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TechnoratiBradley Manning hearing begins with call for judge to quit
US soldier Bradley Manning appeared in a US military court for the first time Friday, accused of passing thousands of classified US documents to WikiLeaks. His civil lawyer, David Coombs, called on the judge, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Almanza, to stand down, dubbing him a stooge of the Defence Department.
Wearing a green camouflage uniform, Manning appeared calm as he chatted to Coombs and two US army officers, his military-appointed lawyers, at the courthouse in Fort Meade, Maryland.
It was his first appearance in public his arrest in May 2010.
The hearing into his case starts three days before his 24th birthday.
He is accused of supplying WikiLeaks with US diplomatic cables, videos and military reports from Afghanistan and Iraq while serving as an intelligence analyst on a military base near Baghdad between November 2009 and May 2010.
Asked by the investigating officer, a US Army lieutenant colonel whose name was not given, whether he had been read the charges and understood his rights, Manning replied: "Yes, sir."
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Fort Meade near Baltimore, Maryland, is the headquarters of the top secret National Security Agency.
Manning suffered treatement that some of his supporters claimed amounted to torture before being given an upgrade in April.
A US military expert told reporters that it was an investigative hearing, not to determine guilt or innocence but to review the evidence and charges.
An investigating officer will then recommend whether to move to a court-martial.
Ahead of the hearing, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Manning’s action as “very damaging”, claiming that it “put at risk individuals and relationships to an extent that we took very seriously”.
Adrian Lamo, the hacker who led US authorities to Manning, has said that he would suffer “lasting regret” if Manning is given a long prison sentence but added that he thought his action was justified by national security considerations.
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What to do with Traitors
NEWS: In Web chat logs later made public by Wired magazine, Private Manning — identified in the logs only by a screen name — discussed his feelings of depression and loneliness and his motives for diverting the secret material to a “crazy white haired dude,” Mr. Assange.
The person in the chat logs showed a boyish glee at outsmarting the Army’s poorly protected computer system but also offered political motives, suggesting that “criminal political backdealings” should be subjected to public scrutiny.
Where’s the damage? Where’s the harm? Spoken like a true traitor’s accomplice and a liar, er lawyer.
So, Manning had plenty of time to consider what he had in his hands and who he was handing it over to – “a crazy…white haired dude.” He was gleeful in his Benedict Arnold role. So, give him a choice. Life in Quantico or a rope. He’s a traitor to this country who couldn’t possibly have thought through all of the scenarios of harm for what he did.