Earlier quoted context omitted.
She wasn't technically a whistleblower, technically she stole classified documents and betrayed her country that she swore to protect. The military have a different way of dealing with justice, especially in U.S. She was in fact sentenced by court-martial not by a regular court.
Snowden demonstrated that the "technical whistleblower" channels are ineffective at ending illegal behavior by the govt. The assertion that whistleblowers must use official channels is just a paper-thinly veiled argument for silencing all whistleblowing.
Deep throat identity has been a very well kept secret for over 30 years, Manning and Snowden have been exposed merely weeks after the material was published.
It looks to me that Wikileaks is the real paper-thinly veil.
If I was a conspiracy theorist I would think that wikileaks was created exactly with the purpose of exposing whistleblowers.