UPDATED 1 Mar 2013 to add Comment from Paul Harper at Google+.
The US Government is incredibly stupid about counterintelligence. They learned nothing from the Falcon and the Snowman, and it is clear that the defense team for Bradley Manning will be able to bracket the charges with a) government misconduct as revealed in the cables merited disclosure; b) government ineptitude at failing to protect sensitive communications from easy internal theft; and c) more government misconduct in violation of the Constitution with cruel and unusual punishment.
Bradley Manning pleads guilty to 10 lesser charges, explains motive
Julie Tate and Ernesto Londono
Washington Post, 28 February 2013
The Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history pleaded guilty to 10 charges Thursday and offered an impassioned defense of his actions, arguing that he sought to spark a national debate about what he described as the nation’s obsession with “killing and capturing people.”
The testimony marked Pfc. Bradley Manning’s first detailed account of his disclosure of a trove of U.S. diplomatic cables and military documents in 2010 to WikiLeaks, an anti-secrecy organization he said he approached after he was unable to entice The Washington Post and the New York Times.
