Bradley Manning Says He Tried Times and Washington Post Before Wikileaks
According to reporters at today's military hearing at Fort Meade, after pleading guilty on 10 of 22 charges Bradley Manning indicated during his lengthy statement that he'd attempted to give the New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico the material he eventually gave to Wikileaks. Initial reports from the detailed and somber statement appear to show that some combination of weather, vague offers, and unreturned voicemails led Manning to try Julian Assange instead.
WOW! #BradleyManning reveals tried to give US secrets to Wash Post and NYTimes but failed to get through to them so went to #WikiLeaks
— Ed Pilkington (@Edpilkington) February 28, 2013
Manning said he talked to person at WaPo who he did not think took him seriously when he described war logs.
— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) February 28, 2013
#BradleyManning says also tried to give confidential leak to @politico but bad weather stopped him #WikiLeaks
— Ed Pilkington (@Edpilkington) February 28, 2013
Bradley Manning tried to contact POLITICO to give them war logs. Weather conditions hampered travel to office.
— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) February 28, 2013
It's not clear how robustly Manning's outreach to the media companies was.
Says he talked in vague terms to a WP reporter, left a msg on NYT voicemail that wasn't returned, decided to send war reports to WL instead
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) February 28, 2013
Ultimately, of course, the Times partnered with Wikileaks in the release of a large part of the material.
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Manning also indicated during his statement that Wikileaks didn't pressure him to seek out more documents.
#Manning says that no one at #WikiLeaks pressured him-- that he acted voluntarily and takes full responsibility for his decisions.
— Alexa O'Brien (@carwinb) February 28, 2013
Manning also offered a partial rationale for his actions.
#Manning "Became depressed with the situation we were mired in" in Iraq
— Nathan Fuller (@nathanLfuller) February 28, 2013
Manning decided "world would be btr place" if public saw State cables & sensitive ones not in SIPRNet--US might be "embarrassed" but no harm
— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) February 28, 2013
