‘The most significant whistleblower’ took a gamble when he admitted to some of the charges, author Andy Worthington told RT. Now that gamble could land him in prison for the rest of his life, instead of 20 years he might have hoped for.
RT:How would you assess the impact of Manning's
revelations on the situation at Guantanamo Bay, and international
pressure to close the prison?
Andy Worthington: What Bradley manning made available to
the public around the world was extremely useful information in a
variety of different ways. He revealed war crimes through the
Iraqi and Afghani war log. I had conscientious objectors explain
to me that he is the most significant person in the history of
whistleblowing on providing detailed information about the
horrors of war that governments would rather hide. So, it is
hugely important. I think what he did with the diplomatic cables
was expose information that was necessary, that was important to
many cases. With Guantanamo what he did was help to pierce the
veil of secrecy that surrounds the prison and particularly the
files that were released there provided the names to back up the
information that we’d already be given about the false
allegations that have been made about the prisoners by their
fellow prisoners.
RT:Did his revelations bring the closure of Guantanamo
closer?
AW: No, it has not, but I think it is a much bigger
political issue, that no one individual, unfortunately, appears
able to deal with.
RT:Reporters Without Borders called Manning's
conviction "a blow to investigative journalism" - do you
agree?
AW: I absolutely agree with it. What we have here is a
situation where when WikiLeaks got a hold of this information
when it made it available to the media, we had a long amount of
time when the mainstream media in the US, the US and elsewhere
are a major part of their reporting over a period of many months
was based around this information that was made available. And
clearly there were a considered opinions that this was in the
public interest. Stepping back from that and claiming that it
originated somewhere that involves espionage and attempts to
sabotage the US is clearly ridiculous. This was the material for
the public interest. We had a slightly different mechanism
historically of how this came from the whistleblower from an
intermediary organization to the recognizable mainstream media
but I think this is a traditional story of somebody with the
insider knowledge having important information to convey to the
world and doing that through the media.
RT:The prosecution has failed to prove that the
largest leak in U.S. history assisted terrorists. So effectively
he's escaped being formally branded a traitor - doesn't this send
a positive message to whistleblowers?
AW: It is not going to help if this man is consigned to
the cell for the rest of his life. What is interesting is that
Bradley Manning voluntarily admitted to ten of the charges in
February and the intention at that point was if those were
accepted, this would lead to a maximum of 20 years. Now we’ve got
this possibility in the sentencing phase, it could add up to this
ridiculous total of 136 years.
RT:Lesser the argument that he was helping
terrorists…
AW: It is hugely important that if someone leaks the
information that they believe is useful to the public good, they
are not going to get convicted of deliberately aiding the enemy.
That is a horrible charge for the US government to even consider
bringing in the first place. And I’m glad to hear that it has not
gone through. But this is not going to help Bradley Manning as a
whistleblower if he is going to lose the rest of his life in the
prison cell on the basis of what he intended to be useful
information for the public to know about. And as we’re hearing
many organizations and government throughout the world also
believe is the case.
RT:An open letter from MEPs has called on Barack Obama
to free Private Manning - is that a realistic scenario?
AW: Honestly, I have no idea. This is the military dealing
with its own issue according to a court martial process, so I do
not know if they will be swayed by any of the outside issues but
I also believe the US has a problem with extremely punitive
sentencing. I would be happy to see an acceptance of the
crimes Bradley Manning admitted to and sentenced based on that.
It does not seem that that is what we’re going to get, but I’m
hopeful that any outcome we’re going to get appears to be
punitive, people will carry on campaigning for the right of this
person not to be victimized and sacrificed by the US government.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.