U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning is escorted as he leaves a military court at the end of the first of a three-day motion hearing June 6, 2012 in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Bradley Manning was 22 when he was stationed in Iraq in 2009 as an Army intelligence analyst. He soon became disillusioned with combat after watching a video from two years earlier that showed U.S. troops attacking civilians (and killing some of them) as well as a Reuters photographer. (The Pentagon later determined the soldiers mistook the group for enemy combatants.) Manning then sent the video and other classified material to WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing organization that publishes government secrets, and was arrested in May 2010 after his identity was revealed by a hacker. After a lengthy incarceration while awaiting trial, Manning’s court-martial began this summer. In July, he was found in violation of the Espionage Act of 1917 and guilty of nearly all charges except aiding the enemy. Earlier this month at his sentencing hearing, Manning expressed regret for his actions. “I understood what I was doing was wrong but I didn’t appreciate the broader effects of my actions,” he explained. “I only wanted to help people, not hurt people.”