Bradley Manning has been found not guilty of “aiding the enemy” by U.S. Military Judge Army Col. Denise Lind.
Although he was found not guilty on the most serious charge, he was found guilty on nearly all other subsequent charges, including; wanton publishing, computer fraud, and a slew of database and espionage charges. For the crimes that Manning was found guilty of, the 25 year-old, Army private first class is facing up to 154 years in prison. Of the 22 total charges brought against Manning, he pled guilty to 10 of them.
Manning was on trial for leaking over 700,000 classified military documents to whistleblower website Wikileaks in May of 2010. One portion of the leak that reached notoriety was the Collateral Murder video of an American gunship shooting down several people. The victims were later found to be Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists, for which he was also found not guilty of publishing.
Manning’s sentencing is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. EST at the military court in Fort Meade, Maryland, where the trial was held. Had Manning been found guilty of “aiding the enemy,” he could have faced life in prison for that charge alone.
Joshua de Leon is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire.
