Update 3/20/12: Journalists challenge “aiding the enemy” charge, more classified info published in the Washington Post
Bradley Manning supporters demonstrate in San Francisco
Journalists challenge “aiding the enemy” charge. After almost two years of pre-trial confinement, the prosecution finally answered the question. At last week’s hearing before a judge at Fort Meade, government lawyers disclosed that the “enemy” PFC Manning is alleged to have “aided” is Al Qaeda and its Yemeni offshoot, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Even U.S. national security officials, both former and current, are questioning the logic of this absurd and baseless charge.
Reuters reports that former State Department spokesman PJ Crowley believes that this charge “undermines the credibility of the prosecution.” The wire service added:
“Numerous U.S. defense and security officials contacted by Reuters said they did not know what specific aid Manning’s alleged leaks to WikiLeaks provided to AQAP.”
On Friday, Cenk Ugyur of The Young Turks denounced that charge as ridiculous, instead suggesting Manning is a political prisoner who acted on his conscience to expose wrongdoing.
After the motion hearing, Kevin Gosztola spoke with RT, discussing the same issue. Gosztola says charging Bradley with aiding the enemy “shows you how far the government is willing to go to make an example out of Manning, to make sure no soldiers do this again.” Furthermore, he says Manning is in some ways being treated worse than Guantanamo’s terrorism suspects, because the “media is not actually allowed to have access to records during the military’s court proceedings,” pointing to a recent media coalition’s effort to access those records.
Classified information is published in the mainstream press, with no prosecutions. As we’ve written about before, and as Trevor Timm has highlighted well, major media outlets like the Washington Post and New York Times frequently publish classified – even Top Secret – information on their front pages. These illegal disclosures are never prosecuted, because the government selectively releases information that advances its goals. Meanwhile, the government punishes PFC Manning for allegedly exposing massive wrongdoing in cables that were marked either Secret or lower.
In a recent Washington Post story by David Ignatius, a report was declassified for the Post so that Ignatius could report on an alleged Osama Bin Laden plot to kill President Obama. Marcy Wheeler explains how the Obama administration selectively de-classifies documents or shares still-classified information with the Post, with no regard for the secrecy standard they hold to PFC Manning. (Read more…)
"This is Thera from China, I’m a university student and study English as major. I knew Bradley Manning from the news, he is my hero, we need the people like him, we have the rights to know the truth. Because, without justice, peace is Nothing! Hold on man, you are not alone!"
