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Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted from a military court Wednesday at the end of the first day of a three-day motion hearing in Fort Meade, Md.
Updated at 8 p.m. ET: FORT MEADE, Md. -- A military court Wednesday ordered the U.S. government to turn over secret documents about WikiLeaks suspect Pfc. Bradley Manning to his defense lawyers, NBC News reported.
The victory for Manning came on the opening day of a three-day pretrial hearing outside Washington where his lawyers were also seeking dismissal of 10 of the 22 counts against him.
The court judge, Col. Denise Lind, also said she would take into consideration a defense motion to delay Manning’s scheduled Sept. 21 trial due to the exhaustive search for government records.
"The court is certainly willing to entertain any good-cause motions for continuance," Lind said.
Agence France Presse news agency described Manning as frail-looking while seated between two members of his defense team when the hearing got under way after an hour-long closed door meeting between lawyers for both sides.
Manning, a 24-year-old Crescent, Okla., native, faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge: aiding the enemy. He allegedly sent to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables and war logs downloaded from government computers while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in late 2009 and early 2010.
Motions filed by defense attorney David Coombs before the hearing said the U.S. government used "unconstitutionally vague" or "substantially overbroad" language in eight counts of their indictment, in which Manning is accused of "possession and disclosure of sensitive information."
For two other counts, in which Manning is accused of "having knowingly exceeded authorized access" to a secret Defense Department computer network, defense lawyers said the government failed to state an offense.
The defense team also asked the court to compel the government to produce material including investigation reports by the White House and House of Representatives.
One motion accused the government of responding "in its typical nonsensical, smoke-and-mirrors fashion."
NBC News reported that Lind ruled that the government must give Manning's defense team a redacted version of the Defense Intelligence Agency's WikiLeaks Damage Assessment Report. The team will receive the report "almost in its entirety," as only specific classified information shall be removed, NBC News reported.
Motions discussed Wednesday raised questions about the prosecution's operating procedure during the discovery process, a mandatory pre-trial information exchange of evidence, NBC News reported
In one of many examples that came to light, the government maintains a working index of the hundreds of thousands of documents examined during discovery, but it does not provide the defense counsel with any type of reference material when it turns over the files.
Coombs asked the court to stop the prosecution's so-called "hide the ball" tactics.
The government responded by criticizing Coombs' evidence requests as overly broad, accusing the defense of "fishing expeditions."
Coombs described his attempt to obtain documents emerging from an ongoing House Oversight investigation: "Short of telling the government that the documents are in a red file in [House Oversight Chairman] Darrell Issa's third drawer, beneath his Bible, you can't get much more specific than my request," Coombs said.
Lind, chastised the prosecution for its "circular arguments" and questioned its past judgment of discoverable evidence, warning, "If you see something that could be material to the preparation of the defense -- even if you don't have a request for that specific piece of evidence -- you disclose it."
The court reviewed damage assessments from the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA before proceedings began Wednesday, in order to determine what information should be turned over to the defense and what information should be removed in the interests of national security.
Manning's defense team was given a slightly redacted version of the State Department's investigation on Tuesday evening, the Guardian newspaper of London reported.
NBC's Ellie Hall and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Young people today, have no send of duty, honor and country. This young man if he did what he is accused of, should spend his life in prison. People need to understand most counries are not like ours, they do not have the freedoms that we have today.But this young man apparently has no morals
Yes, most countries do not have the freedoms that we do, so we should become a police state like North Korea, it is only fair to the people in these tyrannical countries. In my opinion, if the DOD or any other government entity has done things or said things that they do not want to be public, then they should not have done them in the first place. We are living in a country where the government has a history of lying and deceit, and when somebody calls them out on it they either get killed or thrown under the jail. A soldiers duty is to defend the US Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
"He said the incident that had affected him the most was when 15 detainees had been arrested by the Iraqi Federal Police for printing anti-Iraqi literature. He was asked by the army to find out who the "bad guys" were, and discovered that the detainees had printed what he called a scholarly critique of the Iraqi prime minister that followed what Manning said was a corruption trail within the Iraqi cabinet. He reported this to his commanding officer, but said "he didn't want to hear any of it"; he said the officer told him to help the Iraqi police find more detainees. Manning said it made him realize, "i was actively involved in something that i was completely against ..." He explained that "i cant separate myself from others ... i feel connected to everybody ... like they were distant family"... He said he hoped the material would lead to "hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms. if not ... than [sic] we're doomed as a species."
