Updated: Mar 1, 2013 added another video report
See also: Transcript of Bradley Manning’s Statement for the Providence Inquiry
Bradley Manning Tells Court Public had the Right to Know About US War Crimes
[replaced video]
TheRealNews·Mar 1, 2013
American Attorney for Julian Assange, Michael Ratner, reports he was in the courtroom and witnessed Manning speak with confidence and intelligence as he detailed the outrages that drove him to upload documents to Wikileaks.
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Why is Bradley Manning’s Pleading Guilty?
TheYoungTurks·Feb 28, 2013
“The U.S. Army private accused of providing secret documents to the WikiLeaks website pleaded guilty on Thursday to misusing classified material he felt “should become public,” but denied the top charge of aiding the enemy.”
Bradley Manning is facing prosecution for giving military information to Wikileaks. He’s plead guilty to some charges. He maintains that he did release the information and that he did it because he wanted to help the country. What will happen with the other treasonous charges against him that could net a life sentence? Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
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Manning Case: Whistle admits to leaking US state secrets, denies ‘aiding enemy’
RussiaToday·Feb 28, 2013
Military whistleblower Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to 10 out of 22 charges against him. He admitted to leaking the US state secrets to Wikileaks, but denied ‘aiding the enemy’ – the charge that could lead him to life in jail. READ MORE HERE: http://bit.ly/143HQMT & HERE: http://bit.ly/YDWuJf
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Updated
WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning Says He Wanted to Show the Public the “True Costs of War”
democracynow·Mar 1, 2013
http://www.democracynow.org – For the first time, 25-year-old U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning has admitted to being the source behind the largest leak of state secrets in U.S. history. More than a thousand days after he was arrested, Manning testified Thursday before a military court. He said he leaked the classified documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks in order to show the American public the “true costs of war.” Reading for more than an hour from a 35-page statement, Manning said: “I believed that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information … this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general.” At the pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade military base in Maryland, Manning pleaded guilty to reduced charges on 10 counts, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. But even if the judge accepts the plea, prosecutors can still pursue a court-martial on the remaining 12 charges. The most serious of those is “aiding the enemy” and carries a possible life sentence. We are joined by Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a lawyer to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. He just returned from attending Manning’s hearing.
see
Transcript of Bradley Manning’s Statement for the Providence Inquiry
Bradley Manning’s Attorney David Coombs Breaks His Silence
Michael Ratner: Bradley Manning Testifies About His Torture
Lies, Smokescreens and the Shameful Smearing of Julian Assange by John Pilger
Blowing the Whistle on Obama’s America
Sibel Edmonds: War on Whistleblowers: Manning and Assange just the test case
Using the convoluted reasoning that aideing the enemy by providing information to the public is treason because Al Quada is part of the public could be applied to any US global corporation that supplies goods & services to any public anywhere; where there are far more enemies than Al Quada.Next they’ll be granting corporations immunity from lawsuits in the event of harm.Oh wait a minute they already did that.Sounds like our government is viewing the public as the enemy with or without Al Quada
Good point Liz.
It’s really schizophrenic political gobbledygook. “We” (ie the “people”) must deprive you (aka ~ us) of any spiritual right to self-determination for your own good ~ lest you prove to be a threat to yourself (ie the “state.”)
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Let’s get one thing absolutely clear: it is the US government that is in the dock, accused of collateral murder.
We should make no mistake, depriving a righteous messenger of their freedom. whose message has been that a heinous war-crime has been committed will not absolve the guilty party/parties. Legal technicalities will never satisfy the consequences of grievously criminal breaches of international morality, no matter by whom or in any name whatsoever, even the “United States.” No government is ever exempt from prosecution.
So who is really being held to account? Why, the so called representatives of the American People of course. The whole world is watching, and heeding the political and ethical implications of this historic “trial.”
“representatives of the American People”
are you kidding? government is a past-time of the elite. washington is as relevant to citizens lives as the vatican is to the common members who attend roman catholic churches each sunday–at least their tithe is discretionary. i feel especially sorry for bradley as he got caught up in this disgusting game-of-royalty as a misguided youth before he had time to grow in wisdom to see it for what it is–a physical and spiritual killing machine. (pat tillman comes to mind, too.)
jerry kroth does a better job of presenting our government’s relevancy than i, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZzvKXZUyQs, the myth of american democracy