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A U.S. Army medical and mental evaluation team has determined that WikiLeaks suspect PFC Bradley Manning is both physically and mentally competent to face court martial. The 706 Board, as it's called, took several months to make that determination.
The board's ruling clears the way now for Manning to appear before an Article 32 hearing -- the military equivalent of a grand jury -- to determine if he should face court martial.
The Army has leveled nearly 30 charges against Manning in connection with the alleged theft of "hundreds of thousands" of classified military and State Department documents, many of which eventually were publicly released by Wikileaks.
The most serious of the charges -- "aiding the enemy," because some of the information could be used by U.S. adversaries in Iraq or Afghanistan -- carries a possible death sentence. While prosecutors have not reommended the death sentence, it will ultimately be up to the "convening authority," who is the presiding judge to make that determination.
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Good, then he'll be fit to be executed.
He may be stupid, but he ain't crazy.
Good. He deserves nothing but death for betraying the US.
wtf dude u dont know what u are talking about that man should be freed he did nothing your just as bad the government and corrupted soldiers to let innocent people be murder with no cause people like you commenter guy make me sick
You Holland are clueless and well I'll just leave it at that.
u wish i was clueless Gahaha u people are ignorant and will pay for ignorance soon
Good Lord Holland, did you ever find out what a punctuation mark or cap letter is used for?
of course but why waste the extra sec on stupid peoples comments
Nobody is smarter than you Holland, you just proved it.
Holland
Manning took an oath, signed paperwork, acknowledged that if he ever leaked classified information he could be convicted of a handful of very serious crimes...one of which carries the possiblility of DEATH.
Manning decided to leak the information and by all accounts may have directly caused some informants in iraq to be murdered.
This is not an innocent guy who is a victim of the government...this is a guy who really really screwed up, and he has to pay for his actions.
(providing he is found guilty)
Luckily, in the military justice system, you're not innocent until proven guilty.
I am all for hanging this punk, but your statement is not true.
I'm a veteran, but I feel that if this government, including the military were not so shady, this leaking of info wouldn't have been such a bombshell.
Really Calvin? what did you do in the military if you don't mind me asking? How is the military shady?
i bet ur current enlisted arent u??
Am I Holland, you're the smart one remember?
In a way, I feel sorry for this guy. but as a former Army guy who was involved in Nuclear Weapons and responsible for secret military information, I believe he should receive the death penalty if found guilty.
We keep that stuff secret for a reason.
Agreed. So if we were to start letting the rank-and-file decide what can be release, what happens when they release information that kills an operative or fellow soldier? If you are given access to classified material, you keep it secret...it is not your decision what to release.
If you have real problems with something, you go up the chain of command, but there are things that you may not know about why a secret is a secret, and what the consequences will be if you let it out.
If Bradley Manning did what they said he did he saw lie after lie go across his desk and decided we Americans needed to know. The rules are changing, but you are still considered innocent until proven guilty.
The mountain of lies we are fed daily and you want to kill the messenger who tells the truth.
From my reading the things that got released were they were telling us one thing about the war while the generals have known all along it was unwinnable in Afganistan. In addition we are killing innocent people every day and becomming more and more hated the longer we stay. Video's were released of us killing innocent people. This is what the United States is doing in your name and yet many feel we should not know and we should kill those that tell us. These secrets only keep the evil in power.
War is the worst hell on earth. Yet we should continue to hide their secrets so they can keep killing in our name and we on the American right are kept worrying about a few unborn who we want to deny food, education and health care to after they are born.
Was the torture a Glenn Greenwald lie? You know he is a progressive (so- called) who praises and supports republican Gary Johnson . Glenn Greenwald addresses a possible alliance between progressives and Ron Paul libertarians.
http://www.yaliberty.org/posts/glenn-greenwald-visits-uw-madison
Salon.com journalist Glenn Greenwald said the terms civil liberties and terrorism constitute a paradox in that people believe civil liberties are vague but in reality are absolutely clear, whereas terrorism is just the opposite.
http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/11/03/does_us_use_terroris.php
President Obama asked us not to give the keys back; didn't he?
http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/03/this-whole-teach-obama-lesson-thing-is.html
Do you even read the articles before you go into cut and paste mode?
haha, I'm think not John
I've read and heard comments that Manning's alleged release of classified information is equivalent to "The Pentagon Papers", that he's a hero like Ellsberg. To me, there's a difference. Ellsberg was specific and selective in what he revealed; it was limited to Vietnam and all the smoke and mirrors surrounding it. Manning appears to have released anything classified that crossed his desk/computer or he found. That random release of thousands of classified documents says to me he had no real goal as Ellsberg did. Whether Ellsberg was right or wrong, that's in the past. But anyone who has access to classified information, signs and dates a briefing statement never to reveal or disclose any of the information. If Manning copied and gave the documents to WikiLeaks, he broke the law. Beyond that judgement from me, he deserves a fair military trial to prove his guilt or innocence.
Jody: how true. It's not like Manning found a series of documents which indicated that weapons of mass destruction had actually been found in Iraq (HA!) and the White House kept saying they don't exist. I wonder what Manning's actual motive was, 15 min. of fame?
