Bradley Manning: In His Own Words

What would you do if you had evidence of war crimes? What would you do if ‘following orders’ meant participating in grave abuses that you opposed? Would you have the courage to risk everything – even your life – to do the right thing?
Most of us would keep our mouths shut. Not Pfc. Bradley Manning.
With a 10,000-word statement that he read aloud last week at a pretrial hearing in Fort Meade, Maryland, Bradley Manning detailed how his conscience led him to expose crimes, abuse, and corruption, by releasing the Iraq and Afghan War Logs, the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, State Department cables, Guantanamo Bay files, and more to WikiLeaks.
An historic document in its own right, the statement lays out Bradley’s work as an intelligence analyst, what he saw while working in eastern Baghdad, and how he concluded that the American people needed to know what really happens in our wars abroad...

Bradley Manning Support Network. Court sketch by Clark Stoeckley.
Manning has pleaded guilty to ten charges of "misusing classified information", saying he wanted to expose US force's "bloodlust" and to start a debate about American foreign policy.
He has denied the twelve more serious charges, including "aiding the enemy". 

I always find looking at pictures of Bradley arriving at court - because he's so tiny - so moving and a powerful visual metaphor.

There's a midget standing tall
And the giant beside him about to fall
Stand! 

Update: The redactions in the transcript - here they are unredacted.