This is part of the wider process of turning being technologically skillful (or at least, more skillful than those in power) into a crime in itself. We've already seen countless of examples, and it's really nothing new.
It started way back when the establishment managed to get society to equate "hacker" with "criminal". Many have argued that we should just accept that as a historical fact, but the propaganda was deliberate and the process that created the propaganda has only gathered strength since.
You suggest that the modern vilification of hackers (such as Bradley Manning) is analogous to the medieval burning of witches. I assert that hackers and witches also have something else in common.
The spells that witches cast are analogous to the code that hackers develop. They are both writing in esoteric languages that can create things and cause actions. Witches' power is magical, but hackers' power is virtual. Neal Stephenson uses the Sumerian word namshub to describe this idea in his novel Snow Crash.
It started way back when the establishment managed to get society to equate "hacker" with "criminal". Many have argued that we should just accept that as a historical fact, but the propaganda was deliberate and the process that created the propaganda has only gathered strength since.
Witches and heretics, the lot of you.