After disappearing for a year and a half into military custody Pfc. Bradley Manning finally appeared in public today at the beginning of his Article 32 hearing, aimed at deciding if he should face charges in the WikiLeaks releases.
Court documents point to much of the early hearing centering around the complete lack of real damage from the leaks, with Manning’s attorney, David E. Coombs, accusing the presiding officer of delaying the hearing hoping for some sort of incident that could be blamed on the leaks.
Also at issue are the lapses in military leadership ahead of the leaks, not only indications that they ignored evidence of Manning’s deteriorating emotional condition, but that security lapses left the condition of their “secret computer network” in serious doubt.
Documents from the court report that intelligence analysts in Manning’s brigade HQ routinely loaded bootleg games as well as movies and music bought from Iraqi street vendors on the supposedly high security computers, putting them at serious risk of infiltration.
Now I have $225 invested in the defense of that man, and be that kangaroo court to win or loose, my return on such an investment shall far exceed anything that Wall Street could even dream of.
If this is the best defense his legal team is going to offer he is in BIG trouble. Treason is a huge charge and being guilty of only a little treason is like being only a little pregnant, you still are going to have a baby and you still committed treason. Even if the material he gave up is eventually declassified he still leaked it while it was classified and the military is not very forgiving of this sort of thing. His lawyers better step it up if they hope to get him off with only 25 years let alone life. Just ask Johnathan Pollard how he feels about his prison sentence and he was giving information to an ally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
I don't think the pentagon considers Wikileaks an ally.
Pete,
Comparing Pollard with Manning is just plain silly. Pollard revealed nuclear secrets to a foreign government. Manning revealed criminal acts by our government to the American people.
Pollard is a criminal; Manning is a hero. We ought to be giving him a ticker tape parade, not caging him like an animal.
You are a supporter of Pvt. Manning. Good for you. The thrust of my comment is his defense is incredibly weak. Agree or disagree with Pvt. Manning's motives and actions he still is really deep trouble with the direction his defense team is going at this point. Claiming diminished capacity and blaming the Army for him stealing classified documents is going to go nowhere with a military court. He knew what he was doing and got himself caught by bragging about it. His lawyers are going to have to do much better than asking for the case to be tossed because they think his crime is not that bad.
As for Pollard, he was charged with espionage which just so happens to be one of the exact charges that Pvt. Manning is now facing. Pvt. Manning could have faced the death penalty if not for the Government taking that off the table. Pollard eventually plead guilty to conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government for which he got life. Pvt. Manning now faces up to life in prison just like Pollard so comparing the two on legal grounds is not as far fetched as you would think. If found convicted of the charges the judge has the ability to not follow any recommendations and slap him with a life sentence just like what happened to Pollard and this is a real possibility since the government wants to make an example of what happens to people who steal classified documents and gives them to foreigners. This could go very, very badly for Pvt. Manning.
What's left of Manning finally appears in Court. His chances of a fair trial are nil. They will crucify him!
"Don't shine no light on our parade,' the Army says, their Neanderthal brows knotted. "We're conquering the world, don't you know…for the good of mankind of course, heh, heh. Don't let anyone git in our way. We're the beacons!"
They're the bastards!
http://www.dangerouscreation.com