cement that notion quick let's talk about another thing that they say they use really big on bradley manning chelsea manning rather you were also part of the i am chelsea manning video a few months back why is this case so important to you. well it's important to me and and i certainly i mean it's a tricky thing to talk about because there is i mean what do i know i'm a musician i live in l.a. so if i worked for the n.s.a. or had worked for the n.s.a. i might have a different perspective but it seems like sometimes governments including our own our interest. did in restricting information because it is actually sensitive and to disseminate it would be compromising but other times people almost restrict governments restrict information either because it's embarrassing or it's just a kneejerk reaction you know this feeling like like it's their job to restrict access to information and that's why i thought the bradley chelsea manning case was so important because he was sort of drawing attention to the arbitrary seemingly arbitrary way in which the government was trying to restrict access to simply cla

how difficult it was across central asia per se but let's talk about the united states bradley manning now chelsea manning decided to blow the whistle on u.s. army violations he did so by going before going to wiki leaks and he was turned down by the media as well why do you think that happened julian. sadly it's no surprise to me and it's i can talk about the specific case of course but we've dealt with many others. you know old media organizations that are any size i get invited to sit at the table of power and the because they become health organizations in their own right and people want to curry favor with them. as an organization with individuals in the organization and so they basically become part of the very family not that they claim to be holding to account but another whistleblower edward snowden did use the media and not wiki leaks to channel his revelations don't you think that's a good sign that he was able to do it through the media well i think it's quite sad actually edward snowden didn't go to in fact the media he went to someone that's closely associated with us and specific jo

like bradley and now chelsea manning who was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this august so we could leaks manning released many thousands of diplomatic cables and b.t.o. proof of u.s. involvement and i don't find. another man who found himself in jail this year was john key the first u.s. official to confirm the government's use of waterboarding to interrogate care suspects i caught up with him shortly before he went to have served his two and a half years sentence which i have never believed that my case was about a leak i have always believed that my case is about torture in the hunt for whistleblowers journalists have been targeted as well u.s. authorities secretly tapped the phones of dozens of associated press journalists the partner of glenn greenwald who broke the story about in the states the valence was detained in london while carrying materials from edward snowden to british authorities so closely cooperate with washington now accuse him of quote terry's. aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist when it was a champion of the free internet fighting a

like bradley and now chelsea manning who was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this august so we could leaks manning released many thousands of diplomatic cables and video proof of u.s. involvement in war crimes another man who found himself in jail this year was john key the first u.s. official to confirm the government's use of waterboarding to interrogate suspects i caught up with him shortly before he went to serve his two and a half year sentence i have never believed that my case was about a leak i have always believed that my case is about torture in the hunt for whistleblowers journalists have been targeted as well u.s. authorities secretly tapped the phones of dozens of associated press journalists the partner of glenn greenwald who broke the story about n.s.a. surveillance was detained in london while carrying materials from edward snowden to british authorities so closely cooperate with washington now accuse him of quote terrorism. aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower in the war a journalist whether he was a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship

like bradley and now chelsea manning who was sentenced to thirty five years in jail. this office so we can be swinging through these many thousands of diplomatic. the deal proof of what got into context another man who found himself in jail this year was john to be awful. the first u s official confirmed the government's use of waterboarding to interrogate terror suspects. i caught up with him shortly before she went to serve his torn a half year sentence. i've never believed that my case was about a week. i've always believed that my case is about torture. in the hunt for whistleblowers journeys have been targeted as well us authorities secretly tapped the phones of dozens of associated press journalist. the partner of going greenwald who broke the story about the nsa surveillance was detained in london while carrying materials from edward still good. the british authorities to closely cooperate with washington now accuse him of course carries. aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist who was a champion of the free internet fighting against censorshi

in contrast to what bradley no child chelsea manning has done for the information revolution and wiki leaks which are very important up until now and still are but what he has done is he is changing the minds of americans about the importance of their privacy he has taken the issue of privacy government surveillance and transparency and brought it to the kitchen table now americans are seeing what it's like and feeling what it's like to be spied upon by the government and i think the poll numbers differentiate i think we're seeing americans a lot more concerned about what the government is doing up until now you know they took what wiki leaks and bradley manning and brought to us. somewhat with a grain of salt they saw the iraq war logs and the afghan afghanistan war logs and they said you know the wars are over now we're finding there that the government's been spying on our phone records our e-mail our social media browsing and they're saying this is a little bit more personal personal and it's making me uncomfortable in washington also what's your favorite story of this year what m

in contrast to what bradley no child chelsea manning has done for the information revolution and wiki leaks which are very important up until now and still are but what he has done is he is changing the minds of americans about the importance of their privacy he has taken the issue of privacy government surveillance and transparency and brought it to the kitchen table now americans are seeing what it's like and feeling what it's like to be spied upon by the government and i think the poll numbers differentiate i think we're seeing americans a lot more concerned about what the government is doing up until now you know they took what wiki leaks and bradley manning and brought to us. somewhat with a grain of salt they saw the iraq war logs and the afghan afghanistan war logs and they said you know the wars are over now we're finding there that the government's been spying on our phone records our e-mail our social media browsing and they're saying this is a little bit more personal personal and it's making me uncomfortable in washington and also what's your favorite story of this year wh

in contrast to what bradley no child chelsea manning has done for the information revolution and wiki leaks which are very important up until now and still are but what he has done is he is changing the minds of americans about the importance of their privacy he has taken the issue of privacy government surveillance and transparency and brought it to the kitchen table now americans are seeing what it's like and feeling what it's like to be spied upon by the government and i think the poll numbers differentiate i think we're seeing americans a lot more concerned about what the government is doing up until now you know they took what wiki leaks and bradley manning and brought to us. somewhat with a grain of salt they saw the iraq war logs and the afghan afghanistan war logs and they said you know the wars are over now we're finding there's that the government's been spying on our phone records our e-mail our social media browsing and they're saying this is a little bit more personal personal and it's making me uncomfortable in washington and also what's your favorite story of this year

>> well, look, that was certainly the case after the bradley/chelsea manning disclosures of 2009, withks there was an enormous crackdown. there was an unprecedented number of criminal prosecutions. then snowden leaked after that. so to say -- >> never know. >> to say this is going to end all leaking is not going to be borne out. >> all right. michael, thank you. michael isikoff here on msnbc. >>> many high school seniors of course and you parents out there know this, they're going to make one of the biggest decisions of their lives. where to go to college. but now a number of unconventional alternatives are popping up. they're not for everybody, but for some you might call it college reimagining. jenna bush has that story. >> zuckerberg, geffen and gates. all brilliant billionaires and self-made success stories. with something else in common. none of these overachievers graduated from college. it's an idea that david luper can get behind. >> ideally i want to start a company or be part of a company that contributes real value to the world. >> anna sides agrees. >> if you want to learn

human rights group amnesty international this is their reaction to a whistleblower chelsea manning then known as bradley being sentenced to thirty five years behind bars for revealing alleged u.s. war crimes amnesty believes it's those crimes that should be investigated rather than manning the person who brought them to light. those who followed the million man march of course the. corruption demonstrations taking place across the globe we covered it extensively our twitter feed gathered all the latest reports of all our correspondents who followed the protesters footsteps they retreated hundreds of terms while the mainstream media stayed mostly silent it has to be said on the crowds gathering in front of the white house and also in front of buckingham palace at the time another major news story broke on the micro-blogging site the historic nuclear deal with iran where diplomacy won over the policy of sanctions for the first time in a decade tehran agreed to roll back its atomic program in return for billions in sanctions relief the spokesperson today used top diplomat tweeted the agreement first quickl

