Bradley Manning: Where’s The Film Version?
The upcoming movie “The Fifth Estate” tells the story of the early days of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, but Bradley Manning (pictured), the American whistle-blower who has been languishing in a military jail while Assange hides out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has no glamorous feature being shot about him. Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald absorbed yesterday‘s news that Manning, at his court-martial proceeding in Fort Meade, Maryland, pleaded guilty to having been the source of the most significant leaks to WikiLeaks: ‘He also pleaded not guilty to 12 of the 22 counts, including the most serious – the capital offense of “aiding and abetting the enemy.” A then-22-year-old Army Private knowingly risked his liberty in order to inform the world about what he learned. He endured treatment which the top UN torture investigator deemed “cruel and inhuman,” and he now faces decades in prison if not life. He knew exactly what he was risking, what he was likely subjecting himself to. But he made the choice to do it anyway because of the good he believed he could achieve, because of the evil that he believed needed urgently to be exposed and combated, and because of his conviction that only leaks enable the public to learn the truth about the bad acts their governments are doing in secret.’
