Of course no-one in their right mind would have expected a different outcome, and yet I for one was nonetheless surprised to hear that, instead of seeking to convict the murderers, the US military seek to convict the whistleblower.
Spc Manning is being accused by the US military of leaking the footage that shows the crew of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians (including two Reuters staff) in Baghdad in 2007 in cold blood. The crew are heard making a number of sickeningly inappropriate remarks and to be enjoying their killing spree as though it were a computer game. Spc Manning is now being accused of leaking the material to a former computer hacker, Adrian Lamo, who passed it on to WikiLeaks. The footage, the links to which I'd posted earlier, was released by WikiLeaks on 5 April 2010 under the title 'Collateral murder'. If Spc Manning is convicted, he could face between 50 and 70 years in jail. As for the crew who acted and behaved like the worst of murderers, not a word of accusation from their employers (source: BBC).
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