"The Trials of Bradley Manning." By Amy Goodman

[MichaelMcGuire]

Award-winning journalist and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman records a podcast in conjunction with her weekly column, which you can read here: http://bit.ly/QBC5S

December 13, 2012

Read this week's column by Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan:

Pfc. Bradley Manning was finally allowed to speak publicly, in his own defense, in a preliminary hearing of his court-martial. Manning is the alleged source of the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history. He was an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, with top-secret clearance, deployed in Iraq. In April 2010, the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks released a U.S. military video of an Apache helicopter in Baghdad killing a dozen civilians below, including two Reuters employees, a videographer and his driver. One month after the video was released, Manning was arrested in Iraq, charged with leaking the video and hundreds of thousands more documents. Thus began his ordeal of cruel, degrading imprisonment in solitary confinement that many claim was torture, from his detention in Kuwait to months in the military brig in Quantico, Va. Facing global condemnation, the U.S. military transferred Manning to less-abusive detention at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

As he now faces 22 counts in a court martial that could land him in prison for the rest of his life, his lawyer argued in court that the case should be thrown out, based on his unlawful pretrial punishment.

Veteran constitutional attorney Michael Ratner was in the courtroom at Fort Meade, Md., that day Manning took the stand. He described the scene: “It was one of the most dramatic courtroom scenes I’ve ever been in. ... When Bradley opened his mouth, he was not nervous. The testimony was incredibly moving, an emotional roller coaster for all of us, but particularly, obviously, for Bradley and what he went through. But it was so horrible what happened to him over a two-year period. He described it in great detail in a way that was articulate, smart, self-aware.”

Continue reading here: https://soundcloud.com/democracynow/the-trials-of-bradley-manning

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. She's *great*. ( So is he, for that matter.) K and R n/t

[MichaelMcGuire]

14. I have to agree with you here. I've enjoyed reading what Amy has to say for sometime now. (NT)

[RomneyLies]

2. I heard a prediction of 16 years in prison.

I really like hearing he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Of course, even that is not enough for the crimes the bastard committed

[Sea-Dog]

3. shame your view

isn't even remotely in line with world opinion
heard that he got awarded i really like that
person of the year by the guardian a hero in the eyes of many

a reminder of what this hero has done

shown the world what the number one superpower is really like
it comes down to your either on the side of Bradley or your with
the oppressor, killer of children and torturers

[RomneyLies]

6. He committed crimes against this country, so to hell with what the rest of the world thinks

The bastard is a traitor.

Death is the only appropriate sentence, IMO.

[Sea-Dog]

8. LOL

likewise the majority doesn't give two fucks what a you think. LOL Had to check the web address thought i was posting in free republic. Not DU

[MichaelMcGuire]

18. I wouldn't waste time on someone like that. (NT)

[MichaelMcGuire]

15. Shameful

[randome]

4. I have a hard time thinking of Manning as '...articulate, smart, self-aware.'

The guy had a meltdown and punched his commanding officer. He has a gender identity disorder. I remember reading on DU that he threatened his family. He was discovered in a fetal position on the floor after having carved the words 'I want' into a chair.

I think leniency should be shown this obviously disturbed young man since his superior officers did not do their jobs to see that he had no access to classified material.

But the sheer arrogance of some to paint him as some statue of calm nobility is ludicrous.

[Sea-Dog]

5. torture lovers will use any excuse to justify his treatment eh?

hes on the side of the many
your on the side of the few

[RomneyLies]

7. He was never tortured.

Saying he was doesn't alter that fact.

[Sea-Dog]

9. Hes been tortured face it

what kind of warp mind would think otherwise? I don't give two flying fucks if a government says its isn't torture or illegal. A untwisted mind sees otherwise.

[RomneyLies]

11. IT takes a warped mind to think being held in custody is torture.

[Sea-Dog]

12. Not really. It plain to see (Rolleyes) indeed.

I can trust there is a ability to read and understand

Article 1 of the Convention against Torture

"Article 1

1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions."

And IF YOUR FUCKING VERY VERY VERY LUCKY ONLY ARTICLE 16

ASK YOURSELF IS IT NORMAL TO UNDRESS INDIVIDUALS AND LEAVE THEM TO SLEEP ON THE FLOOR IS THIS THE NORM IN THE U.S. WHEN IN CUSTODY LOL.
 

[RomneyLies]

13. Nice cite

The military didn't do anything like that to the traitor.

So again,

[MichaelMcGuire]

16. Character assassination shows the lack of ability to 'play the ball' so to speak.

All to common and easy to attack the player. Its off topic as well. Doesn't excuse ill treatment at all.


I too think that individuals that identity as Transgender may take offence to you saying its a disorder.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. The murderers of the civilians walk free. The whistle blower who exposed them is in prison.

God bless America.

[MichaelMcGuire]

17. Amen