responsibility because lots of times you don't find out they were civilians until after the incident

Its easy to examine and pass blame after the matter

 

I can agree that in hostile times, things aren't so clear but you still got to own up to things.

 

I wish he had not been prosecuted at all.

 

Look at what they're trying to do with snowden

The government wants to do whatever and silence the voices

 

Again I think they said something about putting them in danger. I will have to look into it again (it was a while ago).

The only redeeming thing for him is that he is eligible for parole after 12 years. Or a pardon. (<- doubt a President would do that, however)

 

Old boy has been living like Tom Hanks stuck in the Terminal.