this is r.t. any minute now on this whistleblower bradley manning is set to discover whether lifting the lid off of american military wrongdoing will see him spend the rest of his days behind bars. lines of covering to the israeli and palestinian diplomats meet in washington to revive negotiations of the years of failed peace efforts while in the palestinian city of hebron a report from where the roots of the deadlock are most keenly felt. and his forecast of a chinese slowdown casts a shadow over the global economic outlook we ask whether the numbers back up the pessimism.

hello is kevin owen here with you just after nine pm moscow time thanks for your company well the man who shed the light on atrocities carried out by the u.s. during its military operations abroad is about any minute now we think to learn just exactly how much he's going to pay for those actions when a judge at fort meade maryland reads the verdict to twenty five real whistleblower bradley manning. we've got live coverage of the trial itself well sorry live coverage not allowed these were actually latest pictures that we've got we've got several correspondents on site ready to update you as soon as they hear anything there inside of the moment phones are being confiscated so they can't report immediately pretty soon as we get word from them we will bring it to you and turn it round if found guilty of the graves charge of aiding the enemy bradley manning could be jailed of course for the rest of his life let's go live to washington d.c. our correspondent garniture counted standing by the high guy on the as a say it's

difficult to report live from there immediately but our correspondents are at the scene but this really is judgment day isn't it for bradley manning. well kevin the judge will hand down the verdict any moment now and we will find out whether he was found guilty of aiding the enemy that's the most serious charge that he faces the charge that bradley manning did not plead guilty to is facing life in prison if convicted private manning has pleaded guilty to two nearly a dozen charges other charges and those alone carry a sentence of up to twenty years behind bars where manning admitted to leaking thousands of classified documents as well as some classified videos to the we can leaks website at his court martial hearing he said he had no intention of harming his country he said i believed if the public was aware of the data it would start a public debate of the wars he said he was depressed about the situation there in iraq where he was stationed as an intelligence analyst the force it was not just

the blog iraq in thousands of leaked documents readily manning has exposed many aspects of u.s. foreign policy through his warlock's the public has learned about the war crimes committed by the us in iraq and afghanistan and perhaps best illustrated by. collateral murder video you remember the classified footage showed the ease with which the crew of a u.s. apache helicopter killed civilians in iraq well she has sure betrayed and embarrassed the government but has he betrayed the public we've seen protest in support of bradley manning throughout the country and their support is not so much for manning as an individual that too of course but more importantly for the public's right to know for manning supporters it's a big question as to who aided the enemy there or humint is that the u.s. government has aided the enemy much more than bradley manning has the org the government's killing of civilians in all these different countries has generated more enemies for the united states than many revelations have and that is of course

the rhetorical argument that has no place in court but what we will see in this verdict today is whether the judge this military judge has taken into account bradley manning's in. tension's we'll see what their intent matters in these cases because the government argues that whether or not manning wanted to help al qaeda he did because they looked up some of that information that he put out there although the state has never proved what concrete harm was done through that information so this aiding the enemy charge is very tricky and it will certainly set a precedent for these types of cases the obama administration has charged eight whistleblowers under the espionage act there is a wall or one euro law which can actually carry the death penalty so whistleblowers risk their lives not just figurative lease speaking but quite literally. danny thanks for the let's just make it clear to our viewers before you disappear as we're live reporting from inside the courtroom those not allowed is it but we're

hoping to be able to turn around as soon as we know what the verdict is we're hoping he will turn that around in a matter of minutes or so that correct as you hear it as well. yes absolutely the judge is supposed to hand down verdict at one pm as it was announced yesterday but the sentencing it will take take a while maybe days before for us to hear the sentence that comes tomorrow doesn't know what the bread in the thing is of the verdicts were expected within the hour on live from washington d.c. thanks for that for now much appreciated nice to see all right well let's look at the timeline manning league some seven hundred thousand diplomatic and military documents to the whistleblower web site wiki leaks let's take a look at how it all unfolded should we here we go ok as you can see on the screen bradley manning enlisted to the u.s. army in two thousand and seven and was deployed to iraq two years later while in service he exposed that collateral murder video we all remember at footage of the

