BRADLEY MANNING 'DON'T ASK , DON'T TELL': December 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

#BradleyManning : Legal Strategy Could Lead To Plea Deal

While it may appear that the government’s document-leaking case against US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning is strong, the defense could have some surprising leverage with prosecutors and force plea negotiations.

Prosecutors may in particular find it difficult to prove the 24-year-old Manning intended to provide the information to enemies of the United States such as al Qaeda, and that the information was helpful to them, legal experts said.

Manning faces 22 charges of participating in the largest leak of classified government documents in history, including the accusation that he had unauthorized possession of information related to national defense and that he stole records belonging to the United States.

At a hearing that concluded last week, military prosecutors presented evidence that Manning downloaded thousands of classified or confidential files that later made their way to the WikiLeaks website. In his closing summation at the hearing, Captain Ashden Fein, the lead prosecutor, said Manning was a well-trained soldier who “used that training to defy our trust.”...read more

http://www.firstpost.com/world/mannings-legal-strategy-could-lead-to-plea-deal-167827.html

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Bradley Manning - Assange Connection...

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The Army is seeking to establish a precedent with the Manning case that will effectively militarize the Internet and media because “terrorists” may learn about US government secrets. Under such conditions, whistleblowers who divulge covert activities of the US government, as well as journalists who report them, could be accused of aiding terrorists, detained by the military or tried for espionage.

http://onlyinamericablogging.blogspot.com/2011/12/manning-assange-connection-were-off.html

From the Facebook page by Bribane WikiLeaks Defence:

#BradleyManning : #Guardian Hits Rock Bottom With Smear Campaign Against Wikileaks…

The Guardian entrapment operation organised by David Leigh and Nick Davies against Julian Assange has dragged that ‘newspaper’ into the amoral gutter.

On Twitter today, the official Wikileaks account tweeted “don’t trust The Guardian or the New York Tmes. They’ll use you and then hang you.” Such eloquence is damning and there is no doubt at all that The Guardian always intended to entrap Assange and pass his data to the NYT.

Assange was the unwitting victim of a nasty, calculated scam and The Guardian’s claim to be a ‘moral newspaper’ is shot to pieces. Their actions are no different than the News of the World.
But David Leigh does not see it the same way, unsurprisingly, he maintains the self-proclaimed fantasy of working for a ‘moral newspaper’. There is no such thing in Britain and the newspaper industry is a cesspit of criminality, hypocrisy, dishonesty and outright immorality. ...read more

http://newsallianceuk.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/the-guardian-hits-rock-bottom-with-smear-campaign-against-wikileaks/

Friday, December 23, 2011

FREE : #BradleyManning - People Have The Right To Know

http://www.bradleymanning.org/

#BradleyManning : U.S. Hearing In Private Mannings Wikileaks Case Ends

FORT MEADE, Md. — The military hearing against Pfc. Bradley Manning closed on Thursday, with lawyers and onlookers alternately portraying the young soldier as a traitor who acted with premeditation and as an emotionally troubled whistle-blower. ...read more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/us/hearing-in-private-mannings-wikileaks-case-ends.html?_r=1

#BradleyManning Pre-Trial Hearing What We Learned

Bradley Manning arrives at the court facility at Fort Meade

Bradley Manning is escorted from a military vehicle to the court facility at Fort Meade, Maryland. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

For seven days, a makeshift court inside a sprawling military base in Maryland has been hearing evidence in a case that that has raised questions of freedom of speech, the practices of US army intelligence, gender identity and the place of gay personnel in the armed services.

Sitting sometimes in secret, at other times in a kind of pseudo-public forum, this idiosyncratic court has been considering whether a full court martial should be held for Bradley Manning, an army intelligence analyst with a troubled background who is alleged to be the source of the biggest leak of US state secrets in history.

Manning faces a potential life sentence if army investigators can prove he passed the information to WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website founded by the mercurial Julian Assange....read more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/23/bradley-manning-pre-trial-hearing

#BradleyManning : Obama Gave Manning “Verdict First, Trial Later.”

ELLSBERG: The commander-in-chief, President Obama, gave Manning ‘verdict first, trial later.’ He said Manning had broken the law, before even the prosecution case had been heard, let alone the defense case. He said he was guilty,

That alone is virtually a directed verdict. It’s unlawful command influence on the subordinate officers, who will be carrying out both this decision, and later in the trial. The court martial should be out for that reason alone.

http://www.ellsberg.net/archive/obama-gave-manning-verdict-first-trial-later

#BradleyManning : Images From Around The World In Support Of Brad - STUNNING

http://www.flickr.com/photos/savebradley/show/

Monday, December 19, 2011

#BradleyManning hearing centers on computer evidence – latest report from Fort Meade

#BradleyManning hearing centers on computer evidence – latest report from Fort Meade

http://bit.ly/sPHeOy

Bradley #Manning:Short Film - Bradley Had Secrets - A Future Movie In The Making

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/12/19/bradley-manning-secrets/

This striking short film from animator Adam Butcher, based on the Bradley Manning chat files that were later used against him, explores Manning as a young solider with a crisis of gender identity.