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Court-Martial in WikiLeaks Case Begins Today Court-Martial in WikiLeaks Case Begins
(about 1 hour later)
FORT MEADE, Md. — Pfc. Bradley Manning, who confessed to giving hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic and military documents to WikiLeaks, quietly affirmed that he still wanted to forgo his right to a jury as his court-martial prepared to open on Monday morning. FORT MEADE, Md. — A military prosecutor told a judge on Monday that Pfc. Bradley Manning was no ordinary leaker, as the court-martial opened for the former Army intelligence analyst who has confessed to being the source for vast archives of secret military and diplomatic documents made public by WikiLeaks.
“Yes — yes, ma’am,” Private Manning told the judge, Col. Denise Lind, who will not only run the court-martial but will also deliver the verdict. “This is a case about a soldier who systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents and dumped them onto the Internet, into the hands of the enemy – material he knew, based on his training, would put the lives of fellow soldiers at risk,” said the prosecutor, Capt. Joe Morrow of the Army.
After a final flurry of such pretrial matters, the court recessed for about half an hour. It is expected to reconvene later Monday morning for the prosecutor’s opening statement, which should last about an hour and include a slide show. That is scheduled to be followed by an opening statement by Private Manning’s defense lawyer, David Coombs, that should last about 40 minutes. But a defense lawyer for Private Manning told the judge that his client had been “young, naïve, but good-intentioned” and that he had, in fact, tried to make sure that the several hundred thousand documents he released would not cause harm.
Three witnesses are also scheduled to testify on Monday. A government lawyer identified the first two as Agent Smith and Agent Graham, without giving first names, and described them as investigators with the Army’s criminal investigative division. “He was selective,” said the defense attorney, David Coombs. “He had access to literally hundreds of millions of documents as an all-source analyst, and these were the documents that he released. And he released these documents because he was hoping to make the world a better place.”
The third witness, the lawyer said, will be Specialist Baker, who he said was Private Manning’s roommate when they were deployed at Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq, where Private Manning has said he downloaded the files from a secure government network. The dueling portrayals underscored the oddity at the heart of the trial, which is expected to last as long as 12 weeks. There is no doubt that Private Manning did most of what he is accused is doing, and he has already pleaded guilty to 10 charges for that conduct, for which he could be sentenced to up to 20 years.
The trial could last as long as 12 weeks, even though most of the facts are not in dispute. Private Manning has already confessed to being the source of the documents given to WikiLeaks, and he pleaded guilty to 10 lesser charges that could bring up to 20 years in prison. But military prosecutors are pressing forward with more serious charges based on the same facts, including violating the Espionage Act and aiding the enemy, which could result in a life sentence. But his plea was not part of any deal with the government, and prosecutors are moving forward with the trial because they hope to convict him of a far more serious set of charges, including violating the Espionage Act and aiding the enemy, that could result in a life sentence.
Private Manning says he leaked the documents to bring to light the harsh realities of the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, secret diplomatic dealings and other such matters because he thought that doing so would help make the world a better place. He says he selected the files carefully to avoid disclosing matters that could cause harm. Private Manning sat quietly in the courtroom during the opening statements. A government official said his aunt — whose home in Potomac, Md., he visited in the midst of his 2009-10 deployment in Iraq, when he downloaded the documents – was in the courtroom, along with a cousin. He spoke briefly earlier in the day, reaffirming to the judge, Col. Denise Lind, that he still wanted a trial before her alone rather than a jury.
Military prosecutors say he caused significant damage and put lives at risk. A significant part of the government’s case will be made through 24 witnesses who will testify in secret about the fallout from the disclosures, although transcripts will later be made public with classified information redacted. The opening of the trial drew a far larger crowd of supporters and reporters than the hearings on pretrial motions over the past six months. Dozens of supporters, holding signs with pictures of Private Manning and “Free Bradley” messages, stood in the rain at the main entrance to Fort Meade, near Baltimore, where the court-martial is being held.
The opening of the trial drew a far larger crowd of supporters and reporters than the hearings on pretrial motions over the past six months. Dozens of supporters, holding signs with pictures of Private Manning and “Free Bradley” messages, stood in the rain at the main entrance to Fort Meade, where the court-martial is being held.