u.s. forces killing unarmed civilians in iraq baghdad. manning was arrested at the end of may twenty ten and presented with a list of charges for opening classified information to the public however publications continued to be released exposing america's wrongdoings in afghanistan and iraq along with his diplomatic cables then in march manning was accused of aiding the enemy the court martial proceedings against him began shortly after that with the u.n. saying that he was subject to cruel and inhumane treatment it was march the fifth twenty twelve jurors attention the high profile trial finally got underway in fort meade in maryland and is about roughly we think this government filed with the director of the london based center for investigative journalism a close friend indeed of wiki leaks editor julia sun she stressed to us that manning's actions were not driven by any personal gain. he thought that the crimes committed by the army should be made public and what they're admitting to was the fact that he broke the law in getting those documents and sending them out to wiki

leaks the justice of what he did is another matter and i think in that most people are agreed except those who regard him automatically as a traitor most people would agree that indeed he did it as an act of conscience certainly heat attempted to publish these documents in the new york times the washington post and other sources but none of them would do it until they were a wiki leaks that then they all took up the case but this is a very strong case that nobody would gain from this certainly not bradley manning who was affected or abused very badly or solitary confinement so badly abused and cracked that a senior state department official resigned in protest the fact that the court won't accept that as as evidence of cruel and unusual treatment is to me quite astonishing let's get some more perspective from another whistleblower a former british security intelligence officer thanks for joining us on a nice to see you tonight what what do you expect is going to happen now what charges do you think he's going to be found guilty of. well at best he should any

be found guilty of what he has already admitted the whole idea of aiding the enemy posterous over a statement by the us authorities i mean if you're going to try and argue that with bradley manning might well say that daniel ellsberg who released the pentagon papers was guilty of aiding the vietnamese if that proposed is just ridiculous. and they are even victims the u.s. government is doing this to deter future whistleblowers which obviously hasn't happened because we now have it with snowden and it is complete overreaction to persecute whistleblowers who are putting information out there which is very much in the public interest which informs the public about what their government and the military are doing and then to say that they are traitors secondly they are not they are performing a public service and to persecute this young man and for him to face potentially the rest of life in prison for informing us is just a sign of a sick democracy i think what are we now the enemy because he informs the general

public around the world about what can go wrong with american democracy we'll talk about how much of a success or not but was limited i want to just talk a bit more about this the big charge a very deadly enemy i mean a story as to a prison warders not talking to the enemy what kind of president what will charging manning with that set though. well it's a very dangerous precedent not just for future whistleblowers as we're seeing again with the edward snowden case because he might potentially face such a charge but it's also very dangerous for free press because of course this can then be used in any future prosecution of wiki which we know the u.s. government would carry out at some point is already sealed secret indictment by the junior so what we're looking at is if a whistleblower goes to the press then they are putting information out into the public they are informing the public that that information of course is then out there on the internet which talk to anyone who read it but to say that a genuinely because someone might be in my bed read that is just ludicrous and then

of. a situation where the people in publishing potentially are conspiring in a new enemy and that is what is facing and actually going to it we should also have the new york times and other. major news organizations that they publish that actually sort of to but in a sort of crosses we're getting unconfirmed reports i must say at the moment that i do believe i just want to hear it one more time and we have i do believe that he's been acquitted of the main charge of aiding the enemy it's extra still to be confirmed still to be confirmed. could this mission his mission be considered a success in a shape or form considering what this guy has gone through but the flip side of it is considering what the you know the odds with his considering what he's put his fellow service mates through the danger is put them in has it been a success and any shape or form how would you sum it up well it's been summed up by the pentagon he said that no lives were put at risk by his disclosures and by exposing criminality here war crimes on the part of the military or intelligence agencies he's doing service to the public to our countries into our democracies

