Lawyers for the US Army intelligence analyst blamed for the biggest leak of US secrets in the nation’s history are employing a three-pronged defense: The troubled young private should never have had access to classified material, his workplace security was inexplicably lax and the data in question caused little damage to national security anyhow.
It is unclear whether any of the arguments will hold sway in a preliminary hearing at an army installation outside of Washington that was entering its fifth day yesterday.
The case continues after the military released a text file purportedly discovered on a data card owned by Private First Class Bradley Manning, boldly stating the importance of data that would make its way to the secrets-spilling Web site WikiLeaks.
“This is possibly one of the more significant documents of our time, removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare. Have a good day,” Manning wrote, according to digital-crimes investigator David Shaver.
Almost 500,000 classified battlefield reports were also on the card, Shaver said, making the letter one of the most forceful pieces of evidence against the 24-year-old native of Crescent, Oklahoma.
Manning is accused of illegally leaking a trove of secret information to WikiLeaks, a breach that rattled US foreign relations and, according to the government, imperiled valuable military and diplomatic sources.
By Monday, the government had called 15 of an expected 21 witnesses.
Expected to last several more days, the hearing is to determine whether Manning should be court-martialed on 22 charges, including aiding the enemy. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Until Monday, the defense largely focused on painting Manning as an emotionally troubled gay man serving during the army’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” era when gays were banned from serving openly in the military.
The defense said the classified material proved harmless in the open anyhow.
Manning’s lawyers have yet to acknowledge or deny his responsibility for leaking of hundreds of thousands of US war and diplomatic cables, and a classified military video of a US helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men.
In a back-and-forth on the digital case against Manning, the prosecution said evidence showed that Manning communicated directly with WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange and bragged to someone else about leaking video of a 2007 helicopter attack to WikiLeaks.
Investigators pointed to one exchange in May last year between Manning and a mathematician named Eric Schmiedl.
“Are you familiar with WikiLeaks?” Manning allegedly asked.
“Yes, I am,” Schmiedl wrote.
“I was the source of the July 12, 2007, video from the Apache Weapons Team which killed the two journalists and injured two kids,” Manning wrote, according to the prosecution.
In camouflaged army fatigues and dark-rimmed glasses, Manning seemed to take in Monday’s proceedings calmly. During one of several recesses, he leaned back and sat casually in his chair, chatting with a soldier from the defense team, gesturing with his hands, nodding his head and occasionally smiling.
He sat up when attorneys re-entered the courtroom and civilian attorney David Coombs put his arm around Manning’s shoulder several times.
Paul Almanza, the presiding officer, twice removed spectators and reporters from the hearing on Monday for sessions dealing with classified information.
By ruling the leaked diplomatic and military information should somehow remain secret, even though it has been published by media around the world, Almanza undermined the defense argument that no harm was done and the information might as well be public.
Manning supporters fumed. His defense also challenged thousands of cables found on Manning’s workplace computers, saying that some did not match those published by WikiLeaks and that others could not be matched to the young private’s user profile.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS