Constitutional rights attorneys, media challenge secrecy of Manning court martial
The Center for Constitutional Rights and leading civil liberties advocates appeal the judge’s refusal to grant public and press access to proceedings in Bradley Manning’s case
By the Center for Constitutional Rights. May 24, 2012.
Sketch of Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing
Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a petition requesting the Army Court of Criminal Appeals to order the Judge in the court martial of alleged Wikileaks leaker Private Bradley Manning to grant the public and press access to the government’s motion papers, the court’s own orders, and transcripts of proceedings, none of which have been made public to date. In addition, the petition challenges the fact that substantive legal matters in the court martial – including a pretrial publicity order – have been argued and decided in secret.
The petitioners include CCR itself and a diverse group of media figures: Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, The Nation and its national security correspondent Jeremy Scahill, and Wikileaks and its publisher, Julian Assange. Also included are Kevin Gosztola, co-author of Truth and Consequences: The U.S. vs. Bradley Manning and civil liberties blogger covering the Manning court martial, and Chase Madar, author of The Passion of Bradley Manning and a contributing editor to The American Conservative.
“Public scrutiny plays a vital role in government accountability. Media access to the Manning trial proceedings and documents is critical for the transparency on which democratic government and faith in our justice system rests,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy. “Portions of the hearings themselves have been open to a small number attorneys and press, but the Manning proceedings have been open in name only.”
Said Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation: “Since its founding in 1865, The Nation has been committed to the elementary democratic principle that government operate openly and be subject to public oversight. We believe citizens have a right to know what their government is doing. It is therefore vital that the media covering Pfc. Bradley Manning’s court martial be able to view documents filed in public proceedings.”
The petition details the ways in which this court martial proceeding has been even less transparent than the controversial military commission proceedings ongoing at Guantánamo Bay.
Today’s petition is available here. Jonathan Hafetz, a professor at Seton Hall Law School, is co-counsel on the case.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change. Visit www.ccrjustice.org and follow @theCCR.
Thank you!
On this Memorial Day Weekend we remember all those who have served so that we could enjoy our constitutional rights. Isn’t it strange that it is one of those very service men who has been denied his rights and our right to know.
The secrecy of the trial of Bradley Manning should be open to scrutiny
A secret court is a kangaroo court.
Transparency, accountability, truth, integrity, and wise foreign and domestic policies- these are what we all expect from our political leaders. Instead, we have gotten secrecy, coverups, the perpetuation of war in the guise of ending it, and a national security state from a President who promised something very different and received a Nobel Peace Prize in anticipation of him delivering, and and will get the same or worse an opponent who is putting together a shadow cabinet of the worst of the GWBush cabinet.
The real patriots who should be honored by our nation are Bradley Manning and his fellow whistle blowers who have sacrificed everything to do the right thing and inform the American public of official wrongdoing.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this “Christian and democratic” nation, obviously, is none of those two and unfortunately Pvt Manning is up the creek w/o a paddle. If this case makes it to the supreme farce, the dice is cast, and he will be in jail for trying to defend our Constitution in prison for life. Confessed war criminals roaming free collecting a socialist pension, while innocent prisoners rot in jail for failure of this “democratic” nation to prosecute true war criminals. Let my people go, said Moses and although he was referring to Israelites only, I want to paraphrase him and ask men of good will to pray for the release of, not only Manning, but all the prisoners in Guantanamo, Kandahar and all America’s gulags. If the law prohibits the torture of prisoners, be Muslim, gentile or Jew, they have suffered enough. A democracy shines its best in the worst of times and of course, we are not that pure, not that innocent. Over one million innocent civilians have been killed for oil and this carnage has to stop. I pray it is sooner rather than later. Long live our exiled, devalued Constitution!
Soldiers of conscience should be honored not imprisoned or punished.
In the Lt. Ehren Watada trial as I understood it, the military’s own witness, an ethics officer said that in a conflict between a military order and your conscience where you have sworn to protect and defend the u s constitution, the soldier is correct to obey their conscience.
Bradley Manning is also such a soldier of conscience and should be honored and vindicated for his courage in standing for right. In my case, he is celebrated as a hero. Thank you, Bradley Manning. May justice prevail.
Shame on the travesty of justice currently being displayed by the US military.
no wonder they want to hide it from the public. Thank you CCR, et al for taking on this issue. bless you.