Words mean things. In the United States, 'treason' is 'levying war against [the United States], or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort' (Constitution, Article III, Section 3). Whom did Manning reveal to be levying war against the United States? Whom did he reveal to adhere to our enemies, giving them aid and comfort?
No-one. He didn't expose a single traitor.
Yes, let us let the fox define all the terms with regards to the hen house. What could go wrong?
>Whom did he reveal to adhere to our enemies, giving them aid and comfort?
Everyone involved in covering up our mistakes that served to further recruitment efforts of our enemies. Instead of admitting the mistakes and explaining how we would prevent such mistakes in the future. Instead, they covered it up so that Americans wouldn't see it (thus protecting themselves from blow back from us) at the cost of giving the enemy a far better recruitment tool.
No, what I'm saying is that murdering journalists and unarmed civilians is not treason, because…it's not.
Now, was the specific act you referred to a war crime, or a case of mistaken identification, or legitimate action against an armed group or individual within a group, or something else? Beats me. It's not my job to decide. Nor was it Manning's job to decide, nor to leak that information because he didn't like the decision of those whose job it was to decide.
It is directly aiding the enemy by giving them a great recruitment tool. A soldier would be hard pressed to find a better recruitment tool to give the enemy.
So fuck 'em, time for others to take on the responsibility.
Manning, Snowden and whoever else in future has access to information that would serve public interest and decides to risk their lives and their freedom to make it known.
They have my full support.
There is a difference between releasing data that is strictly related to the public interest and taking massive amounts of data, including information about very sensitive operations and diplomatic discussions and releasing them without regards to the damage they may cause. It's reckless.
Let's be realistic. This never would have seen the light of day and those involved would never have faced justice.
Manning didn't commit treason either unless he was trying to aid the insurgency, but there is no reason to believe that.