Boy, that doesn't sound like someone with "no morals" to me.
Eisenhower tried to warn us about this very situation, but I guess a 5-star general who became Commander in Chief also had no morals.
If you think that Bradley Manning has no sense of duty or honor, then I am sorry to say that I do not believe you understand what either of those words mean.
Any action (or inaction) that could possibly cause harm to U.S. citizens, soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, is punishable under the UCMJ. Bradley Manning knew this and needs to be held accountable.
So what if he uncovered information and by leaking it he prevented harm to citizens and soldiers? Would not then the people responsible for that information be held accountable?
damn disgrace is you ask me.....you shouldn't even tell them what was served at Mid-rats, i could care less what he sent off, whether it was important or not you live and die by OPSEC,
Take that uniform off..you no longer deserve to wear it
Yeah, how dare he uphold his oath to defend the US Constitution from all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC. It will be funny when they realize that all they can do is discharge him and give him a slap on the wrist.
Moose, he's not a "whistle-blower". He was blowing something else.
Moose8684,
It is called OPSEC, Operational Security. Anyone who has EVER worn a uniform of the U.S. Military is briefed on it and held accountable. If it can be proved that anyone was harmed or killed by his treachery, he should be executed, PER the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).
Yeah and if that happens then we should drag every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, and the White House and execute them also.
There was a quote I read several years ago by author Pat Conroy. He said: "America is a good enough country to die for, even when she is wrong".
Moose8684, you have a lot to learn about Honor. Code. Commeraderie.
Go cheer on the rest of the mindless liberals.
NavyRetird2003 I've been in the military as well and your full of it, there is no honor in raping Iraq girls,there is no honor in killing five year old kids for sport and trying to cover it up like cowards.Your obligated to report war crimes did you forget.Bradley did report them and he was told him to shut about it.Some times you have to do things for the greater good you know this.Your own government trained the enemy and sent them back over to Iraq,there is proof of that.Your government is the ones who have committed treason,a smart person would realize this.We defend our people from the enemy foreign and (domestic). Get this in your head Bradley did the right thing,I would have done the same.A real American soldier does not kill innocent people for sport and they do not rape fourteen year old girls.The U.S. is supposed to lead by example,which means we are not supposed to commit war crimes period.Bradley broke his oath for a good reason not the wrong reason.Bradley Manning real American soldier.
Put him in jail. He is a Traitor not some hero.
I hope It's like 20 or 30 years.
PLEASE, Look this up, it is a fact, and anyone that says, OH THEY DO NOT DO THAT STUFF ANYMORE... if you think he is a traitor what would it make a federal department planning to kill american citizens in order to get backing for a war ...
Operation Northwoods was a series of false-flag proposals that originated in 1962, Look it up if you really want the truth on what we are capable of.
@March113 thanks I had never seen this. How many of the readers saw the video of helicopter pilots murdering a Reuters photographer and laughing about it as they came around and finished the job while he was trying to crawl to safety? More treason? You know, its war and @!$%# happens. The Geneva convention, thats for the other guy. Gods on our side.
"Frail"?? Probably sinking in how deep in the doo-doo he has put himself!
He is a hero.
He told the truth about crimes and injustices.
He is being systematically tortured for it daily.
You "patriots" need to re-read the oath he took and who he is expected to protect. Hint: it isn't the government.
Wake the f%*k up people!
CLAP , CLAP CLAP. I am stuck here in nice safe suburbia. I am glad to see others waking up at last. Spread the word. Do not give in.
He didn't tell the truth about crimes and injustices. He leaked a quarter million documents that he couldn't have possibly have read in the amount of time he had them. That's not a whistleblower. A whistleblower would only release what he knew was wrong. Manning had no way of knowing who he might be putting in harms way by releasing documents that he didn't know the contents of.
Something tells me that you're not the type of person to object when the US military drops bombs with "no way of knowing who [they] might be putting in harms way."
Jim, he is a traitor. He passed SECRET info to civilians. He cannot decide what should be exposed.
Criminal acts and their cover ups are not "secrets". Stop trying to defend tyranny.
He is being tortured right now because he stood for YOU and all of us.
