Bradley Manning Landmark

Baby boomers growing up learned of cases like the Scopes “Monkey Trial.” Clarence Darrow, perhaps the best American lawyer of all time, made it a landmark.

Although teacher John Thomas Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution, which is still a hot topic, he was released on a technicality.

Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in 1927 for two murders committed in South Braintree, Mass., authorities said, on behalf of anarchists. Historians remain split over whether they were guilty.

Manning’s lawyer and the prosecution were gave final arguments today in his preliminary hearing but the judge, who limited the defense to two witnesses, has until mid-January to render a verdict. And it won’t be conclusive. He could be ordered to go through the whole thing again in a court martial.

Manning’s case is more controversial than either, even before a verdict, for two reasons.  He was not fit for such classified duty. He demonstrated it on numerous occasions when he lost control, and even reported himself.  As a writer on disability because of PTSD I know what it is like to contend with overwhelming forces.

The second reason is the Army has demonstrated it is not capable of dealing with such cases. This can be partly blamed on making it all-volunteer. Rome’s downfall was preceded by a decision to replace draftees, indeed only those who owned property, with mercenaries. It is all a chimera meant to allow presidents to get away with unwanted wars.

Legally, there is a third reason. His lengthy detention, which included the punishment of being held in solitary, is illegal.

My view is based on having covered military trials, murderous military fiascos, and Wikileaks itself.

Manning, who now is being presented as literally gaga, is accused of walking out of an Iraq base with 251,000 classified documents he had put on a DVD marked Lady Gaga.

The documents, including a video showing what appeared to be an unjustified U.S. helicopter attack on Baghdad civilians, reached Wikileaks which published them selectively.

Any analysis of what happened should begin with noting American soldiers are required by military to report war crimes.

In fact, I have witnessed time and time again soldiers being given white glove treatment in court martials for killings and wounding of civilians.

Pat Tillman, an NFL football star, a volunteer, should not have died of friendly fire in Afghanistan.

In one case, a soldier charged with others for throwing two non-combatant Iraqis in a river where one drowned, was given a leading question. He didn’t know the man was going to drown or he would have intervened. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said to courtroom laughter as I recall.

Then the defense asked why the other man, who was a witness, was not in court or on a televideo. The Army said they couldn’t find him.

That led to the defense saying the AP had found him an interviewed him, which was true.

Suddenly the military judge wanted me, then an AP reporter, to say whether this was true or not. Of course I refused to comment. And this was something that could have been found on Google.

The Army told me over and over again that potential sufferers of PTSD would be stopped from deploying. Yet history shows many were, including some who had already been deployed and thus suffered the psychiatric wound.

A soldier-translator was charged with cowardice, the first case since Vietnam, because he freaked out when he witnessed the body of an Iraqi killed by the Special Forces he accompanied. Publicity led to his discharge.

A doctor who was in charge of dispensing medicine that led to the death of a soldier who had returned from deployment with serious psychiatric problems. Civilians seemed just as incompetent. An El Paso County doctor got the man’s race wrong.

Once, after listening to the umpteenth attempt by Army commanders to convince reporters that PTSD was not cowardice, an Army captain leaned over to me and said it was all horseshit; these people were all cowards.

Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Virginia-born Muslim psychiatrist, killed  13 at Fort Hood. His likely behavior should have been obvious.  In World War 2, the Army tended to avoid sending Japanese Americans to fight in the Pacific.

It was not the first time a Muslim soldier had killed his Christian counterparts.

In military and civilian courts it has been shown that Muslims sometimes get special treatment, at least from journalists.

 FIRST on Examiner.com

Could History Label Bradley Manning A Hero

As the pre-trial of Pvt. Bradley Manning gets more complicated, it seems to increase the possibility he could be the American version of Neil Aggett of South Africa and/or the Alfred Dreyfus of France.

The Dreyfus story is already well known. The world should know about Dr. Aggett,  a white who joined in the anti-apartheid campaign and died in prison. Security police claimed he hanged himself.

His family, friends and activists, and one fellow prisoner, said he probably died from torture. He was the 51^st campaigner to die in detention, but the first white in almost 20 years. The “best guess” for his death is Feb. 5, 1982.

I will never forget his funeral. The death of this white do-gooder stunned the country. An Afrikaans newspaper published my interview with his family.

Fifteen thousand turned out for his funeral.  I remember calling the bureau astonished that police stood back and let them march. It may have been the straw, or one of the straws, that broke apartheid’s back.

At this stage, Manning is finally in a court, after 17 months of imprisonment, much of it in solitary, a brief portion forced to sleep naked.

This denies him his constitutional right to a speedy trial. In general civilians must be tried within six months unless they request delays or the prosecution needs a witness who is not available. The U.S. Supreme Court has set no time limit but precedent holds that if the right is denied the only remedy is dismissal of charges with or without prejudice. A delay of more than a year has been ruled prejudicial in some cases.

For it to take this long, and for so much of the early days to focus on Manning’s apparent cross-sexual tendencies makes it appear more like the case is about a military RuPaul than treason.

His right to not be punished before trial, violates the Uniform Military Code of Justice. Solitary confinement for lengthy periods is clearly punishment, some experts say torture.

It has led to torture in many cases. Aggett only made it through 70 days. French resistance leader Jean Moulin twice tried to kill himself to avoid talking to Nazi Klaus Barbie, and apparently succeeded the second time.

It also should be noted that it is now widely accepted Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Even if it had war crimes would remain war crimes. Whatever Manning did was because he felt war crimes had been committed.

Just following orders has not been accepted since the Nuremburg Trials. We led them.

The Two Faces of Justice in America

   Spc. Bradley Manning leaked information he believed revealed war crimes in Iraq. Starlet Lindsay Lohan bought and used drugs and stole a fancy bracelet from a jewelry story.
  
   Despite breaking parole conditions after several releases, Lohan only spent four late evening hours in the county jail on her latest arrest this weekend _ and that was after breaking parole again. Apparently her jail was too crowded.
  
   We don't know much about what is going on with Bradley Mannning. He was arrested in May of last year. He is still in prison though there has been no trial. He has been held in solitary much of the time.
  
   I don't think Lindsey had to remove her clothes when she went to bed. Of course if she had there would have been paparazzi around to catch her.
  
   Of course given that she was unable to post satisfactorily nakedly for Playboy, including full view of her vagina, there might not have been enough time. Her return to jail was delayed at the request of Playboy, whose editors said her naked photos were lame.
  
   Justice expert Jiwei C, author of "The Two Faces of Justice,"  says this kind of disaparate treatment cripples our justice system. Many will simply see no reason to obey the law. Some may want revenge.