And I suppose those 'brave' helicopter pilots who killed those innocent Iraquis must have been given medals by now.

Why isn't the US media, which champions human rights elsewhere in the world, is quiet about this aberration?

Manning and Assange are being persecuted for treason while the true perpetrators are celebrated as national heroes. Well, whistleblowers are an endangered species in the so-called democratic USA - remember Valerie Plame? As long as American presidents are such abominable cowards like Bush and Obama truth will remain to be an endangered species in the USA.

P.S. Bradley Manning deserves a bravery medal. I hope he gets a lot of public support for his decision to shed light on what's being done in our name over there.

Maybe we should all stop paying taxes until our government stops lying to us. Manning is the hero here. Obama is the coward for not prosecuting the war criminals Cheney and Bush, and worse yet, becoming one of the treasonous corporate whores himself.

For me the question is how could these videos be LEGITIMATELY classified? What public policy purpose is served by keeping them secret?

The assumption that things are dangerous or important or legal or moral just because someone says they are, is disproven long since.

Once the secret is out it seems to me that the government have to justify the classification. Just because some official declares a photo he finds embarrassing or inconvenient to be SECRET, does not mean that releasing it does any harm to the nation.

The defense against liable is that what you said is true. The defense against releasing things declared SECRET should be that there was no justification for the thing to be declared secret.