Bradley Manning: ‘I Will Recover From This…This Is Just A Stage In My Life’ - DailyBeast

[WillyT]

Bradley Manning: ‘I Will Recover From This…This Is Just a Stage in My Life’
Sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking documents to WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning has vowed to stay positive, his defense lawyers tells Alexa O’Brien in an exclusive interview.
by Alexa O'Brien - DailyBeast
Aug 21, 2013 1:58 PM EDT

Fort Meade, MD — Just after receiving a sentence of 35 years in prison for transmitting hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and U.S. Army reports to WikiLeaks in 2010, Bradley Manning was in a surprisingly “cheerful mood,” according to his attorney.

“He said, 'Hey It's OK. It's alright. I know you did everything you could for me. Don't cry. Be happy. It's fine. This is just a stage in my life. I am moving forward. I will recover from this,’” his defense lawyer David Coombs said in an interview conducted immediately after the sentencing.

Presiding military judge Col. Dense Lind, sternly handed down the sentence to a packed courtroom, stating only, “Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, this Court sentences you to be reduced to the grade of Private E-1, to forfeit all pay and allowances, to be confined for 35 years, and to be dishonorably discharged from the service.”

Coombs was stunned. “I look at the sentence and I can’t believe that was actually the sentence he received,” he told The Daily Beast. "There is a good young man who did what he thought was morally right and for the right reasons, and he was sentenced the way we would sentence somebody who committed murder—the way we would sentence somebody who molested a child. That is the sentence he received."

Despite the clear devastation among supporters of Manning, however, Coombs said the defendant was in good spirits. “Interestingly, Manning was the one who was cheering everyone up,” he said.

While perhaps proportional to the information age that Manning was born into, the disclosures were unprecedented in scale and scope, and resulted in the largest criminal investigation ever into a publisher and its source.

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More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/21/bradley-manning-i-will-recover-from-this-this-is-just-a-stage-in-my-life.html

[geek tragedy]

1. Coombs had suggested 25 years at the sentencing hearing, the government said 60 years.

So, not sure how 35 years is a stunning.

In any event, with good behavior he can get paroled by the time he's 35. If there's no commutation.

[RobertEarl]

4. Now

It sure would be nice to see all those who have been sliming Manning now go after Bushco. It won't happen, because those types only go after the defenseless and Bushco has Obama defending him.

[kelliekat44]

2. Some "people thought it was morally right" to lynch blacks and infect Native Americans.

I think a lot of things may be "morally right" but against the law. We can't have it both ways...or can we?

[liberal_at_heart]

5. yeah, and some of those blacks thought it was morally right to break the laws that the

segregationsists had set on them. Millions of black people broke the law in order to free themselves.

[ljm2002]

6. Well see, here's the thing...

...those people who thought it was morally right to lynch blacks and infect native americans, were not in fact acting morally.

Behaving according to moral principles even if against the law, is not the same thing as behaving against moral principles, which is what your examples are.

So for me, this is not trying to have it both ways.

[JoeyT]

8. I don't know why you think infecting Native Americans was against the law.

What possible law could it have broken? It was in 1763. The only thing illegal then was existing while not being white.

I keep seeing people using examples of the powerful attacking the powerless to defend the powerful attacking the powerless. I don't know why.

[uponit7771]

3. Good attitude to keep... I pray he's released soon

[Whisp]

7. I feel sad for Manning.

I know what he did was wrong and dangerous, and I haven't followed his story that closely over time, but I think he was doing what he thought was right for his own reasons. He is not a cheap little opportunist like Snowden and GG and their crew.

[msanthrope]

9. Good for him. I wish him well on his appeal, and hope he continues to improve his life. nt

[hrmjustin]

10. I wish him th best. God Bless him!

[bullwinkle428]

11. If "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", then Manning should be

stronger than Hercules, given what he's been put through!

K&R.

[WillyT]

12. Great Point...

[WillyT]

13. Kick !!!

[WillyT]

14. And Another...