Bradley Manning's lawyers: He's been punished enough

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted to a security vehicle outside of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, after attending a pretrial hearing. / AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

FORT MEADE, Md. Supporters of an Army private charged in the biggest security breach in U.S. history packed a military courtroom on Tuesday as his attorneys made the case he'd already been punished enough when he was locked up alone in a small cell for nine months and forced to sleep naked for several nights.

As the pretrial hearing for Pfc. Bradley Manning began at Fort Meade near Baltimore, about two dozen Manning backers who'd held up signs of support outside the post went inside to watch the proceedings, many wearing black t-shirts with the word "Truth" in white lettering. The Army private is charged with spilling U.S. secrets to the website WikiLeaks.

• Bradley Manning offers lesser guilty pleas
• Lawyers debate harm of military WikiLeaks leak

The U.S. government claims the disclosures endangered lives and security. Manning supporters say the leaks exposed war crimes and triggered pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East.

Military commanders involved in the confinement of Manning were questioned first at the proceedings, which are expected to last several days. Manning may be asked to testify.

Manning's lawyers contend he was illegally punished by being locked up alone in a small cell for nearly nine months at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., where he had to sleep naked for several nights.

Daniel Choike, a retired Marine Corps colonel, was one of the first to testify.  He denied that Lt. Gen. George Flynn,  a three-star general and commander of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico at the time, had anything to do with the decisions into Manning's confinement.

Judges can dismiss all charges if pretrial punishment is particularly egregious, but that rarely happens. The usual remedy is credit at sentencing for time served, said Lisa M. Windsor, a retired Army colonel and former Army judge advocate now in private practice in Washington.

In a 1956 case, U.S. v. Bayhand, a military appeals court ordered all charges dismissed against a soldier who had been forced during his pretrial confinement to do hard labor alongside a sentenced prisoner. The court ruled that the soldier had been given an illegal order.

Since then, there have been few, if any, cases in which pretrial punishment has led to dismissal of all charges. Lt. Col. Eric Carpenter, chairman of the criminal law department at the judge advocates school in Charlottesville, Va., said he couldn't find one but he couldn't say for sure that the remedy hasn't been granted.

Manning has also offered to take responsibility for the leak by pleading guilty to reduced charges. The military judge hasn't yet ruled on the offer and prosecutors have not said whether they would still pursue the charges against him.

He was kept at the Marine Corps brig from July 2010 to April 2011. The military contends the treatment at Quantico was proper, given Manning's classification as a maximum-security detainee who posed a risk of injury to himself or others. He was later moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he was re-evaluated and given a medium-security classification.

A United Nations investigator called the conditions of Manning's time at Quantico cruel, inhuman and degrading, but stopped short of calling it torture.

The 24-year-old native of Crescent, Okla., faces possible life imprisonment if convicted of aiding the enemy, the most serious of the 22 charges.

He is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks while he was working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010.

The materials Manning is suspected of leaking include sensitive reports on foreign governments and leaders, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and a 2007 video clip of a U.S. helicopter crew gunning down 11 men later found to have included a Reuters news photographer and his driver. It was the video that garnered the most worldwide attention from the leak. As for the video clip, the Pentagon concluded the troops acted appropriately, having mistaken the camera equipment for weapons.

[David_Dunphy]

It's too bad they can't hang Manning, because life in prison is too good for this worthless piece of human garbage.

[redhillsrd]

What about BIGGEST LIARS like the previous GOP administration who sent thousands of noble US soldiers to die on FALSE pretenses of WMDs?

None of their k1ds even went to serve their country. Talk about hypocrisy

Massive conflict of interest, which earned Ch3n3y's old company Hall1burt0n with massive profits and millions of missing US dollars for "reconstructing"...

[bobcsc]

USA USA USA we torture anyone!

[Versability]

The risk/reward ratio for whistleblowers is great. It's not for everyone, but if you want to learn how to blow the whistle from a veteran whistleblower, check out my blog on the Huff Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-penny/im-a-bank-whistleblower-a_b_1952819.html

[vsmatadi]

Private Bradley Manning was an intelligence analyst. He never served on the front lines; never risked his life and certainly had no real loyalty to his country in spite of his oath. His time in a small cell; naked, alone and whatever else his defense team specifies is SOP for a standard brig. You don't leave a prisoner clothed if he/she is a danger to him/herself. The same treatment applies even in civilian jails. In every published photograph of Manning since his arrest, did he even once appear damaged? No, he was always smiling.

Now look at his crime; having turned over somewhere in the vicinity of half a million classified documents to Wikileaks, he committed an act of TREASON! Pure and simple. He violated the UCMJ, his oath and disgraced his uniform. He deserves nothing less than the punishment Nathan Hale received when he was tried for treason.

Whether his act of treason placed American soldiers, diplomats and civilians in danger or not is not fully known. What is certain is that this act COULD have placed other Americans in mortal danger. That is treason in its purest sense. Being a soldier, in a war zone, under military command should not, ever, fall under the auspices of civilian court. It is under the purview of a court martial. Period. Liberal civilians lawyers and United Nations "investigators" should never have any rights or privilege in such cases. It's a sad thing for our nation that they do.

[joesapper]

The idiot gave names and places along with accounts to the bad guys , so lets give him a name and place along with an account under the custody of the Gov for fifteen years and than review his views on patriotism and the concerns for those that protect us home & abroad .

The custody looks to be more than just as his nose is still straight although it is not as high as it once was .

[mecury69]

Yup, betray the trust of your countryman, out hundreds of hard working people and jeopardize the trust and relationships between dozens of countries and get 9 months in jail.

Wow, now THAT is one hell of a deterrent.

Did they forget jail time not just punishment but deterrence as well?

Given the crime he should get at LEAST 10 years.

[mecury69]

As yes, Karl Rove as well for the blind who can only see through political lenses.

[lillyhorton]

Lets talk talk about the Benghazi attack where terrorist just happen to use US made weapons. The US government needs to make it clear whose side they are on. Lets talk treason.

[mecury69]

Let's not.

[taxchurches]

There's no debate here. He's a soldier who voluntarily enlisted, voluntarily took an oath and then voluntarily violated it. This is undeniable. His motives don't even enter into it.

[IPonUall2]

Anyone old enough to remember the VietNam War, I was just a kid, can recall the "Pentagon Papers", which was leaked and printed across coast to coast..
these papers were a secret history of the US involvement in Asia, which McNamara had commissioned.
In a nutshell, every President since Truman has mislead the American public concerning intentions in Asia.
This and events in Vietnam like war crimes sparked protests across the land leading to the spark that brought down Nixon.....Watergate...an attempt to wire illegal surveillance equipment by the GOP on the Democratic Headquarters..this happened at the same time Spiro Agnew was forced from office for tax evasion.

[c3pee0h]

Nixon was punished, as was Agnew. Are you suggesting a noble cause excuses illegal actions?