Bradley Manning (above) is scheduled to face a court-martial September 21st. Monday April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7, 2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." In March, 2011, David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times) reported that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges including one that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could result in the death penalty if convicted. The Article 32 hearing took place in December. At the start of this year, there was an Article 32 hearing and, February 3rd, it was announced that the government would be moving forward with a court-martial. Bradley has yet to enter a plea and has neither affirmed that he is the leaker nor denied it.
On last week's Law and Disorder Radio -- a weekly hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights), they continued their coverage of Bradley Manning. The conversation included a discussion of the aiding the enemy charge.
Michael Ratner: The question is how he aided in the enemy
and I was in court when this happened and they asked the prosecutor how
was he aiding the enemy and they said, 'He's aiding the enemy and he did
it indirectly by giving documents to WikiLeaks which then published the
documents on WikiLeaks which are then read by al Qaeda and then they
get information about --
Michael Smith: Themselves.
Michael
Ratner: Well bascially. 'And it drums up their supporters to say how
bad the US is and all this.' And that's somehow aiding the enemy. Now
what's interesting about that charge -- and Kevin alluded to this
question of intent -- the New York Times, let's say for example, let me
give our listeners an example, they publish the documents or information
about President Bush engaging in warrantless wiretapping of people in
the United States and abroad. And, of course, that's published in the
New York Times and, of course, al Qaeda reads the New York Times, so why
couldn't you charge the New York Times with indirectly aiding the enemy
al Qaeda? It's obvious why you don't, because their intention, the New
York Times, was not to aid al Qaeda. Their intention was to bring out
the illegalities of the US system of wiretapping. Like a Bradley
Manning allegedly putting these documents to bring out the crimes of
the United States. His intention was not to aid al Qaeda.