Gov’t denies Bradley ability to use lack of harm as defense; Next hearing to focus on illegal treatment
Next hearing to focus on military’s “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower
Bradley Manning Support Network. July 19, 2012.
FORT MEADE, Maryland – Establishing yet another obstacle for P.F.C. Bradley Manning’s legal defense, military judge Denise Lind ruled Thursday that defense lawyer David Coombs will be substantially hindered from showing how WikiLeaks’ releases didn’t bring damage to U.S. national security. In largely granting a government motion to preclude discussion of actual damage, Lind said that harm or lack thereof is irrelevant to Manning’s guilt or innocence.
“Bradley should be able to argue that he had a reasonable belief that no harm would come from his alleged actions by showing that no harm actually occurred,” explained Jeff Paterson of the Bradley Manning Support Network. “This is another attempt to silence Bradley’s lawyers from depicting the Nobel Peace Prize nominee as a whistle-blower.”
The prosecution continues to argue that the releases “could” cause harm at some point in the future. Coombs says that after two years without damage, that theory “rings hollow.” Coombs previously requested damage assessments from 63 government agencies, and the 28 who replied thus far have described little or no damage.
Manning’s next hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland, August 27-31, will highlight the illegal and torturous treatment the military subjected Manning to at the Quantico Marine Base, Virginia. Coombs is expected to argue for dismissal of all charges based on the military’s flagrant violation of Article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that prohibits all pre-trial punishment “any more rigorous” than required to ensure the accused appears at court hearings.
Judge Lind today ruled that she would not allow United Nations torture rapporteur Juan Mendez to testify about Manning’s unlawful confinement conditions, declaring his testimony irrelevant, even though the torture chief called Manning’s treatment “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” after a 14-month investigation. Officials at Quantico refused to allow Mendez unmonitored access to Manning. “Military Judge Lind’s ruling in effect rewards the military for stonewalling the U.N.,” declared Paterson.
A Quantico staff member is expected to testify to the illegal treatment that Manning endured at the upcoming hearing in late August. In his brief filed with the court, Coombs states that the truth will “shock the conscience of the court.” Supporters will underscore the cruelty of Manning’s conditions by holding a rally at the Fort Meade Main Gate on August 27. Attorney David Coombs is expected to appear at an August 26 public event in Washington, DC, (details to be announced soon) organized by the Bradley Manning Support Network.
I just watched the Collateral Murder video again… I cried throughout… Both for those innocent victims as for Bradley.
I am shocked by the news that the Mendez is not allowed to testify.
What about asking Daniel Ellsberg as a witness?
Let me see if I understand this correctly. The judge said that the testimony of the leader of a 14 month investigation into the conditions Manning was subject to at Quantico is… um……irrelevant to a hearing about the conditions Manning was subject to at Quantico?
If anyone was under the illusion that Bradley would get a fair trial, this ruling leaves little doubt. No one who understands would not think so, which is why we need to redouble our efforts to get coverage of the hearings and court martial. If not on the national MSM then on every local station that we can call on. Follow this link to make contact all of your local stations, newspapers, etc….
http://action.firedoglake.com/page/speakout/manning-coverage
Please get this to Mannings lawyer: The hypothermic torture that Manning endured at Quantico, is in use all over the US. I am one of those victims and I have discovered 10 others that died from it. please see the story at davidbardes dot com, http://www.davidbardes.com.
What are the chances of Manning getting a fair trial in a MILITARY COURT? I’d say slim and none.
The United States is doing what it accuses other countries of doing, and mainly to “SAVE FACE”. How many countless lives have been lost in the name of “SAVING FACE”. No, this has nothing to do with “damage” to national security! It has to do with power and the need to protect that identity at all costs and to act as a deterent to others.
I’ve been hearing that the sheer droves of people who can afford to do so at this time and are fleeing this country and renouncing their citizenships is growing exponentially with the day and I have no difficulty whatsoever in seeing why….One of the many things I have come to solemnly loathe and hate about this country is its blatant and blinding hypocrisy: filthy and contemptible wretches in fedgov like Hilarity Clinton are selling out our Second Amendment rights to the UN so called “Small Arms Treaty” while at the same time snubbing the UN Charter on Human Rights in gross violation of which both the Quantico brass and this total dirt bag of a female military “judge” who most likely never saw a day of actual combat in her life stand guilty. What an unmitigated cesspool of subhumanity this country has morphed into.