it's as simple as that and i doing that we didn't have to face now it sounds like in twenty years in prison it's still a disgrace whistleblowers need to be protected they should not be persecuted they are doing a service the democracy they live in they are exposing crime and trying to improve the work of the military and intelligence agencies in their work to protect us i can tell you more information has been coming in and i just telling our viewers as well we're now hearing that he has been found one hundred percent not guilty of the main charge of aiding the enemy however he has been found guilty we hear of all other charges if you could just stand by we want to go to our correspondent in washington d.c. she's across as well come back to you later. i know you're across this as well you just heard that can you cooperate what i just said. absolutely kevin bradley manning has been found not guilty of aiding the enemy was it because prosecutors

have failed to prove what concrete harm was done to the information that manning has leaked or because the judge took into account bradley manning's initial intentions whatever the judge's reasoning it's an important precedent for these types of cases the espionage act was never intended to punish whistle blowers it's a nine hundred seventeen statute for spies but the obama administration has already charged eight whistleblowers with espionage so the verdict puts a dent in that practice of course this is not to say that manning is that is going to walk free any time soon private manning has pleaded guilty to nearly a dozen charges and those alone carry a sentence of up to twenty years behind bars bradley manning admitted to leaking thousands of classified documents as well as some classified videos to the we can leaks website at this at his court martial hearing to said he had no intention of harming his country he said i believed if the public was aware of the data it would start a public debate over the war as he said he was depressed about the situation there

meaning you drop where he was stationed as an intelligence analyst of course it was not just about iraq in thousands of leaked documents bradley manning has exposed many aspects of u.s. foreign policy he has already spent three years behind bars three years that included long stretches of solitary confinement sleep deprivation and forced you to the treatment that prompted condemnation from the un special rapporteur on torture now as far as the sentencing it may take a while when the judge decides on the sentence but as she the military this military judge has found manning not guilty of aiding the enemy he may be free at some point in his life. he will be a much older man of course of course ok well thanks for that from now we want to go back to any musher therefore can. get on the long things for you probably shouldn't . hi there ali yeah you just heard that now so the information is coming in thick

and fast the main thing we know he's been found not guilty of that main charge of being found guilty the latest army hearing of nineteen lesser charges we're going to get some more detail on that in the in the coming minutes but i want to go back to really the success of it all apart from raising awareness of what's happened here as as he saw it surely it has put other people off coming forward doesn't it in the future well manifestly not because you just have a case of edward snowden who said that the more draconian the pushback the better the whistleblower will become i think one either this is very good because it shows that the just freeze independent in the us and will uphold what remains of their constitution but my more cynical side would say that this might be a political decision to send a signal to the world that in fact the u.s. is not educating insistent that they will not classify people who whistleblowers aiding the enemy so please allow people like julian songe or edward snowden to be

extradited back to our country to feel the full weight of the law so i'm wondering if you spoke of this in sort of embrace over the last couple of minutes. i was hoping for it i thought they might be a bit more heavy handed because the prosecution certainly really pushed i mean they they're closing statements during his trial was incredibly illusive innuendo laden trying to make out of your previous traitor you know in history so i think the very robust defense closing statement helped but most people it's a sense not for just if this is a young man self-confessed lee saying he loves his country he wants it to improve he wants to protect the very way of life that's what he said in in very private e-mails so yes sure that's it's a good recognition but i do think i do think that this might be a subtle signal to other countries saying look we're not to tell a terrine state we're not going to persecute whistle blows. the nth degree send it back to the people we want like snowden and the sentencing is going to come

tomorrow and over the coming days after that it can still be appealed the guy could still spend up to twenty years in prison that's a heck of a long time for a young man he's what twenty five now fifty five you know forty five i care about it but the time he gets out if if the worst happened is that fair you know he has done a duty to his country by exposing criminality on the part of the military and on the part of the intelligence agencies to persecute rather to protect whistleblowers young whistleblowers as well who so young when he did it to persecute them not to protect them and not to investigate the crimes but to go after the whistleblower i think is criminal in itself these people need protection they need to have their disclosures properly and thoroughly investigated if democracy has any chance of surviving in the u.s. so final thought final twenty seconds what would your advice be to what would your advice be to somebody discovers their country is acting above the law judging by what you went through judging by everything that snowden is going through in

