The U.S. Military Code was changed in response to the Nuremberg War Crimes trials to :-
1. State that it was a soldier's duty to report war crimes 2. It was a duty to disobey blatantly illegal orders
Manning reported a war crime upwards through his chain of command as he was duty bound to do.
The indiscriminate killing of 12 Iraqi civilians, including two Reuter's reporters, from a helicopter gunship.
N.B. The carrying of AK-47 rifles was not unusual for Iraqi civilians at the time, given the violent nature of their surroundings.
Iraq collateral murder
http://www.collateralmurder.com/
Ethan McCord's eyewitness account
The indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians gave succour to the enemy.
It was used as a recruitment tool by Islamic Extremists.
His superiors told Manning to ignore the war crime - a blatantly illegal order.
According to the U.S. Military Code the incident should of been investigated.
Manning then tried a different route - trying to get the war crime reported in various American media outlets, including the NY Times.
The media refused to publish the story. So Manning went to Wikileaks as the only available route.
Espionage is giving information to the enemy.
The Iraqi's already knew about various U.S. war crimes as did Islamic Extremists across the Muslim world.
The only people that Manning gave new information to, was the American public.
If Manning is guilty of Espionage then the American government must consider the American public their enemy - not Islamic Extremists.
This is reflected in the crackdown on whistle blowers, the crackdown on press reporting and the Mass Surveillance of all Americans etc.
It is also reflected in the support given by the American government to Islamic Extremists in Egypt, Syria and Libya.
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