The Verge - WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning goes to trial

Why Bradley Manning pled guilty

2013-03-01T17:00:05Z

Yesterday, the court-martial of Bradley Manning, the intelligence analyst accused of providing classified information to the WikiLeaks, took an important turn. As his defense had planned since at least last November, Manning offered a guilty plea for 10 charges; his plea, "by substitutions and exceptions," allowed him to accept responsibility for lesser offenses primarily related to unauthorized access to classified information and passing that information to unauthorized persons. (He also admitted that such leaks were "service discrediting" and "prejudicial to the good order and discipline" of the Army.) The court accepted his plea, with the offenses carrying a maximum of 20 years in prison.

The prosecution plans to go forward with 12...

Bradley Manning pleads guilty to being Wikileaks source, denies 'aiding the enemy'

2013-02-28T17:19:53Z

US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty on 10 counts involving disclosing information to an unauthorized person, but has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including "aiding the enemy." On Thursday afternoon, military judge Colonel Denise Lind accepted Manning's guilty pleas, while prosecutors said they plan to pursue the 12 contested charges at trial. The guilty pleas cover less serious offenses of misusing classified information and carry a combined maximum sentence of 20 years. If convicted of aiding the enemy, Manning could be imprisoned for life.

This week, word began to leak that Manning would plead guilty to some charges but not others. According to The Guardian and corroborated by other news sources,...

Pentagon releases trial documents as Bradley Manning prepares formal plea

2013-02-27T19:41:01Z

As Private First Class Bradley Manning prepares to make a formal plea on charges that he provided classified information to WikiLeaks, the Department of Defense has released 84 pre-trial documents from between March 2012 and early 2013. Provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the files give outsiders a look inside a trial that has been conducted under a high degree of secrecy. The Washington Post reports that the DoD is still processing documents, and that more than 500 will eventually be posted.

It's unknown what information these releases will yield. Many of those posted so far are procedural documents, including orders to provide updates on Manning's mental health. But so far, getting information about the trial...

Over 1,000 days without a trial: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the culture of secrecy

2013-02-26T20:47:20Z

You could be forgiven if you’ve forgotten Bradley Manning.

Even before his arrest in May 2010, the 25-year-old Army intelligence analyst could go unnoticed. He was of slight stature, just over five feet tall, a self-proclaimed nerd who’d come to the Army, and then come to Iraq. While there, it is alleged, he downloaded a massive trove of information using his access to classified military databases. That information — including videos of two airstrikes that killed civilians; a collection of over 250,000 United States diplomatic cables; and a half-million logs from the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — he passed on to WikiLeaks, the disclosure portal founded by Julian Assange. As WikiLeaks began publishing the material, Manning...

No more secrets! Cypherpunks, WikiLeaks, and the new era of total surveillance

2013-01-17T17:15:06Z

Just two years ago, Andy Greenberg had an hours-long interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The author and Forbes reporter listened as Assange claimed to have a massive trove of documents, the release of which, he promised, could “take down a bank or two.” When Greenberg reported the story, stock speculation led to Bank of America losing $3.5 billion in market value in just a few hours. But the promised documents never materialized. Instead, the real story was in a casual remark Assange made at the end of the interview, after Greenberg’s recorder was turned off. He promised a “megaleak” seven times the size of the Iraq War document collection the group had already set into the wild. Asked whether it would affect the...

Bradley Manning's accuser testifies in WikiLeaks trial

2011-12-22T04:06:29Z

It's been over a year since Bradley Manning was arrested for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of US government documents to WikiLeaks. Now, on the fifth day of the hearing that will determine whether Manning faces court-martial, ex-hacker Adrian Lamo has testified about turning over the chat logs that led to Manning's arrest. Wired has a writeup of the testimony, including questions about whether Lamo was acting under a promise of journalistic or ministerial confidentiality and his relationship with law enforcement.

Wired has a long-standing relationship with Lamo, and was the first news outlet to publish chat logs between him and Manning. In the chats, Manning allegedly confessed that he had given WikiLeaks classified documents,...