yes certainly it was a year of very high profile leaks namely the court martial of chelsea manning formerly known as bradley manning spend a lot of time there covering the trial and for meeting maryland of course he is accused of the largest leak of classified information in military history charged with a very serious charge of aiding the enemy in addition to a slew of other charges and the judge found him not guilty of that most serious charge of aiding the enemy but guilty on most of the other charges he was sentenced to thirty five years behind bars of course manning a divisive figure some people handling him as a hero for shining a light on government wrongdoing others calling him a traitor for exposing government secrets throughout this trial his attorney david coombs tried to keep it under the radar but did make a very public statement after that sentence was delivered in august here's what he had to say while we were successful in avoiding the aiding the enemy offense. the fact that the government pursued this offense the fact that the government. let this offense go forward even after. it was clear

now some are long trial of chelsea manning formerly known as bradley the army private was accused of the largest leak of classified information in military history he was found guilty of leaking hundreds of thousands of secret files to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks mainstream media coverage of the trial was sparse but arcee was for me to maryland where the court martial played out every step of the way. proceeded towards really shortage which was aiding the enemy for a simple way of providing information to use germany the military judge found manning not guilty of that aiding the enemy charge the guilty on most other charges he is now serving a sentence of thirty five years and speaking of internet freedom it's something our next top news maker continues to fight for julian assad to the co-founder of wiki leaks remains holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london this december marks three years since he's been detained in the u.k. if he steps foot outside of that embassy so likely be extradited to sweden there he faces questions over alleged sexual misconduct but he and hi

the question of laverne cox, chelsea mannings as one of the pieces of news in the course of this year with bradleyanning's transition to the identity of chelsea manning. and the way in which even within lgbt struggles, a struggle for marriage is just one part, and there are all these other struggles over and against eve than one element. >> i think the way to keep that coalition together is to add on to that is to say we're talking act the structure of how discrimination happens. first generation and second generation discrimination. gay people should be very alert, right, to the possibility that what's happening to african-americans right now is the future of gay rights. right? so that right now, because there's the discrimination against gay people written into law that says gay people can get married, justice kennedy can see that. all he needs to do is read the statute. if it talks about crime or welfare, polite people do not talk about racism and racialized terms anymore. any of that goes under the radar. where do polite people talk about race? affirmative action. what does the court do with i

it was chelsea manning and not bradley manning. >> that's right. he has changed or she has changed. how are your treatments going? >> not as quick as i would like. >> when can we call you andrea? >> i am told sometime in the first quarter of 2014. >> excellent. looking forward to it. you are having your trachea shaved, right? >> yes, but that has nothing to do with it. >> ellison, all right, you keep hearing about the united states granting snowden asylum. why would we do that when the guy -- if he just exposed the domestic part of it, i get it. okay. now we know something. now he is dealing with our foreign national security, our national security. >> i really put forth a good argument. >>- q. i this is absolute -- >> this is absolutely espionage. i realize there are more problems in the system we can look at as well. but this under cuts his original statement that he was doing this in the issue of transparency to give the documents to another government is to go against the u.s. that is different than saying you guys as american sit shoans know this. citizens should know this. it

being come down on a hard day a soldier for bradley manning of course was lucky is maybe edward snowden has been the u.s. army private who now let's be honest chelsea serving thirty five years for giving secret military cables to wiki leaks they reveal didn't they thousands of previously and reported civilian deaths in the iraq and afghanistan conflicts and shocking accounts of american soldiers seemingly willing to shoot anything that moves the cyber community more into we mustn't forget this the loss of one of its biggest innovators and activists spokesman a couple of times on this channel was he hanged himself so sadly such a young start of the year best known of course for working on the reddit social news site he was facing up to thirty five years in prison for downloading academic articles in bolt from a university database of sorts with his family tonight of course as they had into in years well well before his suicide swartz developed software called secure drop which allows whistleblowers to speak to journalists anonymously without leaving any trace whatsoever ray mcgovern a former cia analyst let's get his thoughts he joins us live tonigh