Well, all of my absolute best to Bradley in his upcoming show trial at the hands of the military bolshevista—may the latter all rot in Hell for eternity for what they are doing.
This is nothing BUT A Kangaroo Court of typical Military In mature actions of there Childish actions like a Bully on the school yard trying to silence the other kid from telling on them ..I have always said and will continue to say the Military is a breeding ground for Immature behavior in that they all to a person try to please there superiors into thinking there just the Best , seeking a shine new medal to pin on or another stripe to sew on and strut around like a Prairie Chicken in heat …
This Bradley Manning trial sickens me to no end , As in the Endtheirr will be swift Military minded justice and he will be put away in the hopes that he will be forgotten ,.I would hope that this trial Lawyer one day can get her Just reward in her actions that are soterriblee In Humane andChildishlyy typical of her Military she so hopes to please .
It is Sad the Amerikan People will not ever speak out as a Nation against sucbehaviorur .When a group speaks out the othesneerar and abuse and do nosupportrt the actions of the Few isupportrt of the many …Like a Star Trek saying I guess …Gonterriblyly wrong though…..Frank Blackstone
If this is justice, I wonder what the judge calls injustice. She is too damn partial to the government and that is not justice, here and in Timbuktu. If Pvt Manning is been tried for grave damage to the U.S. for revealing war crimes being committed by our “Christian and democractic” nation, how is that a crime in itself and why the supreme court ruled in favor of the press on Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers and why Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers were “Federal District Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. declared a mistrial and dismissed all charges against Ellsberg [and Russo] on May 11, 1973, after several irregularities appeared in the government’s case, including its claim that it had lost records of illegal wiretapping against Ellsberg conducted by the White House Plumbers in the contemporaneous Watergate scandal.[3] Byrne ruled: “The totality of the circumstances of this case which I have only briefly sketched offend a sense of justice. The bizarre events have incurably infected the prosecution of this case.” knowing well and according to Mr Ellsberg that Pvt Mannign’s case and his were one and the same. The courts are there to apply justice, not to legislate, nor to take sides based on political agendas, ideology or going to bat for the government. She should be impeached and pronto. She is not even worthy to replace judge Judy, much less handle criminal cases. She, obviously, doesn’t know the meaning of true justice.
Zip backwards in time to the Kent State shootings during the protest by those college students against the Viet Nam War. The Governor of Ohio sent in the National Guard and shot up those kids, killing a number of them. Remember John Lennon, who was vehemently against the war and sang many songs and the people gathered and sang with him and protested the war. John Lennon was assassinated by a “nut” we were told. When you live in a country whose business is WAR and continuing to enrich the military industrial complex and move the wealth to the top 2% … it explains how and why certain people WILL BE silenced, no matter how wrong or illegal. U.S. citizens are no different than those we attack in other countries …. we are squashed like bugs. One way or another those who don’t “tow the line” will disappear, be eliminated or neutralized. The last real president was JFK. The country is now run by money and the people who have the power to move it, hide it, squander it or take it away.
I am looking forward to the day when love and humanism will rule the world!
Real democracy is impossible as long as the truth is hidden for us. After WW2 the real nature of Nuclear weapons were kept as a secret, and the puplic opinion was manipulated to believe that this weapons would give us “security”.
I a democracy “whistle blowers” are important.
In a real Democracy Bradley Mannings case Would be tried in a Civil, not in a Military court.
U.S. Military Forses has been violating both national and international law.
We are having a standout here in Dorchester, MA today to give visibility to Bradley’s case. We’ll be at a busy intersection with the “Free Bradley Manning” banner and with handouts about what a whistleblower is and the basic facts of the case. Most people have never heard of Bradley or the legal proceedings, thanks to MSM lack of coverage. But they are interested and mostly sympathetic once they know.
Can President Obama pardon Bradley. This is unconscienable, and unconstitional.
he is being treated badly and not for good reason.
He did aledgedly take information that he shouldnt have and gave to a third party for disemination.
That he should be held acountable for.