a sea of wiki leaks and now bradley manning what would your advice be i think we just have to look at history and the mistakes previous with made including myself and and learn from that and i think that's what edward snowden tend to do he says the more you can do push back the smarter the whistleblower and never. ever about how they protect themselves and you know getting involved with that organization or their successors who can protect you is very key you have to be tagged you have to be crypto and have never. shown it doesn't offer thanks ever so much much pre-show to or else go let's go live now back to washington d.c. our correspondent going to church a camera the information coming in thick and fast and hard going ghione as i said earlier already is judgment day for private bradley manning isn't it bring us up to speed them please now on what we know we know he's been let off the main charge aiding the enemy he's been found guilty or nineteen other charges now believe can you bring us up to speed bring us the details. well kevin that's right the

military judge sort of showed that intent matters bradley manning has been found not guilty of aiding the enemy or maybe it was because prosecutors have failed to prove what concrete horan bradley manning has done through the information that he put out there or because again it could be that the judge took he took into account bradley manning's initial intentions whatever the judge's reasoning it's an important precedent for these types of cases the espionage act was never intended to punish whistleblowers it's a nine hundred seventeen statute for spies but the obama administration has already charged eight whistleblowers with espionage so the verdict puts a dent in that practice no doubt about that of course this is not to say that manning is going to walk free eighty times soon private manning has pleaded guilty to two and now he was he was convicted of nineteen.

nineteen counts and those charges alone carry a sentence of up to twenty years behind bars but we're not going to hear the sentence now it could be it could be days from now it could be tomorrow so we're still waiting to hear the sentence bradley manning admitted to leaking thousands of classified documents as well as some classified videos to the we can leaks website you know that in his court martial hearing he said he had no intention of harming his country he said he believed that the public if the public was aware of the data it would start a public. debate of the wars he said he was depressed about the situation there meaning iraq where he was stationed as an intelligence analyst of course it was not just about iraq in thousands of leaked documents bradley manning has exposed many aspects of u.s. foreign policy again this verdict shows that intent matters intent mattered in this case he has already spent three years behind bars three years that included.

long stretches of solitary confinement sleep deprivation and forced nudity at his into a no no no tree no prompted condemnation do we know is the judge going to take that into consideration during the you sentencing tomorrow and over the coming days she could she could take that into consideration obviously defense would want the judge insists on the judge. taking this into consideration but we don't know what in what way but we do know that he's probably going to walk out he's not going to be me he may not be sentenced to life in prison something that he would be sentenced to under if he was was found guilty of aiding the enemy but he will certainly walk out of prison a very old man ok thanks forty five not a lot of course a girl a teacher thank you very much. in washington d c there all right let's talk to

american political analyst and commentator mark mason the high the marker not belittling of course when you're twenty five if you go to jail for twenty years it's a heck of a long time what do you make of this verdict today we don't know what the sentence is yet to come tomorrow but what are your initial thoughts of what's come out in the last couple of minutes from. this is a landmark court decision the judge essentially decided that journalism is not treason this is really all about not only of course bradley manning but the attack on journalism and wiki leaks and julian are sized u.s. government and obama administration they really have bigger fish to fry they're after julian assange that's the one they want to catch they're they're. just they're they're in a state of like catatonic terror about wiki leaks that's really their goal. so.

let me just get this straight then so even though bradley manning hasn't been found guilty of the most serious charge it's no weight off the shoulders nonetheless of julian assange if you think. it will not diminish the importance of the judge's decision today a very important decision again and it's declaring that journalism is not treason and yet on friday we had a federal appellate court order james risen the new york times reporter ordered him to reveal his sources in court so the attack is on monday on friday we had an attack from the appeals court and we can expect that the mormon church will small up here to see current attack on. the really we have a massive attack on free speech and on freedom of the press and they're going to go

