World/Nation Briefs August 22, 2013
Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison
FORT MEADE, Md. - Army Pfc. Bradley Manning stood at attention in his crisp dress uniform Wednesday and learned the price he will pay for spilling an unprecedented trove of government secrets: up to 35 years in prison, the stiffest punishment ever handed out in the U.S. for leaking to the media.
Flanked by his lawyers, Manning, 25, showed no reaction as military judge Col. Denise Lind announced the sentence without explanation in a proceeding that lasted just a few minutes.
A gasp could be heard among the spectators, and one woman buried her face in her hands. Then, as guards hurried Manning out of the courtroom, about a half-dozen supporters shouted from the back: "We'll keep fighting for you, Bradley!" and "You're our hero!"
With good behavior and credit for the more than three years he has been held, Manning could be out in as little as seven years, said his lawyer, David Coombs. The soldier was also demoted and will be dishonorably discharged.
NSA surveillance often had noterror connection
WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency declassified three secret court opinions Wednesday showing how in one of its surveillance programs it scooped up as many as 56,000 emails and other communications by Americans not connected to terrorism annually over three years, revealed the error to the court - which ruled its actions unconstitutional - and then fixed the problem.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper authorized the release, part of which Obama administration officials acknowledged Wednesday was prodded by a 2011 lawsuit filed by an Internet civil liberties activist group.
The court opinions show that when the NSA reported its inadvertent gathering of American-based Internet traffic to the court in September 2011, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the agency to find ways to limit what it collects and how long it keeps it.
In an 85-page declassified FISA court ruling from October 2011, U.S. District Judge James D. Bates rebuked government lawyers for repeatedly misrepresenting the operations of the NSA's surveillance programs.
German woman, 20, dies a week after shark attack
HONOLULU - A German woman who lost her arm in a shark attack died Wednesday, one week after she was bitten while snorkeling off Maui.
Jana Lutteropp, 20, who had been on life support, died at Maui Memorial Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Carol Clark said.
"Jana fought hard to stay alive," said a statement from her mother and sister, which was released by Clark. "However, we are sad to say that she lost her fight today."
Lutteropp was snorkeling up to 100 yards off Palauea Beach at the resort community of Makena when the shark bit off her right arm.
Nixon asked Reagan, Bush Sr. about Watergate
YORBA LINDA, Calif. - President Richard Nixon had just delivered his first major national address on the Watergate scandal that would ultimately cost him the White House when the calls of support began pouring in.
Audio tapes released Wednesday show that within hours of the speech on April 30, 1973, the beleaguered 37th president heard from Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and evangelist Billy Graham.
The calls were captured on a secret recording system that Nixon used to tape 3,700 hours of phone calls and private meetings in his executive offices between February 1971 and July 1973.
- The Associated Press