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.)
Promotions to the Space Force’s second highest enlisted grade, senior master sergeant, have surged to the highest level in the young service’s history, bolstering the senior NCO corps as officials plan to aggressively expand the force and especially the enlisted corps.