There’s been a lot of speculation that Manning’s release of documents to WikiLeaks and their subsequent publication caused the deaths of US intelligence assets.
We recently saw this in a front page story: Bradley Manning Cleared of Strongest Charge
No need to speculate any longer; the answer is simply no.
During the sentencing hearing for Manning, Brigadier Robert Carr initially tried to mislead the court by stating:
“As a result of the Afghan logs I know of one individual killed – an Afghan national who had a relationship with the US government and the Taliban came out and said publicly that they had killed him as a result of him being associated with information in these logs,”
Brigadier Carr was a senior counter-intelligence officer who headed the Information Review Task Force that investigated the impact of WikiLeaks disclosures on behalf of the Defense Department.
On cross-examination, his story changed:
But under defence cross-examination Carr conceded that the victim’s name had not be included in the war logs made public by WikiLeaks. Asked by Lind whether the individual who was killed was tied to the disclosures, Carr replied: “The Taliban killed him and tied him to the disclosures. We went back and looked for the name in the disclosures. The name of the individual killed was not in the disclosures.”
On the basis of the witness’s clarification, Lind sustained an objection from the defence and scrubbed from the official record any reference to the alleged killing by the Taliban.
Link: Bradley Manning leak did not result in deaths by enemy forces, court hears
Manning has already suffered enough by the government’s prosecution and persecution. Time served should suffice as punishment.
