Bradley Manning Charged as a Spy
The Army Private Bradley Manning, who abused his access to the SIPR network to steal data and upload it to rogue data piracy site Wikileaks.Org, was formally charged with felonies including a violation of the Espionage Act.
Smile for the camera, Brad Manning, traitor.
From Wired here:
A U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking videos and documents to Wikileaks was charged Monday with eight violations of federal criminal law, including unauthorized computer access, and transmitting classified information to an unauthorized third party.
Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, was charged with two counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: one encompassing the eight alleged criminal offenses, and a second detailing four noncriminal violations of Army regulations governing the handling of classified information and computers.
According to the charge sheet, Manning downloaded a classified video of a military operation in Iraq and transmitted it to a third party, in violation of a section of the Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. 793(e), which involves passing classified information to an uncleared party, but not a foreign government.
The remaining criminal charges are for allegedly abusing access to the Secret-level SIPR network to obtain more than 150,000 U.S. State Department cables, as well as an unspecified classified PowerPoint presentation.
Manning allegedly passed more than 50 classified diplomatic cables to an unauthorized party, but downloaded at least 150,000 unclassified State Department documents, according to Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom. These numbers could change as the investigation continues, Bloom said. Both numbers are lower than the 260,000 cables Manning claimed, in online chats, to have passed to Wikileaks.
If convicted of all charges, Manning could face a prison sentence of as much as 52 years, Bloom said.
Maybe when the US government finally forces Wikileaks owner and data thief Julian Assange to trial Manning can get a reduced sentence by testifying against him. But then again, I hope Manning rots in jail for a very long time.