He is a hero.
Manning doesn't get to decide whether or not classified information is something to distribute.
That's why he's going to be going to prison.....for a long, long time.
jim-350736,
If you had ever worn the uniform of the U.S. Military, you would feel differently. You should feel betrayed anyone.
No I would not. If I observed crimes against civilians, I would do my best to expose them. That's what real courage is. Swimming against the current because it's just the right thing to do.
"Just following orders" was thrown out as the coward's lament long ago.
People of America, I hope You/We all wake up soon and take a long hard look at what has become of this country. Take a look at the cold war propaganda that would describe life for the average citizen in the former Soviet Union. People we took our propaganda queues from to main sources. DO THE RESEARCH PEOPLE. Look up OPERATION PAPERCLIP, We didn't only take scientists from the third Reich we also too a lot of the propaganda people. Our leaders are not stupid people. They saw how at the birth of the electronic age the power the media has. Of course we do not use the same Propaganda but we do use the same tactics. So as long as you stay asleep and have your Jersey Shore and American Idol they know you will not question anything. READ UP ON EDWARD BERNAY - We employee all that he said is required to "Control the masses" here is a small taste,
PLEASE Just do some research on what is really going on in this country now..
I'm sure it is not related but each time I try to post this it never shows up
In Propaganda (1928), Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy:
So, let me see is it this Administration, the prior Administration, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Rothschild's banking intersts, the military industrial complex, the communists, the socialists that are using Nazi or Stalin like tactics? My guess it is special interest groups that use The Press for their own ends just like it has been since the beginning of time.
I agree March and Jim, very well said. The reason there is such upheaval over this action of the private is most likely not due to fear of the supposed U.S. trained enemies but more so due to fear of lies being exposed to the American public. I thank this private for his courage and sacrifice to not be a sheep.
Thank you , It;s good to see someone thinking for themselves with eyes wide open.
Which lies?
Please be specific.
I think that if Manning is convicted and sentenced over this bs the real patriotic Americans need to rise up and demand his freedom. If we can get 50,000 people to rise up when some little thug in Florida gets shot for beating a guy up, how many people can we get to rally to the cause of a true patriot?
Manning is a traitor.
Vermin.
"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."
-Patrick Henry, or as the British called him, traitor to the crown.
From the very beginning, each Branch of Service teaches, Loose Lips Sinks Ships. OPSEC, SIGSEC, and COMSEC is every Serviceman's duty. He has been safe guarded to this point. When he gets to Leavenworth or some other Federal Facility he will probably be dealt with again by his roomies.
DEWEYDAN, I hope so. He's not a whistle-blower. He stole CLASSIFIED documents. Only the people they were intended for have the "need to know".
He is innocent unitl proven guilty or at least that is the way we always hear it. I want to actually hear what Manning has to say about what happened; not someone from the press or from the government trying to tell me what they think that I need to hear. There are too many opinions and not enough facts in the press stories so I want to hear his side of the story.
If Manning is found guilty as charged, he should be executed.
Maybe he can get his hero Julian to come as a character witness, just as soon as Assange finishes his sex trial in Europe.
If you support this twit, you are an unintelligent douche bag. No offense, just stating a plain fact since a few people seem confused out there.
While a lot of people are getting onto their high horses with righteous indignation at the charges against this guy, I suggest something different. Let's look at some of the appropriate law, specifically Articles 793 and 794 of Title 18, US Codes. These two articles deal with the compromise of National Defense Information. Manning was briefed on them when he received his initial briefings upon receiving his security clearance. The articles are very clear on offenses that are punishable under them, and the penalties for conviction. Try him, let the court decide whether he is considered guilty, and then see what happens. By the way, all such courts martial are reviewed by highers-up.
I think they should stand the little wimp up in front of a firing squad.
Guess what?
The Constitution doesn't apply to this vermin. He's in the military and subject to the UCMJ.
Lock him up for life, put him to work at hard labor.
Uh the UCMJ specifies that a soldier is not only allowed, but required to disobey an unlawful order. He is also required to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, so you are totally and completely incorrect.
He swore an oath to not divulge classified information. He cannot decide what is and what isn't worthy of being de-classified.
Are you going to try and tell me he read every one of those documents he released and determined al to be 'unlawful'?
