By Blaise Francis
Manning is now sentenced to 136 years in prison, after an extremely lengthy and difficult indictment process, where the inteligence analyst was held in solitary confinement for many months. What does this mean for Edward Snowden and what does this mean for all whistleblowers and leakers?
Intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, has now been found guilty of 20 out of the 21 charges for his involvement in the leaking of classified military documents and a video showing a U.S Apache helicopter shooting down unarmed Iraqi civilians.
Only aiding the enemy, the most serious charge, resulted in acquittal, however Manning has been found guilty of 6 counts of espionage and is now sentenced to 136 years in prison. After an extremely lengthy and difficult indictment process, where Manning was held in solitary confinement for many months on end, he finally knows his fate: he will have to stay in prison. What does this mean for Edward Snowden and what does this mean for all whistleblowers and leakers?
If somehow you don’t already know who Edward Snowden is, he is an American who leaked top secret information about certain U.S and British Surveillance programs. The most notable bit of leaked information revealed a surveillance program designed to spy on U.S and British cell phone calls. After coming to the conclusion that this information needed to be shared, Snowden turned to The Guardian, Britain’s national newspaper. Public outcry began shortly after – people were upset that the NSA was spying on their phone calls and the media had a field day. Snowden then decided to flee the country, rather than turn himself in for his actions, like Manning did and is now currently hidding out in Russia.
Now that Snowden has seen what happens to whistleblowers when they turn themselves over to the U.S judicial system, he may be even more sure of his choice to flee. Who could blame him? Why would Snowden turn himself over to a system which clearly incriminates whistleblowers, even if they shed light on injustices? Human Rights are being threatened and whistle-blowers like Snowden and Manning and others in similar positions are the only ones capable of pointing them out.
Instead of being protected, these people who believe it is their duty to speak up, are sentenced to 136 years in prison. Even after Brigadier General Robert Carr, the one responsible for investigating and assessing the impact of the Bradley manning leaks, testified that not a single human being was killed as a result of the release of information. Sadly the prosecution triumphed and Manning was found guilty of almost all the charges against him.
Snowden’s father told the press that he doesn’t think his son will get a fair trial and after seeing the outcome of the Manning case, and it looks like he was right. The inherent problem in both of these cases, is that the courts in which these men are being judged in, are institutions directly linked to an even greater institution known as the U.S Government. The materials and information that have been leaked are by themselves indictments on the U.S’s Human Rights policy, hence any U.S court has an invested interest to find both Manning and Snowden guilty.
President Obama has attempted to create the impression that he is in support of whistleblowers; he actually signed the Whistleblowers Protection Enhancement Act of 2012. However he has done nothing to make sure the bill is being upheld in any practical way for these two men. The situation is reminiscent of how the President handles Guantanamo Bay; he says he wants to shut it down and yet it remains standing strong as the most torturous prison in the world. Consequently, Human Rights violations are not being reported and severe punishment is being issued to those attempting to report them.
Whistleblowers seem to have two option, either 100+ years in prison or a life-time of being a fugitive and yet more and more seems to be emerging from the shadows. The popular leaker site, wikileaks.org seems to have encouraged potential whistleblowers into action by providing a successful channel to pass on sensitive information to the public. Who knows how long Bradley Manning will be locked up for, there is the possibility of an appeal but no matter what happens to him, his actions were not in vain. Along with the prison sentence, Manning’s actions has earned him a Nobel prize nomination as well. Manning has successfully spurred criticism for the U. S’s military complex, what he has shown the public has had an impact, it cannot be unseen and won’t be forgotten soon.
