A military judge on Wednesday sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years of confinement for his conviction last month on 20 charges related to publication of classified government information on the WikiLeaks website. The judge also reduced Manning’s rank to private and determined he will receive a dishonorable discharge and must forfeit all pay and allowances, according to the Defense Department’s Aug. 21 release. He faced up to 90 years in prison; prosecutors had sought 60 years. Manning leaked some 700,000 files, the largest breach of classified information in the nation’s history, reported The Chicago Tribune. The sentence is the longest ever given for leaking material to the media, according to the newspaper. But for some lawmakers, it was too lenient. “Bradley Manning betrayed his country,” said Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), House Armed Services Committee chairman, in a statement. “He put the lives of our troops and our allies in danger. Thirty-five years is a light sentence,” said McKeon. Manning must serve one-third of his sentence, which factors his pre-trial confinement, before he is eligible for parole. (See also statement from WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange.)
Unit commanders are being told to separate service members who can’t shave their cheeks and chin for medical reasons for more than a year, according to new guidance from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
