Meeropol writes: "A few weeks from now, a military judge will probably sentence Bradley Manning to serve several decades in prison for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. My parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were convicted of violating the same act in 1951."
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted to a waiting security vehicle outside of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md. after appearing for a hearing at his court martial. (photo: Scott Galindez/RSN)
A Kinship With Bradley Manning
12 August 13
Democracy is doomed without informed citizens, says a son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed by the U.S. for spying.
Afew weeks from now, a military judge will probably sentence Bradley Manning to serve several decades in prison for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. I feel a kinship with him. My parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were convicted of violating the same act in 1951. They were executed two years later, when I was 6.
That's only the beginning of my sense of connection with Manning. The prosecutors, and now the judge, have labeled his actions espionage, theft or other unsavory terms. Stripped of the pejorative legal expressions, however, what Manning really did was reveal the truth of our government's actions to the American people and the world.
In 1975, my brother and I began our effort to reopen our parents' case by filing a massive, precedent-setting Freedom of Information Act suit against 17 government agencies. Reporters asked us whether we were concerned that the material we sought would merely prove our parents' guilt. We answered that we believed the public had the right to know what was in the secret files even if it did not support our belief that our parents had been framed.
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