Army Pfc. Bradley Manning Found Innocent Of Aiding The Enemy, Guilty Of 19 Other Counts

After an eight-week trial, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning has been found guilty of 19 out of 22 criminal counts, including five counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917, five counts of theft, one count computer fraud and some other military infractions, but was acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy. If given the maximum sentence he could spend 136 years in prison.

Manning was responsible for hundreds of thousands of documents leaked to the news organization WikiLeaks, including the well-known “Collateral Murder” video, where a US helicopter shot down one Reuter’s journalist and two camera men, along with hitting a van who stopped to aid the wounded, injuring two children and killing the father. Eleven people were killed in total.

Edward Snowden: Why You Should Know His Name

Sunday, June 9th the Guardian posted yet another article on the ongoing exposure of the overwhelming National Security Administration’s (NSA) PRISM program. This time it was not just a piece about the NSA, but about the whistleblower behind the leak, Edward Snowden.

[Originally published in Ladybud Magazine here: Edward Snowden: Why You Should Know His Name]

Snowden is a 29-year-old infrastructure analyst who, until recently, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a contracting company providing the NSA with intelligence. He was exposed to a multitude of information that allowed him to piece together what the NSA was doing in regards to the surveillance of the American people, claiming he could wiretap even the President with access to a personal email address, and with his accumulating knowledge began to feel uncomfortable with what he concluded to be the NSA’s abuse of power.