The following editorial appeared recently in the Seattle Times:
As the sentencing phase of the military court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning begins, Americans are witnessing something of a mirror image.
Manning is guilty of releasing vast amounts of classified data. He was prosecuted by a federal government bent on stamping "top secret" on everything.
Federal authorities have been exposed collecting information with a frenzy that has less to do with apparent dangers and more to do with the technical ability to monitor, record and data-mine the population.
Manning was not convicted of the most serious charges of aiding the enemy because the government could not convince the judge whom that enemy might be.
He still faces a couple of decades behind bars for his violation of oaths and expectations to protect the classified information he was entrusted with by the Army.
Manning is no hero. He was clueless about the harm he might do to others — those named in thousands of diplomatic dispatches and the local sources of information in war zones. Still, he functioned in a world that the government can barely define or articulate.
Manning's trial comes as concerns mount about National Security Agency surveillance programs and the numbing volumes of data gathered.
Congress is clearly shocked as well. Washington's U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen is promoting legislation to increase accountability and transparency for data collection and civil liberties.
Manning is headed to jail, but the government regroups without any legal precedent to use against credible, coherent whistle-blowers.
Those are both good things.