Blog post

Whistleblowing is Not a Crime

Jessica Turner 6 March 2013

Yesterday Chase Madar, author of The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story Behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower; former British soldier Joe Glenton, author of Soldier Box: Why I Won't Go Back to War; and Jesselyn Radack, whistleblower and author of TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the "American Taliban" appeared on AlJazeera's Inside Story America to dissect the case of Wiki-leaker Private First Class Bradley Manning.



Last week Pfc. Manning pleaded guilty to 10 counts of the more than 50 that the US government has brought against him for his role in the release of over 250,000 classified documents to Wikileaks. Theatrics, the utilization of anonymous witnesses and scare-tactics seem to dominate the latter's prosecutorial strategy in the case, as highlighted by the decision to allow the alleged existence of Wikileaks material in Osama Bin Laden's personal affects to support the "aiding the enemy" charge against Manning. This charge alone carries the death sentence.

On this issue, Madar says

Someone who is a part of Navy Seal Team 6 [who killed Osama Bin Laden] will be a witness for the prosecution ... this "aiding the enemy charge" is the most ridiculous and also the most serious. It's as if we were prosecuting Nike Shoes for aiding the enemy if it turned out some Al Qaeda operative favored vintage Air Jordans. 

Manning's trial is set to begin in June. Visit AlJazeera to watch the segment in full.