The trial of Bradley Manning has not received the media attention that it deserves. He is being tried for his release of documents which shed important information about the behavior of our military in Iraq. Moreover, the proceeding of the trial and his testimony have not been available to the public. Fortunately, audios of his testimony and transcripts have been made public. They show that he was careful not to release to secret documents and that he only released documents that would help the public to understand what was really happening in Iraq. The documents that he released may be embarrassing to the military but they were not harmful to the war effort.
Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers in 1969 which were published by the NYT. They embarrassed the government and helped to end the Vietnam war. He was punished for releasing the Pentagon Papers. The NYT did what the press is entitled to do under the US Constitution. If anything their decision to release the papers added to the prestige of the NYT and to the image of the US as a nation with a free press. Links to Manning's testimony are available in this article by Daniel Ellsberg who explains the similarities to the ordeal that he experienced in 1969. The Guardian has also published a report on the Manning trial and it has links to audios of his testimony.
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