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Bradley Manning 101: What He Revealed

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This frame grab image taken from a video shot from a U.S. army Apache helicopter gun-sight, posted at Wikileaks.org and confirmed as authentic by a senior U.S. military official, shows a group of men in the streets of the New Baghdad district of eastern Baghdad just prior to being fired upon by the helicopter July 12, 2007. In a series of online chats Bradley Manning told of leaking classified diplomatic reports, along with this secret video, to the whistleblower website Wikileaks.org. Wikileaks.org via AP)
This frame grab image taken from a video shot from a U.S. army Apache helicopter gun-sight, posted at Wikileaks.org and confirmed as authentic by a senior U.S. military official, shows a group of men in the streets of the New Baghdad district of eastern Baghdad just prior to being fired upon by the helicopter July 12, 2007. In a series of online chats Bradley Manning told of leaking classified diplomatic reports, along with this secret video, to the whistleblower website Wikileaks.org. (Wikileaks.org via AP)

A military judge has acquitted the former intelligence analyst of aiding the enemy, but convicted him of espionage, theft and computer fraud charges.

Army private Bradley Manning had already pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including sending hundreds of thousands of battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, diplomatic cables sent by state department officials and video clips of battles.

He had refused to plead guilty to more serious allegations, including the charge that he "aided enemies of the U.S." which carries a life sentence.

So what is the material at the heart of this case? What did Bradley Manning reveal, and what are the prosecution and defense saying about it?

Harvard Law professor Yochai Benkler, who was a witness for the defense in the Manning trial, says the prosecution’s case has broad and dangerous implications for the freedom of the press in covering national security issues.

"The basic theory that the prosecution has been pushing is that if you leak national security information to the media, and if the media publishers are on the internet, and if al-Qaida reads the internet, then you have communicated indirectly with the enemy. That essentially means that any leak to any organization that publishes on the net, is aiding the enemy," Benkler told Here & Now.

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This segment aired on July 30, 2013.

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