Bradley Manning’s Defense Moves to Temporarily Suspend Court Martial - FDL [View all]

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Bradley Manning’s Defense Moves to Temporarily Suspend Court Martial
By: Kevin Gosztola - FDL
Friday June 22, 2012 5:52 pm


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The defense for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, has filed a relief motion calling on the military judge to temporarily suspend court martial proceedings and order the prosecution to state how it has taken steps to disclose known evidence that might negate or reduce Manning’s degree of guilt or reduce the punishment he might face if found guilty.

The request to temporarily suspend proceedings, according to the motion, is being made because prosecutors have not fully conducted a due diligence search for evidence and have not handed over evidence that has been formally requested.

The motion lists what organizations they are still waiting to receive evidence from: Interagency Committee Review, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, House of Representatives Oversight Committee, the State Department’s Chiefs of Mission review, Wikileaks Working Group “Mitigation Team,” the State Department’s reporting to Congress and other files, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Central Command, Southern Command, the Department of the Army Headquarters, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), Justice Department, “Government,” Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive and sixty-three agencies or other organizations the government claims to have contacted with regards to the alleged leaks.

The defense argues the withholding of evidence will impact the defense’s ability to prepare a witness list, file future motions to compel discovery of evidence, admit or authenticate evidence that could be used in the trial, enter a plea and delay a speedy trial motion. It requests that the judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, order the production of this material under a “relevant and necessary” standard that is dictates what evidence is and is not discoverable to the defense.

Additionally, in the same motion, the defense moves to compel the discovery of four computers from the intelligence facility that Manning worked in at the Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq, where he is alleged to have carried out the downloading and transfer of information to WikiLeaks. The motion says the government “represented” the computers would be produced on May 18 in a statement made on April 16. On May 29, “the defense asked when it should expect to receive the hard drives.” The government claimed they would have approval to hand over the drives by the end of the week. But, as of June 2, the government still had not provided the computers to the defense.

The defense also moves to compel the defense to turn over an “FBI impact statement” and an “ONCIX damage assessment.” (The prosecution has preposterously claimed law enforcement files from the FBI are irrelevant to Manning.) Interestingly, for anyone who wants a particular glimpse at the secrecy games the military prosecutors and government have been playing, the motion includes a timeline of when requests for evidence from the State Department were made. A bulleted list summarizes for the judge:

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Much More: http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/06/22/bradley-mannings-defense-moves-to-suspend-court-martial-proceedings/