Guilty Of 19 Charges, Including Espionage, Army PVC Bradley Manning's Sentencing Phase Begins

Gary Sheftick at the Army News Service offers a piece on PFC Bradley Manning.

FORT MEADE, Md., July 31, 2013 - The sentencing phase begins here today in the court-martial trial of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was found not guilty yesterday of the most serious charge he faced -- knowingly aiding the enemy -- but was convicted on 19 other specifications related to the misappropriation of hundreds of thousands of intelligence documents he sent to the WikiLeaks organization.

Manning faces a possibility of 136 years of confinement in the sentencing phase, said David Coombs, Manning's defense attorney, speaking outside the courtroom minutes after presiding judge Army Col. Denise Lind read the verdict.

Bradley and his defense team were emotional at the first "not guilty" count, Coombs said, but he added that there would be "no celebrating."

"We won the battle, per se, but the war is going to be tomorrow," Coombs said after yesterday's verdict. "Sentencing is what really matters at the end of the day."

Aiding the enemy held a maximum penalty of life in prison, so Coombs said beating that specification was encouraging to the defense. Manning also was found not guilty of a charge involving the alleged unauthorized release of a video.

Manning pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial to 10 counts involving the unauthorized release of intelligence information, and was found guilty in his trial of nine other specifications. These include bypassing security mechanisms, adding unauthorized software to the classified network and wrongfully storing classified information.

Army PFC Bradley Manning Convicted Of Espionage And Theft, Acquited Of Aiding The Enemy Charge - Verdict Signals A Stern Warning Against Leaks

 

Kristina Wong at the Washington Times offers a piece on the conviction of Army PFC Bradley Manning.

A military court Tuesday convicted Army Pfc. Bradley Manning of violating the Espionage Act for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, a verdict that legal analysts say likely will have a chilling effect on others considering revealing government secrets.

While Manning, 25, was acquitted of the most serious charge — aiding the enemy, which carried a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole — he still faces up to 136 years in prison when he is sentenced at Fort George G. Meade, Md. The sentencing hearing, which starts Wednesday, is expected to last most of August.

The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, did not reveal her reasoning in her ruling, but David Schanzer, a former Justice Department official, said the verdict makes clear that the leakers’ intent does not matter in prosecuting them for revealing state secrets.

“If you receive a security clearance, you don’t get the right to decide when, or when it’s not, OK to leak information. The reasons that you leak are irrelevant,” said Mr. Schanzer, associate professor and director of the Triangle Center of Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University. “No individual employee, especially lower-level employees like Bradley Manning, has a really complete picture of what the national security interest is.” 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/30/bradley-manning-verdict-signals-a-stern-warning-ag/?page=all#pagebreak

Prosecution Wraps Up Case In WikiLeaks Court-Martial Of PFC Bradley Manning

Reuters offers a piece on the court-martial of U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning.

FORT MEADE, MARYLAND — Court-martial prosecutors wrapped up their case on Tuesday against the soldier charged with providing a trove of secret material to WikiLeaks in the biggest leak of classified files in U.S. history.

Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, faces 21 charges, including espionage, computer fraud and, most seriously, aiding the enemy. Manning could face life in prison without parole if convicted.

Judge Colonel Denise Lind allowed the final prosecution witness, Daniel Lewis, a counterintelligence adviser at the Defense Intelligence Agency, to testify in a closed session. An unclassified summary of his testimony - largely about the value of the material Manning provided to WikiLeaks - will be read into the record.

Lewis was the government's 28th in-person witness since the trial started on June 3. More than 50 written statements from witnesses have also been submitted by prosecutors.

Lind set a court recess from Wednesday to Monday, when “we will proceed with the defense case,” she said.

The defense has listed 46 potential witnesses and the trial is scheduled to run to Aug. 23.

You can read the piece by visiting the Voice of America web site via the below link:

http://www.voanews.com/content/prosecution-manning-wikileaks-court-martial/1693972.html

Note: PFC Bradley Manning appears above in the U.S. Army photo.

Trial Begins For PFC Bradley Manning, The U.S. Soldier Accused Of Leaking Classified Information To WikiLeaks

David Vergun at the Army News Service offers a piece on the opening of the PFC Bradley Manning trial.

FORT MEADE, Md., June 4, 2013 - With the prosecution accusing Army Pfc. Bradley Manning (seen in the above U.S. Army photo) of causing immeasurable harm to national security and Manning's attorney portraying the soldier as "young and naïve, but good-intentioned," Manning's court-martial in what has become known as "the WikiLeaks case" began here yesterday. Manning, 25 is charged with committing various crimes, including aiding the enemy, by leaking classified information to the WikiLeaks website while assigned to Iraq as an intelligence analyst in 2009 and 2010. If convicted, Manning could be sentenced to life in prison. In his opening statement, Army Capt. Joe Morrow, the prosecutor, called the leaks the "biggest ever" in U.S. history, involving hundreds of thousands of classified documents, and that they provided "potentially actionable information for targeting U.S. forces." David Coombs, Manning's attorney, said in his opening statement that Manning was selective about the documents he released and "was hoping to make the world a better place" by doing so. The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, asked Manning if he wanted to reconsider trial by a military judge alone, herself, rather than by jury, which is termed a "panel" by the military. Manning declined. In the afternoon, the prosecutor called the first witness, Army Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Smith, who was the senior enlisted Criminal Investigative Division agent at the time. He and another case agent, Tony Graham, were the first to investigate the "scene of the crime," as Smith called the sensitive compartmented information facility where Manning worked in Iraq. Smith discussed the procedures they used to collect evidence and conduct interviews. The prosecutor will call more witnesses and use sworn statements as evidence as its case proceeds. The defense will present its arguments in the coming days.