Bradley Manning leaked secrets out of 'love for my country' US Army Private and WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning says he leaked classified information out "of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others" and that he will serve his time in prison "knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society." WikiLeaks publisher and Australian Senate candidate Julian Assange says more national security whistleblowers are likely to step forward, despite the 35-year prison sentence imposed on Private Manning at the conclusion of his trial at Fort Meade, Maryland, yesterday. In a statement read by his lawyer David Coombs, Private Manning said that his decision to leak hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic reports to WikiLeaks had been motivated by a belief that the US military had "forgotten our humanity." We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability. In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror. "Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power," Private Manning said in his statement. When these cries of patriotism drown our any logically based intentions, it is usually an American soldier that is ordered to carry out some ill-conceived mission. In a statement released after the conclusion of Private Manning's court martial, Mr Assange described the outcome as a "significant tactical victory" for the defence attorney David Coombs. Drawing on legal analysis of military judge Denise Lind's sentencing decision, Mr Assange suggested that Private Manning could spend "a minimum of 5.2 years in prison with a 32 year maximum (including time already spent in detention), for revealing information about US government behaviour to the public." The period Mr Manning has already spent in prison will be subtracted from the sentence, and dispensations for good behaviour, parole and other factors mean that it is likely he will now spend less than 10 years in confinement. "This hard-won minimum term represents a significant tactical victory for Bradley Manning's defence, campaign team and supporters," Mr Assange said. At the start of these proceedings, the United States government had charged Bradley Manning with a capital offence and other charges carrying over 135 years of incarceration. Speaking outside the military court, Mr Coombs said his client, who was convicted of a range of offences for transmitting hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and US Army reports to WikiLeaks in 2010, was in a surprisingly "cheerful mood,." He said, 'Hey It's OK. It's all right. I know you did everything you could for me. Don't cry. Be happy. It's fine. This is just a stage in my life. I am moving forward. I will recover from this,' Mr Coombs said. However Private Manning's lawyer expressed dismay at the 35-year sentence, saying "I can't believe that was actually the sentence he received. There is a good young man who did what he thought was morally right and for the right reasons, and he was sentenced the way we would sentence somebody who committed murder - the way we would sentence somebody who molested a child. The New York based Centre for Constitutional Rights expressed outrage at the 35-year decision, saying in a statement that the US Government had stretched an "archaic and discredited" espionage law to send "an unmistakable warning to potential whistleblowers and journalists willing to publish their information." It is a travesty of justice that Manning, who helped bring to light the criminality of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, is being punished while the alleged perpetrators of the crimes he exposed are not even investigated. Every aspect of this case sets a dangerous precedent for future prosecutions of whistleblowers - who play an essential role in democratic government by telling us the truth about government wrongdoing - and we fear for the future of our country in the wake of this case. Mr Assange similarly argued that Private Manning's treatment was "intended to send a signal to people of conscience in the US government who might seek to bring wrongdoing to light." However in the context of the prosecution's failure to secure a conviction for the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy" by disclosing classified information to the media, the WikiLeaks publisher claimed that the US Government's strategy had "spectacularly backfired, as recent months have proven." The Obama administration is demonstrating that there is no place in its system for people of conscience and principle. As a result, there will be a thousand more Bradley Mannings. Speaking to Fairfax Media last week Mr Assange canvassed the likelihood of further disclosures of top secret US surveillance programs from documents leaked by intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. Fairfax Media published numerous stories in 2010 and 2011 based on secret US Embassy cables leaked by Private Manning.