Prosecutors call U.S. WikiLeaks soldier 'traitor' for security breach

mitnick · Post time 26-7-2013 07:49 AM

U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse at Fort Meade in Maryland, July 18, 2013.

FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - Military prosecutors called the U.S. soldier accused of the largest leak of classified information in the nation's history a "traitor" for releasing documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

As the court-martial of Army Private First Class Bradley Manning winds down, prosecutors in closing arguments on Thursday said the 25-year-old intelligence analyst had betrayed the trust his nation put in him.

"Manning had the general evil intent ... he acted voluntarily and deliberately with his disclosures," said Major Ashden Fein, the lead military prosecutor. "He was not a whistleblower. He was a traitor."

Closing statements for the prosecution lasted about five hours.

Attorneys for Manning, who faces 21 counts of leaking more than 700,000 documents through the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website, are due to make their closing remarks on Friday.

Earlier in the case, they portrayed Manning as well-meaning but naive, intending to provoke a broader debate on U.S. military and diplomatic policy by releasing the documents. The most serious charge he faces, aiding the enemy, carries a life sentence.

The case has pitted civil liberties groups who seek increased transparency into the actions of the U.S. military and security apparatus, against the government, which has argued that the low-level intelligence analyst, who was stationed in Baghdad at the time, endangered lives.

It also illustrates the perils of granting so many people access to classified information, said Joseph Wippl, a former CIA officer who is now a professor of international relations at Boston University.

"He leaked information to which at least half a million people had access. Giving access to that many is like laying a trap for lemmings," Wippl said. "It was bound to happen."

Army Colonel Denise Lind, who is presiding over the trial, early in the proceedings on Thursday denied a request by the defence to find Manning not guilty of five of the counts related to stealing information from government databases.

She also denied a request by the defence to declare a mistrial.

'AGENCY OF THE PEOPLE'

The case, which saw WikiLeaks publish classified files, combat videos and diplomatic cables, serves as a test of the limits of secrecy in the Internet age.

But it has recently been overshadowed to some degree by the case of fugitive U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed to Britain's Guardian newspaper early last month the details of alleged secret U.S. surveillance programs tracking Americans' telephone and Internet use.

The WikiLeaks website has become controversial both for its publishing of secret data and for its founder, Julian Assange, who has been sheltering in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for more than a year to avoid extradition to Sweden for alleged sex crimes.

Fein said a search of Manning's computers showed he had done more than 100 searches related to WikiLeaks, which he called the "first intelligence agency of the people."

Manning was arrested in May 2010 while serving in Iraq.

He chose to be tried by a military judge, rather than have a panel of military jurors hear his case.

In February, Manning pleaded guilty to lesser charges, including misusing classified information, such as military databases in Iraq and Afghanistan and files pertaining to Guantanamo Bay detainees.

At that time, he read from a prepared 35-page statement in an attempt to explain why he released classified information to WikiLeaks: "I believe that if the general public ... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general."

The prosecution maintained that Manning sought fame, not openness.

Major Fein described a photo he said the soldier took of himself after sending documents to WikiLeaks: "This is a picture of a person who thought he'd finally become famous."