US soldier wanted leaks to spark war debate
Source: Agencies |
March 2, 2013, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AFTER almost three years in custody, the soldier accused in the biggest leak of classified material in US history said he did it because he wanted the public to know how the American military was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with little regard for human life.
Bradley Manning, 25, pleaded guilty on Thursday at a military hearing to 10 charges that could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Prosecutors plan to pursue 12 more charges against him at court-martial, including a charge of aiding the enemy that has a potential life sentence.
"I began to become depressed at the situation we found ourselves mired in year after year. In attempting counterinsurgency operations, we became obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists," the former intelligence analyst in Baghdad told a judge. "I wanted the public to know that not everyone living in Iraq were targets to be neutralized."
It was the first time Manning directly admitted leaking hundreds of thousands of pages of material to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and detailed the frustrations that led him to do it. The slightly built soldier read from a 35-page statement for more than an hour. He spoke quickly and evenly, showing little emotion even when he described how troubled he was by what he had seen.
The judge accepted his plea to 10 charges involving illegal possession or distribution of classified material. Manning was allowed to plead guilty under military regulations instead of federal espionage law, which knocked the potential sentence down from 92 years.
He will not be sentenced until his court-martial on the other charges is over.
Manning admitted sending Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, State Department diplomatic cables, other classified records and two battlefield video clips to WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010. WikiLeaks posted some of the material, embarrassing the US and its allies.
He said he did not believe the release of the information he downloaded onto a thumb drive would harm the US. "I believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general," Manning said.
Manning said he was appalled by 2007 combat video of an assault by a US helicopter that killed 11 men, including a Reuters photographer. The Pentagon said troops mistook the camera equipment for weapons.
The Obama administration has said the release of the documents threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments.
Bradley Manning, 25, pleaded guilty on Thursday at a military hearing to 10 charges that could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Prosecutors plan to pursue 12 more charges against him at court-martial, including a charge of aiding the enemy that has a potential life sentence.
"I began to become depressed at the situation we found ourselves mired in year after year. In attempting counterinsurgency operations, we became obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists," the former intelligence analyst in Baghdad told a judge. "I wanted the public to know that not everyone living in Iraq were targets to be neutralized."
It was the first time Manning directly admitted leaking hundreds of thousands of pages of material to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and detailed the frustrations that led him to do it. The slightly built soldier read from a 35-page statement for more than an hour. He spoke quickly and evenly, showing little emotion even when he described how troubled he was by what he had seen.
The judge accepted his plea to 10 charges involving illegal possession or distribution of classified material. Manning was allowed to plead guilty under military regulations instead of federal espionage law, which knocked the potential sentence down from 92 years.
He will not be sentenced until his court-martial on the other charges is over.
Manning admitted sending Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, State Department diplomatic cables, other classified records and two battlefield video clips to WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010. WikiLeaks posted some of the material, embarrassing the US and its allies.
He said he did not believe the release of the information he downloaded onto a thumb drive would harm the US. "I believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general," Manning said.
Manning said he was appalled by 2007 combat video of an assault by a US helicopter that killed 11 men, including a Reuters photographer. The Pentagon said troops mistook the camera equipment for weapons.
The Obama administration has said the release of the documents threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
