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In his sentencing hearing yesterday, Bradley Manning took the stand and apologized for the "hurt" he inflicted on the United States.While the legal strategy of Manning’s attorney at this point—as it would be forany attorney—is to convince the judge to reduce Manning's sentence as much as possible, the public should know: Bradley Manning didn't actually hurt the United States.
For years now, the government may have attempted to paint a dire picture of WikiLeaks’ potential impact, but they’ve also admitted, quietly but repeatedly, that the results have been more embarrassing than harmful.
Even when the WikiLeaks hysteria was in full swing, government officials from the State Department have briefed Congress on the impact of the Wikileaks revelations, and have said that the leaks were "embarrassing but not damaging." U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that, while some of the information may have been embarrassing, “I don’t think there is any substantive damage.”
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has admitted the leaks caused no serious damage, telling Congress that the reactions to the leaks were "significantly overwrought." He went on to say: “Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest.’’
At the same time, Reuters reported that other officials were admitting in private that they were exaggerating the damage that resulted from the leaks in order to bolster the legal efforts against WikiLeaks and Manning.
Read more @: https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/08/bradley-manning-did-not-hurt-united-states
In reality the Bradly Manning leaks did no damage to the US government. All it did was embarrass the government and it revealed several war crimes and hwo our government functions in normal life and some more corrupt arrogant ways as well.