Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old Army intelligence analyst who was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to the website WikiLeaks, was acquitted of aiding the enemy in a military court-martial, but was convicted on multiple other counts.
Bradley Manning has been convicted of 20 charges in total, including theft and computer fraud.
CBS News reported, Bradley Manning had chosen to have his fate decided by a judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, rather than a military jury.
The judge, army Col. Denise Lind, deliberated over 3 days before delivering a decision that denied the government a precedent that freedom of press advocates had warned could have broad implications for leak cases and investigative journalism about national security issues.
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According to the Associated Press, Bradley Manning did not appear to react to the verdict, although his attorney, David Coombs, smiled faintly when he heard not guilty on aiding the enemy.
Prosecutors had argued that Manning had a "general evil intent" because he knew the classified material would be seen by and help terrorists. They claimed when Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound in 2011, they found copies of WikiLeaks documents that Manning had provided. Prosecutors also argued that Manning simply wanted to make a name for himself by leaking the classified material.
Manning acknowledged giving WikiLeaks more than 700,000 battlefield reports and diplomatic cables, and video of a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed civilians in Iraq, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
Manning said during a pretrial hearing he wanted to expose what he called the American military's "bloodlust" and disregard for human life in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as its dishonest diplomacy, and that he carefully selected material that wouldn't put troops in harms' way. His attorney has tried to portray Manning as a whistleblower with good intentions.
Besides the aiding the enemy acquittal, Manning was found not guilty of one espionage count involving his acknowledged leak of a video from a 2009 airstrike in Afghanistan. The judge found that prosecutors had not proved Manning leaked the video in late 2009. Manning said he started the leaks in February the following year.
