Whatever happened to Bradley Manning?

Shooting the messenger

Spare a thought for Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army soldier arrested in 2010 on suspicion of having released classified documents to the Wikileaks website. Last weekend a series of protest acts around the USA and other countries marked Manning's 1,000th day in prison without a trial.
This was a reminder of the tough prospects faced by a man whose act of disclosing highly confidential documents that led to the Cablegate, in which thousands of cables from the U.S. State Department were released, created an unprecedented diplomatic and political row.
It wasn't a war nor a terrible terrorist attack yet his impact and media coverage were huge.

While we often hear a lot about Julian Assange's case and his current confinement in the Ecuador embassy in London, it seems that Manning's case is somehow overlooked.
However,for many people he is a sort of hero who was catalyst in exposing the flaws, interests and hypocrisy of the the diplomatic relations amongst countries; some commentators also credit him with being instrumental in the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 and he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 and 2012.
Undoubtedly, he is of the most important whistleblowers of all time and the U.S government wants to punish him for that because they think that with his acts, he put the lives of many soldiers in danger by aiding the enemy.
His case is due to start in June but the immense pressure Manning has been exposed to has  become a problem and according to his lawyer, Manning's mental health  is 'almost gone'.
Let's hope that this 'heroic young man', in the words of Jeff Paterson ( a spokesman for the Bradley Manning Support Network), faces a fair trial.