Manning case a dark moment in US history

US soldier Bradley Manning, who leaked a trove of US government and military information to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday.

Without Manning, people around the world would not have known the many secrets of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and the hidden American atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq, including the killing of civilians and journalists. Had it not been for people like Manning, such information would still be lying among the mountains of classified documents, and the US government would still be glorifying the wars.

No wonder, the court decision was immediately condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union. Ben Wizner, director of speech, privacy and technology project of the union, says something is seriously wrong with the justice system when a soldier who shares information with the press and public gets a more severe punishment than those who torture prisoners and kill civilians.