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| Army Capt. Alexander Von Elton, a member of the Army's prosecution team, exits the courthouse at Fort Meade, Md., on the fourth day of the court martial of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, Monday, June 10, 2013. Manning is charged with indirectly aiding the enemy by sending troves of classified material to WIkiLeaks. |
FORT MEADE, Md.
(AP) -- Army Pfc. Bradley Manning's court-martial for giving hundreds
of thousands of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks entered its second
week Monday in a fresh spotlight cast by a brand-new leak by another
low-level intelligence employee.
Like Manning,
Edward Snowden could find himself hauled into court by the U.S.
government after he unmasked himself Sunday as the leaker who exposed
the nation's secret phone and Internet surveillance programs to
reporters.
Legal experts closely following
both cases said they were shocked to find out young, low-ranking people
had such access to powerful government secrets. Manning was 22 when he
turned over the military and diplomatic cables about three years ago;
Snowden is 29.
"In that respect, these cases
suggest we should be much more careful about who is given security
clearances," said David J.R. Frakt, a former military prosecutor and
defense lawyer who has taught at several law schools.
At
the same time, legal experts saw differences between the two cases,
namely that Manning's secret-spilling was more scattershot, while
Snowden appeared more selective.
"I'm not
awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom here," Eugene R. Fidell,
who teaches military law at Yale Law School, said of Snowden. "I'm just
saying you could say it is something more akin to educating the American
public about sensitive surveillance issues that have some level of
First Amendment concern attached to them."
As
for how Snowden's revelation will affect the Manning case, Fidell said
it probably won't influence the military judge, who is hearing the case
without a jury, but "it ratchets up the entire subject in the public
eye." Fidell said it could spur outrage about government secrecy in
general, but could also underscore the dangers of leaks - and that, he
said, won't help Manning.
"It's a reminder
that if what Manning did and what Snowden did is OK, then it's basically
every man for himself," Fidell said, adding that national security
would end up with "more holes than cheese."
Manning
is charged under federal espionage and computer fraud laws. The most
serious charge against him is aiding the enemy, which carries a
potential life sentence. Testimony was expected to continue Tuesday.
As
the trial opened last week, prosecutors said they would show that some
of the secrets fell into the hands of Osama bin Laden himself. Manning's
attorney said he was young and naive, but a good-intentioned soldier
who wanted to make the world a better place by exposing the way the U.S.
government was conducting itself.
Snowden
said his motives were similar but told The Guardian newspaper of London:
"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that
each was legitimately in the public interest."
Manning
never publicly acknowledged his actions until more than two years after
his arrest. He was seized only after an informant turned him in.
Snowden is hiding out in Hong Kong, perhaps eventually hoping for asylum
somewhere.
At Manning's trial Monday, his
defense team won an intense battle over the admissibility of a piece of
evidence supporting his claim that he leaked secrets to expose
wrongdoing by the U.S. military and State Department.
The
evidence was WikiLeaks' "Most Wanted Leaks of 2009." Army criminal
investigator Mark Mander testified he found several versions of the
list, including one prefaced by an explanation that the records were
sought by "journalists, activists, historians, lawyers, police or
human-rights investigators." That's the version the defense sought to
admit; prosecutors offered a version without the preface. They objected
strenuously to the defense's version but the military judge, Col. Denise
Lind, said both versions were equally relevant.
Inside the court-martial, Manning's supporters mostly cheered the Snowden leak.
"We're
all complicit in the crimes that these wonderful, brave young people
told us about," said Kathy Boylan, a charity worker in Washington.
