Bradley Manning FOUND NOT GUILTY OF AIDING THE ENEMY [View all]

[Segami]

Army Private First Class Bradley Manning was found not guilty on Tuesday morning on charges of knowingly aiding enemies of the U.S. by transferring 750,000 pages of military files to WikiLeaks, the Associated Press reported. Manning was tried on 20 other criminal counts, and offered to plead guilty to most of them, but refused to say he helped the terrorist network al-Qaeda.


Manning requested that the judge, Colonel Denise Lind, have the responsibility of determining the verdict, as opposed to a military jury. His attorney, David Coombs, told the court during his closing argument on July 26 that Manning “He “was hoping to spark worldwide discussion” by leaking the information and shed light on U.S. military policy.


Wikileaks founder Julian Assange defended Manning’s actions in an interview with CNN shortly before the verdict was released.


We call those types of people that are willing to risk — not be a martyr but risk being a martyr — for all the rest of us, we call those people heroes,” Assange told host Jake Tapper. “Bradley Manning is a hero.”



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/30/bradley-manning-found-not-guilty-of-aiding-the-enemy/