PLUGGED: Pfc. Bradley Manning, here being escorted from court, was convicted on 19 of 21 counts, but not the big one: aiding the enemy. He still faces up to 136 years in prison. (AP)
FORT MEADE, Md. — Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, was acquitted yesterday of aiding the enemy — but convicted of espionage, theft and computer-fraud charges.
The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, deliberated for about 16 hours over three days before reaching her decision in a case that drew worldwide attention as supporters hailed Army Pfc. Manning as a whistleblower. The US government called him an anarchist computer hacker and attention-seeking traitor.
Manning stood at attention, flanked by his attorneys, as the judge read her verdicts. He appeared not to react, although his attorney, David Coombs, smiled faintly when he heard not guilty on aiding the enemy, which carried a potential life sentence.
When the judge was done, Coombs put his hand on Manning’s back and whispered something to him, eliciting a slight smile on the soldier’s face.
Manning was convicted on 19 of 21 charges, and he previously had pleaded guilty to a charge involving an Icelandic cable. He faces up to 136 years in prison. His sentencing hearing begins today.
Julian Assange, whose Web site served as the conduit for exposing Manning’s spilled secrets to the world, saw nothing to cheer in the mixed verdict.
“It is a dangerous precedent and an example of national-security extremism,” he told reporters at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, which is sheltering him. “This has never been a fair trial.”
Coombs came outside the court to a round of applause and shouts of “thank you” from a few dozen Manning supporters.
“We won the battle, now we need to go win the war,” Coombs said of the sentencing phase. “Today is a good day, but Bradley is by no means out of the fire.”
Manning’s court-martial was unusual because he acknowledged giving the anti-secrecy Web site more than 700,000 battlefield reports and diplomatic cables, and video of a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed civilians in Iraq, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
A military investigation found the US troops mistook the camera equipment for weapons.
Besides the aiding-the- enemy acquittal, Manning was also found not guilty of an espionage charge when the judge found that prosecutors had not proved their assertion that he started giving material to WikiLeaks in late 2009. Manning said he started the leaks in February the following year.
Manning pleaded guilty earlier this year to lesser offenses that could have brought him 20 years behind bars, yet the government continued to pursue all but one of the original, more serious, charges.
Manning said during a pretrial hearing in February that he leaked the material to expose the US military’s “bloodlust” and disregard for human life, and what he considered American diplomatic deceit.
He said he chose information he believed would not the harm the United States.