After a year and a half in jail, a long stretch of it in solitary confinement and under conditions which could be described as torture, Bradley Manning finally had a day in court.
Freedom of Information Hero Bradley Manning
I doubt if he will have a fair trial. A wise man once said (in other words, I don’t know where this quote comes from, but I like it) military justice is to justice what military music is to music. Also, the indicators are bad. Manning’s lawyer requested that the investigating officer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Almanza, recuse himself, and gave several good reasons. Almanza replied, in essence, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!
One of the reasons was the obvious bias with regard to which witnesses would be allowed to testify. The prosecution requested 21 witnesses, and they were all approved. 100% . The defense requested 48 witnesses. 10 of those were also on the prosecutions list, so they were approved. Of the remaining 38, the court will only allow 2. I’d call that bias. I’d also guess that they aren’t the strongest 2.
Another reason I don’t think he’ll get a fair trial is that the government so obviously wants to keep him in jail and, in our current political climate (which has not “changed” in the last 3 years and I’m starting to lose “hope”) the government gets what the government wants.
Bradley Manning may well have done what he’s accused of. If this were a civilian court, or if he were actively denying that he’d done it, there’s no way they could convict him. They’ve got the word of one guy who Bradley Manning sent one e-mail, in a self-questioning moment.
However, Manning seems to be making the defense that the documents never should have been classified in the 1st place and that releasing them was the noble, honest and public spirited thing to do.
I agree with that. I’ll be real surprised if he can convince the U.S. military, though, because they are basically interested in starting wars and killing people. Truth becoming public might interfere with those goals.
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