It has been an inspiring week. Bradley Manning, the heroic soldier and two time Nobel Peace Prize nomineee issued a statement in a pre-trial hearing this week as to his motives for releasing information to the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks. He offered a partial plea, whereby he denied many of the charges the government has laid against him. As a “naked” plea, the government can continue to charge Bradley Manning with all the charged offences, however Bradley Manning’s statement of motive has made the prosecutions charge of ‘aiding the enemy’ seem ridiculous, irresponsible and wrong.

This was the first time Bradley Manning’s whistleblower motives were heard in court.

Calling the Iraq War Logs “some of the most important documents of our time” he said he hoped the release would result in domestic debate and a re-evaluation of the United States’ war on terror. Josh Gerstein of Politico.com reports:

“Manning said he sent the information to WikiLeaks because of his concerns about U.S. policies abroad.” (Read more…)

Releasing the documents was an act of conscience. CNET writes:

“Manning said that his decision to leak the files stemmed from increasing concern about the U.S. military’s actions in the Middle East, and that his conscience led him to conclude the documents must be made public. After approaching The New York Times and The Washington Post, but finding neither news organization was interested, he said he handed the documents to WikiLeaks.” (Read more…)

He carefully selected material he knew would not be harmful to the United States:

“I believe that the public release of these cables would not damage the United States, however, I did believe that the cables might be embarrassing, since they represented very honest opinions and statements behind the backs of other nations and organizations.” Read Bradley Manning’s full statement.

“Did the mainstream media fail Bradley Manning?” asks Rolling Stone magazine:

“thanks to Manning’s stunning testimony in court yesterday, we learn that both The Washington Post and The New York Times – the papers that broke Watergate and published the Pentagon Papers, respectively – were offered the entire trove of Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs long before Manning turned to Wikileaks as a last resort. According to Manning’s statement, they failed to respond. (Read more…)

The Guardian published a summary of its coverage of the Bradley Manning trial thus far. It details Bradley Manning’s first arrest, his cruel and inhumane treatment at Quantico, the excessive secrecy surrounding the trial, and his recent plea of not guilty to the charge of ‘aiding the enemy’. (Read more…)

Also see the Bradley Manning Support Networks reports from the pre-trial hearing: day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4.