Verdict expected today in Bradley Manning WikiLeaks case

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning could face judgment Tuesday on allegations that he aided the enemy when he sent hundreds of pages of classified documents on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks.

Military Judge Col. Denise Lind is expected to issue her ruling in Manning's court martial hearing this afternoon at Fort Meade, Md. Manning faces 21 counts, including computer fraud, espionage, theft and aiding the enemy — the most serious of the charges and one that carries a possible life sentence.

Manning, 25, of Crescent, Okla., has admitted to sending more than 470,000 battlefield reports from Afghanistan and Iraq, 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables and other documents to WikiLeaks, an international Web site notorious for publishing state secrets.

The Web site's organizers also have offered support for Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who shared classified documents that exposed the United States' collection of millions of cellular phone call records and other intelligence activities.

Manning's supporters and defense team argue that he did not directly hand over documents to al-Qaida and other enemies of the nation. Manning claims he sent the information to expose war crimes and deceit.

Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. David J.R. Frakt, a visiting professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh, told the Associated Press that a conviction on the most serious charge, if upheld on appeal, "would essentially create a new way of aiding the enemy in a very indirect fashion, even an unintended fashion."

During the court martial hearing, prosecutors painted Manning as a traitor, and said Al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden before he was killed in 2011, were able to view the documents WikiLeaks published.

http://news.yahoo.com/bradley-manning-verdict-in-wikileaks-case-expected-today-151713314.html