Leaks on trial

WikiLeaks affair has resulted in 22 criminal charges against Bradley Manning, a US army intelligence analyst.

The unique trial taking place at Fort Mead in Maryland places the WikiLeaks drama we saw this year under focus once again.

An American army intelligence analyst, Private First Class Bradley Manning, is on trial for leaking out thousands and thousands of pages of confidential documents, which included highly embarrassing and private exchanges between American officials as well as those of other countries.

The documents also included details of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Washington would much rather have kept under wraps. Their appearance on the pioneering website created by Julian Assange, put a new perspective on the manner in which governments work for many people and opened up all kinds of different questions about the right of people to know. The shattering of confidentiality is said to have changed the manner in which officials in many places act and speak.

But for his role in this, Manning faces a possible life term as well as a dishonourable discharge from the US Army and cuts in pay. His lawyer seems, for now, to be basing his argument on the US Justice Department’s attempt to go after Assange himself and argues that if this happens, Manning could play a crucial role in the proceedings. These are, of course, mere technicalities. Many other questions arise from the WikiLeaks affair which has resulted in 22 criminal charges against Manning.

We have learnt a great deal through those documents about just what happens when officialdom starts to function and how much that goes on behind the scenes remains hidden from public view. For revealing this, Assange has been hailed as a hero by some; for others he is seen as a villain with no scruples and no regard for what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

The debate will now continue for some time and Manning’s trial will quite obviously open up many questions to which we have no answers, given that Wikileaks marked a ‘first’ in human history. It is to be seen if that ground-breaking event will ever be replicated.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2011.