1.
MANNING LAWYER AGAIN FAILS TO HAVE PRESIDING OFFICER REMOVED
By Larry Shaughnessy
CNN
December 17, 2011
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/17/us/bradlley-manning-hearing/index.html
FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Maryland -- The attorney for the Army private suspected of being behind the biggest intelligence leak in U.S. history again failed to get the investigating officer to recuse himself at a military hearing.
The Army Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday night denied a motion from Bradley Manning's lawyer, who appealed the officer's refusal to remove himself from the proceeding earlier in the day.
The United States has charged the 24-year-old Manning with 22 counts of violating military code, ranging from the theft of records to aiding the enemy.
Experts say conviction on the latter charge would be likely to land Manning in prison for life. But, if a general sees fit, the law would allow Manning to be eligible for the death penalty.
Manning's Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing that will determine whether enough evidence exists to merit a court-martial, is expected to last at least a week.
Most of the first day of Manning's hearing focused on the defense motion that Lt. Col. Paul Almanza recuse himself.
Almanza is the investigating officer who oversees the hearing and will make a recommendation when it's complete about what, if any, charges Manning should face at court martial.
Defense attorney David Coombs alleged that Almanza may be prejudiced and should step down.
Among Coombs' objections was that Almanza, an Army reservist, has a conflict of interest because of his civilian job with the Justice Department, which is investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Coombs moved that Almanza recuse himself, Almanza denied that motion, and Coombs immediately appealed to the Army Court of Appeals, which denied Coombs motion again.
Manning is accused of leaking more than a quarter of a million classified Pentagon and State Department documents that ended up on the WikiLeaks website.
2.
DEFENSE REQUEST DENIED FOR CHANGE IN MANNING CASE
By David Dishneau
Associated Press
December 17, 2011
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j33sRuqG7y7Ewq0hG_4U5eqNLOaA
FORT MEADE, Md. -- The prosecution is poised to begin laying out its case against the young soldier blamed for the largest leak of classified material in American history after an Army appeals court late Friday rejected a defense effort to remove the presiding officer.
The long-awaited military court case against Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, the accused source for the WikiLeaks website's trove of U.S. military and diplomatic secrets, will go forward with Lt. Col. Paul Almanza as the presiding officer. The defense requested that Almanza, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and Justice Department prosecutor, step aside because of alleged bias. Almanza rejected the request and refused to suspend the hearing pending an appeal.
Manning, a one-time intelligence analyst stationed in Baghdad, is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive items including Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, State Department cables and a classified military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
The Obama administration says the released information has threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments.
Friday was Manning's first appearance in public after 19 months in detention. He appeared slight but serious in his Army camouflage fatigues and dark-rimmed glasses, taking notes during the proceedings and answering straightforwardly when called upon by Almanza.
Manning, a native of Crescent, Okla., who turns 24 on Saturday, is relying on a defense that will argue much of the classified information posed no risk.
In addition to claims of partiality, his lawyer, David Coombs, argued that Almanza wrongly denied the defense's request to call as witnesses the officials who marked as secret the material WikiLeaks later published. Instead, the officer accepted unsworn statements from those people, Coombs said.
Friday's tangling, however, centered primarily on Almanza's Justice Department job. "I don't believe I'm biased," Almanza said, explaining that his government work concerns child exploitation and obscenity. He said he hasn't talked about WikiLeaks or Manning with anyone in the department or FBI.
The Justice Department has a separate criminal investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A U.S. grand jury is weighing whether to indict Assange on espionage charges, even as he is in Britain fighting a Swedish request that he be extradited because of rape allegations.
Manning's hearing at this Army post outside Washington is open to the public, with limited seating. Assange's lawyer filed a request Friday with the Army appeals court seeking two guaranteed seats in the Fort Meade courtroom, one for the attorney representing the Wikileaks organization and the other for Assange's non-U.S. attorney.
Inside the courtroom, no civilian recording equipment is allowed. Instead of a judge, a presiding officer delivers a recommendation as to whether prosecutors have enough evidence to bring a suspect to trial. A military commander then makes the final decision.
The case has spawned an international support network of people who believe the U.S. government has gone too far in seeking to punish Manning, and a few dozen showed up outside Fort Meade on Friday to rally on his behalf.
"I plan to march all night tonight and bring as much attention as I can to put the entire country on notice that we have a hero who's standing trial for nothing more than telling the truth," said Dan Choi, a gay West Point graduate discharged from the military for revealing his sexual orientation. He wore a bright orange "Bradley Manning Support Network" sticker on the lapel of his uniform jacket.
Others were less supportive.
"That man did something very wrong," said Mandie Stanley, a 19-year-old who lives on the Army post with her husband, a member of the Air Force. She spotted the protesters and decided to come out with a sign that said: "Don't leak classified information, stupid!"
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