out through really massage again though this is a landmark decision why did manning choose to have his fight decided by a judge and not have a jury of his pay is as you can do apparently in a military cold what was the logic that you think. that would have been a discussion i'd like to been privy to that discussion between a bradley manning and here is the attorney's my suspicion is that with the military court system the jury earth if he had chosen to use a jury trial system the jurors would have been appointed by the commanding officer of the coast. so they're not selected randomly as they are in civil trial so i think that may have had a major factor in this money support to say made a personal sacrifice depends which side of the fence you're on with his story very

much doesn't it but i mean once again by making not sacrifice. bradley manning is a civil liberties hero he will go down in history people will be reading about him two hundred years from now about sacrifices of bradley manning edward snowden and it's other whistleblowers of this period daniel ellsberg and others she has sacrificed the his future for defending the right of americans to know about u.s. war crimes this comes back to the larger context here that we have the wrong person in the court george bush should be sitting in a courtroom facing charges for war crimes and this is a story that will be told hundreds of years from now about the courageous acts bradley manning mug him hang on the line if you if you could for us for

a second we really appreciate your input life i just want bring afshin rattansi out a contributor as well i gather he's on the line from london the highest should your immediate thought so we've got mob still with us your immediate thoughts on the on the outcome of the last couple of minutes. well echoing mark the wider context that he affected hundreds of millions of people's lives right around the world is of course that wider context but the fact that this man bradley manning three years after he was arrested was acquitted on an aiding the enemy charges no cause for celebration the man was tortured and hillary clinton the secretary of state then resigned her press secretary resigned over that torture there is a british context to this as well because of course his mother was british and under british law he becomes a british citizen because of by virtue of his birth date the british foreign office here in london has done very little or perhaps nothing to help bradley manning in

those years of torture and what this court has done is merely shown to those hundreds of millions of people around the world whether he catalyzed the arab spring whether he exposed the corruption of the latin american governments of the governments right across southeast asia they will be saying all the people he's saying that is american justice their option it makes him just a couple of minutes ago saying well despite the fact that yeah he's been let off this the biggest charge if you like it's no reason for julie decided to sleep any quieter any better tonight do you agree. absolutely it's a chilling verdict especially because. the threat to whistle blows isn't going away today marks and anniversary seven hundred seventy eight of the worst whistleblower more in the united states i understand a senator is trying to market as national whistleblower day whistleblowers around the world who will be looking to that verdict as

a sign of justice julian assange logic was here in london for a way more than a year. publish these exposé is that catalyzed the freedom of so many hundreds of millions of people he's on the run here in ecuador in the ecuadorian embassy in knightsbridge and of course snowden is over there in russia this verdict means that . quite apart from assassination strikes against people without any kind of due process will seek to you are trying as hard as he can to stop the people of america and the people of the world from understanding how foreign policy murders in the case of the collateral murder video and destroys the lives of so many people on and i should stay with us if you would one of the broader political implications for the u.s. government from this case now do you think. the obama administration is really on the run due to their courageous acts of edward snowden bradley manning and other

whistleblowers information is actually getting out through the cracks now to the people about the illegal activities the illegal n.s.a. spying n.s.a. spy programs the illegal wars so i think that we have a desperate administration that's trying to hold together the american empire and that's a bomb is jobs just another guy he's a temporary assistant holding down the job of maintaining the empire for four years that's what presidents are and so we really have a constitutional crisis we the united states is in a constitutional crisis right now i can't limit all of violations of the constitution the first amendment the fourth amendment the fifth amendment certainly are all being violated by all three branches of the government a recent pew public opinion poll was released just days ago seventy percent of the american public believe that the american government is collecting information

about americans and using it for purposes have nothing whatsoever to do with spying americans are not supposed to know that they're supposed to be controlled through the mass media that the five mega corporations that control and manage public opinion here in the united states so all the control over public opinion is a lynchpin of control in the united states for a representative government and that government represents the interests of the bankers the military contractors big oil and big pharma and such and this system of information control is beginning to crack and just comes back again to bradley manning and wiki leaks and the importance of obama targeting both manning and julian aside not what have all the lot of my expect need to be a minute. but legal x. .