Are you going to try and tell me that a dummy like this can determine what is and what isn't a lawful order?
The lawful order was not to disclose classified information, and if Manning felt that something was unlawful he should've used the chain of command.
He will be found guilty and send to prison. Without question.
How about the soldiers who killed the journalists and civilians in Iraq, wounded children and then tried to hide it? Should they be sent to prison...without question? I doubt it, but at least we know about THAT one situation because a hero stood up and blew the whistle on those crimes. How many other situations have been hidden from us?
Your blind defense of government tyranny is appalling. You would rather protect your buddies and military honor over the truth and what is morally right. You would ignore the constitution and the oath taken to protect it. YOU are what is wrong with this country of late. YOU are the "good ole boy" mentality that keeps the military killing civilians, raping innocents and burning their bodies to conceal their crimes.
Our military cannot be a force of good when atrocities are hidden and those that perpetrate them are protected. And, to top it all off, you condone torture as punitive punishment when we as a nation claim to abhor such methods.
The whole world is watching us of late and we are being shown to be severly lacking in morality right now.
Our troops put weapons next to innocent people to make them look like the enemy,our troops shot five year old kids in the head for sport and tried to cover it up,our troops raped a fourteen year old girl and pimped her out till she hung herself,our troops pull a innocent old man out of his house and threw a grenade at him and murdered him,our troops threw a grenade at a fifteenth boy and murdered him.There was one American soldier that knew this was wrong,that was Bradley Manning.A Real American Soldier
War is hell.
Manning is vermin.
He will be sent to Leavenworth.
You sound like one of those guys who committed the war crimes.The ones who committed the war crimes should be in Leavenworth,not the one who was obligated by his oath as well to report war crimes.Bradley didn't break his oath to his people, he took it quite seriously .He's more of a soldier than all the other people in the military,he can still tell the difference between right and wrong.Bradley Manning didn't hide the truth from us,like the cowards did. Bradley in no way endangered the lives of anyone and there's proof of this.Bradley Manning is a True American Soldier.
What he did had nothing to do with honor or leaking secrets to help others.He was unhappy about DADT.He is a little bitch who should be shot rectally
Moose8684, just to educate you on the UCMJ Article 104 - Aiding the enemy here it is word for word.
Violation of UCMJ Article 104
Any person who—
(1) aids, or attempts to aid, the enemy with arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things; or
(2) without proper authority, knowingly harbors or protects or gives intelligence to or communicates or corresponds with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either directly or indirectly; shall suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial or military commission may direct.”
Elements.
(1) Aiding the enemy.
(a) That the accused aided the enemy; and
(b) That the accused did so with certain arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things.
(2) Attempting to aid the enemy.
(a) That the accused did a certain overt act;
(b) That the act was done with the intent to aid the enemy with certain arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things;
(c) That the act amounted to more than mere preparation; and
(d) That the act apparently tended to bring about the offense of aiding the enemy with certain arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things.
(3) Harboring or protecting the enemy.
(a) That the accused, without proper authority, harbored or protected a person;
(b) That the person so harbored or protected was the enemy; and
(c) That the accused knew that the person so harbored or protected was an enemy.
(4) Giving intelligence to the enemy.
(a) That the accused, without proper authority, knowingly gave intelligence information to the enemy; and
(b) That the intelligence information was true, or implied the truth, at least in part.
Too many dummies try to defend Manning.
You just proved that Manning is going away for a long time.
The UCMJ is a set of rules written by gang members for gang members. It has about as much moral relevance as any other code of criminals. Quoting it to support your opinion does not help your case....except to those who are fooled by funny hats, badges, and colored cloth.
NavyRetired2003 your own damn government has aided the enemy with your tax money and have trained them,Pretty sure that's still an article 104.Bradley Manning in no way aided the enemy and everybody already knows it.You need to research things before you decide to make yourself look like a fool.Bradley Manning is a True American Soldier.
By all means, call me a democrat liberal. I can certainly believe that most Republicans would name me as such.
but when it comes to the US military, Intelligence and national security you can call me a Republican. Manning should not ever had disseminated any intel to anybody outside the US military. His behavior amounts to treason and he should have known better would it just be from his training. If you are a liberal, a democrat, a gay, green with pink stars on your skin, you do not pass out any info about anything to anyone regardless of any rationalization you can think of.
