Judge Takes "Aid Enemy" Count Off Manning Case

Tuesday, July 30, 2013 1:14 PM EDT

Manning Not Guilty of Aiding the Enemy but Convicted of Multiple Other Counts A military judge on Tuesday found Pfc. Bradley Manning not guilty of aiding the enemy, but convicted him of multiple counts of violating the Espionage Act. Private Manning had already confessed to being WikiLeaks’ source for the files, which included videos of airstrikes in which civilians were killed, hundreds of thousands of front-line incident reports from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, dossiers on men being held without trial at the Guantánamo Bay prison, and about 250,000 diplomatic cables. But while Private Manning has pleaded guilty to a lesser version of the charges he is facing, which could expose him to up to 20 years in prison, the government decided to press forward with a trial on a more serious version of the charges, including “aiding the enemy” and violations of the Espionage Act, which could result in a life sentence. READ MORE » http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/us/bradley-manning-verdict.html?emc=edit_na_20130730