Michael Meacher MP

Should whistle-blowers be protected, together with the organisation that seeks to give publicity to their revelations – Wikileaks?   The upcoming trial of Bradley Manning, a US Army intelligence analyst, is a case in point.   He is charged with leaking a highly classified video of US soldiers in an Apache helicopter killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.   The air crew is heard falsely claiming they came across a firefight, laughing over the dead, and then attacking a van trying to rescue the wounded.   Wikileaks published the video under the title Collateral Murder.   The US military establishment was hugely embarrassed.   Should Manning and Wikileaks be punished? (more…)