Rally for Bradley Manning at the start of the court martial. Take action in your local community immediately after the sentence is announced!

Closing the Defense’s sentencing arguments, Bradley Manning showed integrity and conscience when he took the stand yesterday issuing a plea to Judge Lind for leniency. In his statement he apologized for the harm he caused even though the evidence showed no harm came from the releases. And he expressed regret for not being more aggressive with his attempts to expose war crimes through the proper military channels. His statement was consistent with that of a humanist, one guided by morals and conscience: “I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions. When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people” and “In retrospect I should have worked more aggressively inside the system” he said. 

WikiLeaks issued a statement asking supporters to accept this statement with “compassion and understanding” given the enormous weight on Manning’s shoulders. Facing 90 years in prison, having endured a year in solitary confinement, and having his defense blocked at every turn, it is no wonder that Bradley Manning – now only 25 years old – would appeal to the court to give him a second chance at life, 

Since his arrest, Mr. Manning has been an emblem of courage and endurance in the face of adversity. He has resisted extraordinary pressure. He has been held in solitary confinement, stripped naked and subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment by the United States government. His constitutional right to a speedy trial has been ignored. He has sat for three years in pretrial detention, while the government assembled 141 witnesses and withheld thousands of documents from his lawyers.

The government has denied him the right to conduct a basic whistleblower defense. It overcharged him until he faced over a century in prison and barred all but a handful of his witnesses. He was denied the right at trial to argue that no harm was caused by his alleged actions. His defence team was pre-emptively banned from describing his intent or showing that his actions harmed no one.

Despite these obstacles, Mr. Manning and his defense team have fought at every step. Last month, he was eventually convicted of charges carrying up to 90 years of prison time. The US government admitted that his actions did not physically harm a single person, and he was acquitted of “aiding the enemy.” His convictions solely relate to his alleged decision to inform the public of war crimes and systematic injustice.

It is understandable that Bradley Manning seeks leniency, and given his strong moral compass it is understandable he has showed regret for causing anyone harm. But outside the court room we must consider the fact no harm actually occurred. The Freedom of the Press Foundation also provides an excellent critique, breaking down the government’s ongoing rhetoric and lies about the potential harm caused:

While the legal strategy of Manning’s attorney at this point—as it would be for any attorney—is to convince the judge to reduce Manning’s sentence as much as possible, the public should know: Bradley Manning didn’t actually hurt the United States. 

For years now, the government may have attempted to paint a dire picture of WikiLeaks’ potential impact, but they’ve also admitted, quietly but repeatedly, that the results have been more embarrassing than harmful.

Even when the WikiLeaks hysteria was in full swing, government officials from the State Department have briefed Congress on the impact of the Wikileaks revelations, and have said that the leaks were “embarrassing but not damaging.” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that, while some of the information may have been embarrassing,  “I don’t think there is any substantive damage.”

Because Bradley Manning selected particular categories of documents that did not contain source information, and which would not put soldiers in harms way, the only damage from the leaks according to all evidence presented publicly was embarrassment.  Even so, Manning’s apology is understandable. With few options left, and facing 90 years in prison, deferring to the military court, and to military honor, makes sense. In his article “There Are People Who Should Have to Plead for Mercy from a Judge—None Are Named Bradley Manning”, Kevin Gosztola at FDL writes:

A statement like this was probably to be expected. He had pled guilty to some offenses on February 28 and his defense had diligently worked to have him acquitted of the more serious federal charges he faced. His defense had sought to present evidence of how government agencies had done reviews after the leaks and found little to no damage or harm had been caused, but the judge deemed such evidence irrelevant to the charges. His defense also tried to stop military prosecutors from preventing the defense from presenting evidence related to Manning’s “good faith” during trial, but that effort failed.

Making the kind of public interest defense supporters—and people throughout the world—wanted to hear would and could not have happened.

Supporters holding a vigil for Bradley Manning at Fort Meade. August 15, 2013.

Gosztola is also critical of the military’s arguments that Bradley Manning did not follow the proper channels, writing that he is unsure how much Bradley Manning knows about similar whistleblower cases, such as that of Thomas Drake who approached Congress but found all his requests went “into a black hole”. Read more about these failed “proper channels” here. 

We can hope now, as the closing arguments are made and as Judge Lind decides Bradley Manning’s fate, that she will look deeper into the issues presented during the pre-trial hearings – the unheard of punishment of keeping someone on Prevention of Injury status for 9 months – where Manning was stripped naked, given max an hour a day exercise, forced to ask for toilet paper, watched constantly from behind a two way mirror, forced never to lean his back against a wall. We hope Lind will consider the enormous delays created by the government when they withheld crucial evidence from the defense, and which led to the longest pre-trial detention of an American soldier since Vietnam (more than 3 years). We hope Lind understands that Bradley Manning’s treatment at Quantico prison was “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” just as the UN declared, and that the sentencing credit she gave Manning, of 112 days, did not even amount to a slap on the hand for the military. In fact, it gave the military free reign to continue to abuse soldiers. And most importantly, we hope Lind can see the bigger picture – that without more Bradley Manning’s the military apparatus would run amok, that hundreds of thousands of documents were unreasonably kept secret, and that there were very real coverups of war crimes which even after being exposed have not been prosecuted.

We need more Bradley Manning’s and so let’s hope Judge Lind shows understanding and compassion and that she takes Bradley Manning’s actions and statements to heart. The sentence is expected to come sometime next week.