Opinions

Bradley Manning’s work with WikiLeaks will leave a lasting legacy

Although he will most likely spend the remainder of his life in prison, former U.S. Army soldier Bradley Manning will not soon be forgotten.

In accordance with his leak of more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, Manning was convicted of espionage, theft and computer fraud by a military judge Tuesday, according to Al-Jazeera.

Manning was acquitted, however, of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.

If Manning had been convicted of aiding the enemy, a series of events would have likely unfolded that could have changed the nature of classified leaks forever.

According to Al-Jazeera, the lead prosecutor in the Manning case argued for an “aiding the enemy” conviction because al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations could have seen the documents Manning sent to WikiLeaks.

Although the prosecutor may have had good intentions, the holes in his argument were blatantly obvious.

In essence, the prosecutor argued that by sending his leaked documents to a public domain site like WikiLeaks, Manning was effectively handing the documents over to terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda.

The argument for the prosecutor’s claim is ridiculous. Manning never leaked his documents directly to al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization, and to imply such an act is baseless.

How could Manning have possibly controlled who visited the WikiLeaks site to view his leaked material?

If the prosecutor had extended his argument beyond Manning, then any person or organization who republished any type of leak could be found guilty of “aiding the enemy.”

If The New York Times had published some of Manning’s leaked information, would the newspaper be guilty of “aiding the enemy” as well?

Surely it’s possible that at least one member of a terrorist organization like al-Qaeda had access to such a popular newspaper. Under the prosecutor’s argument, a newspaper could be guilty of the same crime because its published information was in the public domain.

Thankfully, however, the judge acquitted Manning of the aiding-the-enemy charge.

And although Manning was the not first intelligence officer to leak classified material, he may go down as the most iconic.

Among the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that Manning leaked, a video of U.S. soldiers shooting at unarmed journalists will likely be his greatest legacy.

According to Al-Jazeera, the 2007 video shows a U.S. helicopter shooting at a Reuters news photographer while calling the targets “dead bastards.”

Although Manning did break the law when he leaked classified government information to WikiLeaks, his act of heroism should inspire future generations of leakers.

The time to debate controversial issues like the war in Afghanistan, torture in Guantanamo Bay and government surveillance on U.S. citizens is now.

Without brave individuals like Manning, the world will continue to live in the dark.

Shane Newell is a junior journalism major and the opinions editor of the Daily 49er.

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