Judge to begin 5-day hearing in military leak case

[midnight]

Source: Associated Press


A military judge in Fort Meade, Md., is beginning a five-day motions hearing for an Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

Pfc. Bradley Manning is charged with aiding the enemy and other offenses. Prosecutors say he gave hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables and war logs to the secret-sharing website WikiLeaks.

The 24-year-old's trial is currently scheduled for September. The judge this week will consider a number of motions by military prosecutors and Manning's attorneys. Those include a renewed motion by the defense to have two of the 22 charges against Manning dismissed.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2012/Jul/16/judge_to_begin_5_day_hearing_in_military_leak_case.html

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Let's hope today is the day that these 22 charges are dropped against Bradley Manning...

"Everest : Why do you think the U.S. government is acting so aggressively and harshly in this case?

Gosztola : The U.S. government has reacted so aggressively and harshly because they have to make an example out of Manning. The shocks to this American superpower caused by his alleged leaks were on a scale that no person in power could ever have imagined. Particularly troublesome for the U.S. government was the release of the cache of over 250,000 U.S. State Department Embassy cables. The release fully exposed how U.S. diplomats have used blackmail, bribery, coercion, cover-ups, fraud, misconduct and other tactics to advance U.S. foreign policy. This forced multiple ambassadors and employees of the State Department to be shuffled around to new posts in the same way that the Catholic Church moves priests guilty of sex crimes so they can avoid attention and accountability.

No person in government can point to an alleged attack by a terrorist organization and say an alleged leak by Manning caused that. Nobody can point to the death of an informant or human rights activist and say that was because of something that was published on the WikiLeaks website. Yet, the government said at the beginning that there would be great damage to national security and lives would be endangered. Well, no critical infrastructure or anything was ever damaged. The only thing hurt was the ego of American empire."http://www.countercurrents.org/everest220612.htm

When the Bush administration released the name of a CIA how many people lost their jobs and lives?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. The judge is a military judge. Notwithstanding any defense motions, Manning is toast.

[midnight]

3. I suppose that might be the case, but I hope not.....

"Colonel Denise Lind, the sitting judge in the hearing, requires the government to draft a “due diligence” statement to explain its efforts to follow so-called “discovery rules,” under which prosecution is obligated to share material it obtains with the defense.
Manning’s civilian defense lawyer, David Coombs, has maintained that the government is stonewalling because the damage assessments are likely to show that there is no connection between the release of the material and any troop casualties. During proceedings, Coombs accused the prosecution of lying about complying with discovery rules.
“Normally, these games are not played,” Coombs said to head prosecutor Major Ashden Fein. “You hand over discovery and let the facts speak. You don’t play hide the ball, and that’s what the government’s been doing.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/mann-j29.shtml

[struggle4progress]

4. Burden of Proof in Manning Case Faces Change

Monday, July 16, 2012
Last Update: 1:57 PM PT
By ADAM KLASFELD

FORT MEADE, Md. (CN) - A military judge signaled that she would adjust the burden of proof prosecutors must meet to convict alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning of "aiding the enemy."

Manning faces life imprisonment for allegedly sending hundreds of thousands of confidential files to the secret-spilling website, which prosecutors claim could have fallen into the hands of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula ...

In April, Col. Denise Lind, the judge presiding over the trial, allowed prosecutors to pursue the aiding-the-enemy charge at trial, but warned them to have proof that Manning leaked documents with that effect in mind ...

Prosecutors let the deadline pass to seek Manning's execution, but this case is precedent-setting, Coombs noted ...

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/16/48427.htm

[struggle4progress]

5. US government claims it has proof of Bradley Manning aiding the enemy

Claim could seal Manning's fate on most serious charge if proven he knew enemy groups could obtain leaked files
Ed Pilkington at Fort Meade, Maryland
guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 July 2012 17.23 EDT

The US government claims to have proof that Bradley Manning, the WikiLeaks suspect, knowingly passed state secrets to a location where it was bound to be obtained by enemy groups, a military court in Maryland has heard.

Captain Joe Morrow, a member of the five-strong prosecution team assigned to the case, said that the government would show at court martial that Manning had knowingly "aided the enemy" – the most serious of the 22 charges facing the soldier that carries the death penalty. Morrow said the evidence would show that Manning sent the information to a "very definite place" that he knew was used by the enemy.

He did not mention al-Qaida, though the terrorist network has been explicity named by the prosecution in previous hearings.

The insistence by the US government that it can prove Manning had actual knowledge that the WikiLeaks dump would be used by enemy groups was instantly disputed by the lead defence lawyer, David Coombs. He demanded that the government produce the evidence to which it was alluding ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/16/bradley-manning-aiding-the-enemy?newsfeed=true

[struggle4progress]

6. Manning Lawyer Wants U.S. Oversight to Persist

Monday, July 16, 2012
Last Update: 8:39 AM PT
By ADAM KLASFELD

(CN) - After months of fighting for more transparency in court-martial proceedings against Pfc. Bradley Manning, a lawyer for the alleged WikiLeaks source made a push to maintain the status quo in which it works with the government to redact defense filings before publicly publishing them.

The public record is less transparent for stateside courts-martial than it is for military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press ...

His attorney David Coombs agreed in early April that the briefs he would post online would obscure any name of a government employee not involved in the case, any word prosecutors uttered in court, and any line of text from government briefings or judicial rulings ...

But now the government says that the process of reviewing defense redactions in a 30-day window has gotten "overly burdensome," Coombs explained ...

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/16/48416.htm

[struggle4progress]

7. No break-in by WikiLeaks suspect - lawyer

AFP July 17, 2012 4:19AM

WIKILEAKS suspect Bradley Manning had permission to read secret US diplomatic cables and should not be charged with an electronic "break-in" of government computers, his defense lawyer has told a military court.

David Coombs, the civilian lawyer for Private Manning, asked a military judge at a pre-trial hearing to dismiss two counts against his client, saying that the US Army private did not steal a password or otherwise hack into a government computer network when he downloaded classified State Department cables ...

But government prosecutors said the "Wget" software he used, which is designed to retrieve computer files quickly, was not authorised and that Pte Manning's actions therefore "amounted to a trespass because it was done without authority."

Mr Coombs acknowledged that Pte Manning could be charged with a lesser offense by using the software, which he said was akin to a worker violating contractual terms set down by a company for computer use ...

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/no-break-in-by-wikileaks-suspect-lawyer/story-e6freuz9-1226427665783

[struggle4progress]

8. .. Manning’s attorney argued .. two of the charges .. are improper. The judge has yet to rule ..

Last edited Mon Jul 16, 2012, 07:24 PM - Edit history (1)

Judge Begins 5-Day Hearing In Military Leak Case
Updated: Monday, 16 Jul 2012, 1:29 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 16 Jul 2012, 1:29 PM EDT
JESSICA GRESKO,Associated Press
http://www.wtnh.com/dpps/military/5-day-hearing-begins-in-wikileaks-case_4239441

[midnight]

10. Thank you for your input...... I've been looking for some updates...

[lovuian]

9. Bush and cohorts exposed Valerie Plame

and are still walking around

if they want to prove to the World what is going on in America
the Manning case is it

[midnight]

11. With the lack of coverage it is hard to know what is going on... When Libby went to court, we had

Firedoglake....

[permatex]

12. The bottom line is that Manning broke the law by releasing those docs w/o authorization.

He signed the the non disclosure agreement and he violated it. The govt has him cold and he is going to probably spend the rest of his life in the Florence ADX if not Leavenworth.