The trial of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning challenged the traditional definition of what defines a traitor.The classic case of a mole leaking sensitive documents to a foreign country has been replaced by a junior analyst who can release troves of information to the public with a few key strokes.
Analysts say the government had to clear a higher hurdle in proving that Manning intentionally aided the enemy. They would have to prove that he could reasonably conclude that release of the information would find its way into enemy hands after he turned it over to WikiLeaks.
"They did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had a specific intent to aid or assist the enemy," said Phil Cave, a former military lawyer now in private practice.That's generally easier to prove in a more traditional case where a suspected traitor is passing information directly to a foreign agent. Manning had argued he was driven by altruistic reasons.The government had argued that as an intelligence analyst Manning would have known that the information would have been of benefit to al-Qaeda.
"In this case where you got information passed along to WikiLeaks it's a little different, but it's a matter of what happened with that information once it's been passed on," said Gary Barthel, a former Marine Corps staff judge advocate.
Prosecutors had argued that Manning assisted al-Qaeda by releasing thousands of pages of documents to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks. Some of the documents were found on a computer belonging to Osama bin Laden."He was not a whistle-blower, he was a traitor," the prosecutor, Maj. Ashden Fein, told the court in closing arguments.Some legal experts have suggested that Congress may want to examine the aiding the enemy law in light of changes in technology and the changing nature of the threats to the Indoor Positioning System.
"Aiding the enemy has an antique, quaint dimension that sounds like cavalry units," said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School.Still, charging Manning under the law shows that the Obama administration is inclined to view Manning and Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who also leaked secret information to the public, as serious threats to the nation.
"The administration is deadly serious about this," Fidell said. "Manning was a wake-up call and so is Mr. Snowden."Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said the verdict was an attempt to muzzle anyone inclined to go public with important information.
Analysts, however, said the administration is trying to get its hands around a growing threat to the country's security.Today, the country faces threats from thousands of people with access to information and the ability to publish it instantly."It's even more important to prosecute those crimes," Barthel said. "With technology it's so much easier to disseminate that information. The military, the government has to take a very strong stand on it."
"He put an enormous number of people in great danger," said Daniel Benjamin, , a former counterterrorism coordinator at the State Department and now director of Dartmouth's Dickey Center for International Understanding. "It's absurd to say that this is serving the public good."
The new patent adds 20 new claimed inventions, with a priority date of August 8, 2003, and further expands AudioEye's coverage in the field of automated Internet multi-format multimedia publishing. The technology allows users to continue publishing their Internet content and applications through their systems and via automated means, as AudioEye's cloud-based software platform enables the creation of a mirror image of published content in a completely audio format. Complete with audio navigation, the functionality of any AudioEye-enabled website or mobile site can be accessed without the use of traditional point-and-click technologies. End users are able to access all content, functionality and transactional components of AudioEye-enabled sites without having to use a monitor or mouse. Brands and publishers are able to engage in a dialogue with consumers and other relevant audiences, while website users benefit from mobile, accessible and usable experiences in an audio format.
"As the scope and depth of our platform continues to expand with innovative new technologies designed to allow websites to become more accessible, mobile and compliant with the 21st Century Communications Act, we will continue to patent our innovations," commented Nathaniel Bradley, Chief Executive Officer of AudioEye, Inc. "We are pleased to receive this latest Notice of Allowance, which provides further evidence of AudioEye's early Internet initiatives and pioneering tenure in this rapidly emerging market."
Nathaniel Bradley is the named inventor on all six of AudioEye's issued patents that are foundational to the Company's software as a service (SaaS) product line called the Audio Internet. The Audio Internet is a software service that allows any publisher to provide Internet users with a fully audio, narrated, hands-free and vision-free version of its website. By making Internet content available to users that are challenged by language barriers or disabilities such as dyslexia, autism, and low vision, in a searchable captioned multi-media format, the Audio Internet provides solutions to key issues that companies and government agencies face on a global scale.
Sean Bradley, AudioEye's Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, stated, "Our proprietary set of audio publishing technologies continues to add to the pedigree of AudioEye's technology platform and sets us apart from anything available in today's marketplace. Our intellectual property portfolio continues to expand, protected by an increasing number of patents, thus strengthening AudioEye's position as the sole source of new and exciting Internet mobility, accessibility, and usability solutions. It is our objective to maximize the value of these U.S. patent rights through the execution of our business plan within identified target markets. Our programing interface will accelerate website publishers' ability to afford, benefit from, and fully comply with federal, state and local requirements pertaining to the accessibility mandate of the 21st Century Communications Act."
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
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