I think you are mistaken. Please, read the Pentagon Papers and see that government malfeasances, war crimes are not done to protect security in any shape or form, they are to protect the government from possible war crimes and what private Manning did is what the Constitution is all about. BTW, the video showing our “heroes” killing innocent civilians, at least, isn’t that what we say whenwe invade other countries for oil and under false pretenses and lies galore. FYI, I was in the armed forces for 26 years and the first thing I learned was that an illegal order doesn’t have to be obeyed, ergo, what Pvt Manning did was uphold the Constitution. If reading the Pentagon Papers doesn’t convince you either, then read what the guy at the center says about Pvt Manning and if that still doesn’t convince you, then I give up. You might be one of those who believe that every thing the government does is the truth, when our government has never told a truth, but a war crime is never a good thing, even if you believe it is.
Bradley has support from here in Australia.
A vocal minority can change the world – keep up the peaceful fight for Manning!
Don’t fear the government – speak out for the truth!
The world is fascinated with the way the USA has treated Bradley, they have shown themselves in their true colours. Stars and stripes stand for draconian rule.
The war crimes that Bradley allegedly revealed is also evidence that the USA military are guilty of not only war crimes but of trying to cover them up. This makes the Chief and Commander of the USA (President Obama) a war criminal, like Nazi SAS and their boss’s. This is what the fuss is about. The revelation of the cover up of war crimes could and should lead to at least life imprisonment, if not death for the war criminals who actively covered it up, all of Bradley’s chain of command were complicit … so ….
I second Charles, Bradley has lots of support here in Australia. Obviously the Julian Assange connection makes it all the more acute. I have donated to his legal fund and was delighted to receive the card and stickers from his supporters. As soon as I can I will donate again. All the world has something to thank Bradley for. Each country’s government has been made more transparent and therefore more accountable to its bosses, the voting public. (I often wonder if they seem to forget who put them in power in the first place?). I just wish he hadn’t told that FBI dog in that chatroom who then subsequently dobbed him in. The Wikileaks portal was encrypted anonymously with Bittorrent for that very reason. Oh that he’d kept quiet, he’d be safe and sound instead.
“Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience… Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.” -Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950
I never thought it was possible to feel more disgust than what I felt towards Bush-supporters. But now, the more I see of this Bradley Manning thing the more hatred and disgust I feel for Obama supporters deliberately turning their heads away from the glaring fact that Obama is far more the effective evil than Bush. They, along with the rest of those American cowards who plan to “hold their nose while voting for Obama,” deserve their black Romney-clone, but the rest of us do not.
(I’m voting for Jill Stein from the Green Party, because the very survival of our human rights, democracy, and the earth, depends on the American voter’s ability to stay the course of 2008′s goal to rid the world of Bush’s policies, instead of expanding them as Obama has done. Only then can we break away from the “left/right” fists of corporate rule, forever.)
…and how did “Yes We Can” in 2008, turn into “No We Can’t” in 2012, get rid of George Bush’s policies? Are we Americans really that cowardly that the majority of us are just going to roll over and let Obama (or Romney) continue expanding these heinous Bush policies?
Bradley is a very brave young man, all people who have a morel compass will owe him dept of gratitude. The light of freedom that was once America is now the evil empire. Tony.
I too watched the video of shooting of journalist in Iraq from an invisible helicopter and subsequent shooting of a father, taking is 2 children to school, who came to the assistance of the wounded man.
Yes, I cried too.
Proof of no harm done is defense pre-indictment in any court. A legislated crime based on actions that cause no harm is subject to appelate court review with the standing of someone who has been convicted of this non-crime. These criteria do not apply in military law, do they?
We have to go far to destroy state violence. Needs to happen–more and more publicity to wake up the sheeples.
Judge Lind’s behavior disgusts me as well the prosecutions. What does she and the US Government have to hide by not letting the UN Rapporteur on torture testify on Manning’s behalf? This is a monkey show just like the trials in Guantanamo will be… I can see how people like Lt Dan Choi’s medals and uniform were desecrated in her court room. This is not justice. It is Moscow Theater and it is sickening, it is as sickening as making Manning stand at Parade Rest NUDE with his penis hanging out for everyone to see. NAZIs do these sort of things. Not American Soldiers. This is not justice but a show trial.