Manning's Hopes Rest on President Obama

It was one of the biggest cases of betrayal of state secrets in U.S. history. The whistle-blower Manning was sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment. He now wants to seek a reprieve. The White House has reacted coolly.

The WikiLeaks informant Bradley Manning, who has been sentenced to 35 years in prison, has asked U.S. President Barack Obama for a pardon. Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, said in Fort Meade on Wednesday that his client hopes for a reduction in the sentence, at least. A message from Manning to Obama, which Coombs read out, said: “If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society.”

The White House has reacted coolly. If the 25-year-old Manning or his lawyer should submit a plea for clemency, this would be considered “like any other application,” said Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest.

A frail Manning stood between his lawyers with a sallow face as Judge Denise Lind handed down the sentence. Before his discharge from the army, Manning will be demoted to the rank of simple private and must forfeit his pay and allowances. The military judge, however, stopped short of the demands of the prosecution, who called for a jail term of at least 60 years.

Assange Sees a ‘Tactical Victory’

Lind decided that Manning’s time behind bars — from May 2010 up to now — should be subtracted from the sentence, as well as 112 extra days because of poor conditions of imprisonment. Manning can apply for parole after serving one-third of the sentence — and could therefore be free again in just nine years. Additionally, his conviction will automatically be reviewed by an appeals court.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke of the possibility of an early release as a “significant tactical victory.” However, many civil liberties and human rights groups have fiercely criticized the sentence. The U.S. civil liberties group ACLU stated that the judgment was a sad day for “all Americans who depend on brave whistle-blowers and a free press for a fully informed public debate.”

The U.S. Government Sees Manning as a Traitor

For his supporters, Manning is a hero who threw a spotlight on the dark side of the U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with his disclosures. In contrast, Obama’s government sees him as a traitor who put the safety of U.S. soldiers at risk.

Manning leaked 100,000 military documents and diplomatic cables to the website WikiLeaks, which he had downloaded during his deployment in Iraq as an intelligence analyst between November 2009 and May 2010. At the end of July, a court in Fort Meade convicted him of 20 of 22 charges, among them espionage. He was, however, acquitted of the particularly serious charge of aiding the enemy.

The sentence has also come up against criticism from the German government’s human rights representative, Markus Löning (Free Democratic Party). “We need a signal of encouragement for people who want to uncover crimes, and this judgment is definitely no signal of encouragement,” Löning told Southwestern Broadcasting.