The sentencing phase of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s trial began today at Fort Meade, with testimony from Brigadier General Robert Carr, a prosecution witness who was trying desperately to portray Manning’s leaks as a big problem.
“The one that hit us in the face were the Iraq logs,” Carr insisted, saying the army was overwhelmed by trying to cope with that many documents, and that it forced the military to rethink data access policies.
Brig. Gen. Carr further initially claimed that Manning’s leaks had lead to the death of an Afghan national, but later conceded, under defense cross-examination, that there was no actual evidence to support that claim, and that the slain Afghan wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the leaks.
Indeed, Carr finally had to concede that he had no evidence that anyone was ever killed by the leaks, leading defense attorney David Coombs to note that the prosecution seemed to be trying to blame “just about everything that ever happened” on Manning.
The defense is also trying to get some of the charges merged by the court to somewhat reduce the potential maximum sentence for Manning, noting that many of the charges are essentially the same thing.
But a lot of people died; at the hands of the collateral murderers.
While the military is all up in arms about Manning, the collateral murderers are told they're heros, and run free.
Manning was just an eye witness to mass murder, all he did was exposed the perpetrators and for that general Robert Carr wants the public to think that Manning pulled the trigger, there is no evidence that anyone got killed as a result of these leaks.
The truth is always hard to swallow, some times it even might be dangerous to to those who brook the law, talking about America, is always against the law to tell the truth.
Good that they didn't let the prosecution get away with every single lie and actually asked them for evidence of their claims, but Manning was still convicted of freaking espionage.
The public must take the reigns and pardon Manning.