He copped to some of the charges against him. 

FORT MEADE, Md. – A military judge on Thursday accepted guilty pleas by  Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 10 lesser charges against him, leaving the ex-intelligence analyst to face 12 other counts for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of government documents to the WikiLeaks website. 

The acceptance of the "naked guilty pleas" -- meaning there is no agreement between the government and the defense that would limit the sentence – at a pre-trial hearing means that Manning faces up to 20 years in prison, even if he is ultimately acquitted of the most-serious charges against him. 

Col. Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the case, also accepted Manning’s “not guilty†pleas to the remaining charges, including "aiding the enemy." His court martial on those charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, is scheduled to begin on June 3.

But let's be clear. This is not a plea bargain, because the government didn't promise him any sentencing breaks. He just admitted he did some of the things, and will fight the more heinous charges. like aiding the enemy. This pretty urantees he will be spending quite a while behind bars, and if he is convicted of the serious charges, most of his life there. Let's hope so. He may be pathetic, but a pathetic traitor is no less dangerous.

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From what I have read about this, the whole thing is pretty sad. It sounds like the guy saw some really questionable things. But then he was incredibly stupid and irresponsible about his "whistle-blowing." It sounds like at least some of this information is classified. And the article says "hundreds of thousands" of documents. Did he review every single one? How does he know some of this information couldn't be used to help terrorists, etc.?

 

It does raise the question...what can you do if you are part of the military and you think you have witnessed a crime, or even widespread corruption, and you do not think you can trust your own commanding officer? Who do you go to?

 

I wonder what would have happened if he had e-mailed all of these documents not to Wikileaks but to the members of Congress who are on the Armed Services Committee...