WikiLeaks: The Seven Lessons of the Manning Affair

A penalty of 35 years was levied against Bradley Manning. The verdict, which is seen as a warning for any soldier who would think of similarly leaking data, is short of the 60 years sought by the military prosecutor. Coming out of this trial, what can we learn from the “Manning Affair”?

1. Bradley Manning Is Not Edward Snowden

Even if the principle accusation of “aiding the enemy” was, in the end, dropped at his trial, Bradley Manning is a “traitor” in the eyes of 52 percent of Americans. It is true that the poll (Rasmussen) goes back to the beginning of June — only a few days after Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA). But many Americans remain convinced that by furnishing 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks, Manning had wronged his country.

2. His Sentence Is Harsh

Thirty-five years in prison: The penalty seems harsh to many, even if the prosecutors wanted 60 years minimum. “Thirty-five years is far too long a sentence by any standard,” reckoned The New York Times. “I think he [Manning] went too far,” writes Dana Milbank in The Washington Post, but “he contributed to an important debate about the reach of the national security state.” Another criticism that comes up frequently is that he was “punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians,” as Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) writes.

3. He Will Not Be Freed for a Long Time

Could Barack Obama grant Bradley Manning a pardon? He requested it during his statement at sentencing. However, there is virtually no chance of this. Obama has granted fewer pardons than any of his four predecessors, and this one in particular would set off a furious polemic among the ranks of the political right. An early release? Counting the three years in prison already served, there is a chance, but by no means a certainty, that he will be released for good behavior after serving 10 years in jail.

4. His Trial Will Influence the Fates of Assange and Snowden

If Julian Assange is extradited (which seems improbable given the histories of Ecuador and Sweden in this matter), he will probably be charged with espionage but will attempt to place himself under the protection of the First Amendment that defends freedom of expression. The Manning trial creates an additional difficulty for U.S. justice: The prosecutors were unable to prove that the defendant was operating under the instruction of the founder of WikiLeaks. And Manning himself insisted on the fact that Assange never pressed him in any way to divulge the documents.

As for Edward Snowden, supposing that he was ever tempted to make a deal with the Justice Department, such as the one his father proposed, he no longer has the illusion of making one. Manning’s sentence guarantees that Snowden “will do his best never to return to the United States,” reckons Gabriel Schoenfeld of the conservative think tank, the Hudson Institute.

5. He Launched the Debate on the Administration’s Obsession with Secrecy

The Manning trial was an opportunity for the Obama team to establish that journalists could be pursued for receiving classified documents. The idea was that this would be a deterrent to all those who would be tempted to divulge confidential information. But with the Snowden affair, this tactic came back to bite him. Public opinion has been hijacked by sympathy for the leakers. And experts do not believe in the deterring effect of this heavy prison sentence, in a country where 92 million documents are classified each year and where 4 million Americans are allowed to access documents of this type.

6. After Him, Journalism Will Never Be the Same

Everyone is familiar with the WikiLeaks saga, which wouldn’t have been possible without Manning’s revelations. As the Snowden affair has confirmed, national security scoops no longer come through the traditional information channels but from freelance actors, through electronic channels that are difficult to control. Having fallen behind, the large media sources are now scrambling to adapt, learning — among other things — to take sophisticated encryption precautions as a means to protect the secrecy of the communications and their sources.

7. Obama Does Not Come Out of This Affair Better Off

Even before the NSA debacle, the extraordinary aggressiveness of the administration in the Manning affair — going as far as putting the defendant in nine months of total solitary confinement — surprised those abroad and on the left, especially since it was followed by a series of actions intended to intimidate journalists as well as a punitive “top secret” classification of thousands of documents. Both actions are worthy of the worst moments of the Bush administration. The Snowden affair demolished what remained of Obama’s status as protector of liberties and private life, with his administration’s officials openly lying to Congress, his NSA bogged down with uncomfortable explanations while being ceaselessly hit with new revelations, and his vague presidential promise to open a “national debate.”