Is there dirty laundry to be seen? Sure there is, plenty and always too much, but we wash that at home. The US is no dirtier than any country in the world. The private citizens are the one who should demonstrate, bitch and moan, vote or whathaveyou, not anyone in the military.
I'd say to the Court do what you must with him to insure national security, US military personnel protection and the reputation of America. This is sacredly taboo territory. If my son was in the Military, I sure wouldn't want to hear that somebody from Military intel was possibly endangering his life further than necessary.
How do we do that if no one ever hears of it? How is it stopped from reoccurring if it will always be kept secret? Why do we prosecute those that inform us so we can act on it, but not those that committed the atrocities? And if telling gets you destroyed, but committing the atrocities gets you nothing but praise, what do you suppose will happen again and again?
I do not care if you are Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative or whatever. Mr. Bradley is guilty of treason and should pay the ultimate price, end of story. Why? Because he has put people in harms way and may very well have caused the death of deep cover assets. In addition, the acts of treason regarding the people and events surrounding the OBL raid detail leaks, the cyber attacks on Iran nuke production by our people and the named assets of Israel are bad news and do no public good. The Press, the Times in particular and other news agencies should know better.
You guy don't even know what treason is,if you did you would know your own government has committed treason a great many times.Our government did train the enemy we have proof their called videos.Our government video taped this training.Which is an article 104.Bradley was obligated to report war crimes and you guys know it,I've been in the military to.He did report them and was told to shut up about it.We as American troops are not supposed to commit war crimes and cover them up.Watch some of the videos of our troops on Youtube.We do not tie up five year old kids and shot them in their heads just for fun,that's not an American soldier.Bradley Manning's action only prove he is a hero of the people.Look at the actions of the other troops committing war crimes and trying to cover them up,and the actions of our government training the enemy in the first place using our tax money.Bradley Manning is a Hero.Our kids in high school and colleges have all ready stated they will not sign up in the military and parents are talking their kids out of not signing up.This should tell you something.Bradley Manning did the right thing deal with it.
What training..you mean in Afghanistan? Where we clearly trained civilians to enforce law and order for the sole purpose of bringing our troops home. Plus, we learned from our mistakes and know the best course of action would be to help them grow and make sure the real enemy doesn't resurface.
Your own government trained the enemy in Nevada using or tax money and it was all video taped.Which is an article 104 as well. This enemy our troops fought in Iraq were the same ones trained in Nevada.Your own government trained them to kill American troops.Bush started the program and Obama covered it up and training is still going on in parts of our country.The wars make money for our government and large businesses,who start these wars. Do your research like I did.All of you are being lied to.It might seem like Bradley Manning is a traitor but he is not.Your government is lying about him to cover their own butts.Before you condemn a person find out the truth.Bradley has said himself in his chat logs he loves this country and it's people,that's not a traitor.He wanted us to know the truth and he was obligated to report war crimes.He cared about all of you and thought all of you deserved to know the truth.I want to know the truth and have a right to know the truth,I pay my taxes.Like I said find out the truth do your research.
So they gave him limited access and he exceeded the secret defense dept. comp. Then where was his superiors to prevent him from getting that access? They need to hand over more info. because I don't see how opening a folder on a laptop is committing a crime. Unless he had a password he shouldn't have or used a certain comp he shouldn't have. And they don't even say how they have proof he did this and there is no motive. Why would he do that? Was wikileaks paying him?
As an ex-Fed, this little weasel deserves everything I hope he gets! If he gets away with this, then you know it's gonna be "pop" goes all the weasels to pull the same kind of stunts.
It is of little surprise that one who is member of the gang is on the side of the other gang members.
Heroism is rarely acknowledged in it's own time. Especially when it involves pointing out knowledge that many would like to remain hidden. Galileo who dared defy the all mighty church, proved that Earth was not the center of the universe. He was viewed as a heretic, which is defined as one who's opinion differs with authority. If you hold the idea of OPSEC, and government itself, to be as imaginary as an earth centered universe, what would those who are ingrained in the "yes-man" culture refer you as? Manning, and all those intelligent heretics who support him are part of a growing demographic. The death of Manning, while terrible and unfortunate, will not silence these dissenters. Rather, it will "canonize" him into the annals of history as another renegade who dared point out the evils of the state.