One thing here that is not very clear. Why did someone in the Army have access to State Department files? So I would think there is a policy issue or some other breach of security and It may be that he did not act alone.
Otherwise I agree with your statement Jody.
Is Manning competent enough to stand trial? That is a good question. Here is a better question. Is the US government and the American people competent enough to put him on trial? After all, Manning only aided in the release of documents which revealed incompetence, lies, and fraud. Besides, all the documents, and the people who sent them, were being paid by US taxpayers. The equipment and the paper they were printed on were paid by US taxpayers. Those of you who demand Manning's execution, in my humble opinion, seem to find little problem with being deceived by those who have an affinity to keep the straight facts from the American people; Who Are The Ones Paying For All Of This Crap!
Bull@!$%#. Manning released documents that put thousands of lives at risk because he didn't give a flying f#*k what they said, as long as the word "classified" appear somewhere.
As an American Servicemember, if found guilty, I would gladly pull the trigger on him. As a Servicemember, I would love for you to see just how shortlived our nation would be if everything was "in the clear" for you.
Public opinion should never sway military necessity.
@allswell: I served in Vietnam 67-69. You said thousands of lives at risk. There were none, all cables were cleared for release. I agree that public opinion should not interfere with military necessity, however, so called military necessity is not always honest or in the best interest of the nation it is supposed to protect. This trial is less about justice and more about protecting those who profit from war.
I thank you for your service to this country, and I apologize for the heat of my statement.
That said, its not a matter of cables being cleared for release. The uncleared cables are out there, unsanitized and accessible in far less secure locations than they were.
Regarding military necessity, unfortunately, I do agree that it is not always done right. In this manner, I wish politicians would completely and utterly keep their noses out of the military. We were hamstrung in Vietnam, and we're being hamstrung in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. If we have a goal, tell the commander the goal and let the military figure out how to achieve it.
Doesn't Manning get the normal dog and pony trial that the military gives to its enlisted men who risk their lives to keep this military in power. Us "know nothings" like to have these dog and pony trials it makes us feel better when you blow smoke up our $$$. With the coming militarization of this government and the coming changes in our constitution it will be breath taking. Did Manning have a trial, did someone read him his rights, did they accutally say "you are under arrest" for this or for that, doesn't sound like it. Has Manning been imprisoned for almost a year without a trial, was Manning being tortured will in prision. We have "Special Ops" personal in every country in the world trying to destablize the governments, trying to assassinate their leaders. Now we have Petraeus in charge of the CIA. Now things that use to become news will go in a shut down mode, every thing will be a secret. The US has 500,000 troops scrattered throughout the world all at war with some 3rd world country. The millitarizations of this country will eventually bring this country to its knees. Watch for more and more military personal being given more jobs within out government. Generals love war, because they are not on the front lines. Make it manatory that son's and daughter's of all elected officials must serve on the front lines no excuses like "i am trying to help senator get elected" that's not the front line. All wars would end tomorrow. As long as the poor and uneducated sign up for the military we will have war.
As a military servicemember who is neither poor nor uneducated:
Educate yourself before you spew nonsense. And for god's sake, learn to spell if you're going to comment on the education of others.
Well said Allswell
how many front limes have you served on?
The basis of the Article is right, but for a highly respective to so garble the facts is shocking. The Convening Authority is the official who appoints the Court. The Military Judge who presides over the hearing is a different person. Simple military law that any half-way competent researcher should have caught before letting Jim appear with his factual pants down. Old Army JAG
Thanks for the clarification army judge, and more importantly, thank you for your service.
Manning can be held competent because there is nothing about being stupid and a dupe that precludes it.
I see our government is wasting NO time prosecuting a man for REVEALING the duplicitous dealings of that same government. And in Texas sits MAJOR Nidal Hasan still NOT prosecuted for THIRTEEN murders of SOLDIERS! They have not even taken steps to DEMOTE him or reduce his rank. He STILL gets his majors PAY. While OUR government buries this young man for taking a MORAL stand. SHAME when a government declares a cowardly war on it's people.
I imagine that Manning will end up with several counts of theft, possible espionage, certainly conduct unbecoming and failure to follow orders. On conviction, most likely 25-30 years and dishonorable discharge.
As to Hassan, I think the murder charges might be done by the state. That may be what is taking some time, the state, federal and military sorting out the best course (who gets to charge first.) In Texas, on conviction, he gets strapped in for the needles. A military conviction of murder could have him shot. It'll be interesting to see which way this goes.
Throw him in the general population. He has committed treason and deserves to be hung/shot.
We need more truth not less.Now,not in 40yrs written in some history book. Its already too late for many. Soldiers,civilians and their families have and will continue to pay with their lives. If Manning is proven guilty I not sure it's wasn't a crime of conscience.
This is similar to the court martial of Billy Mitchell back in the 1920's. Billy Mitchell was the head of the army air force, before there was a separate air force, and he embarrassed both the navy and the department of defense, and that's why he got court martialed. That's exactly what's happening to Bradley Manning. Billy Mitchell was trying to tell the defense department that aviation would no longer be just reconnaissance, but would play a major role in future warfare by bombing both ships and troops. He put on a demonstration and sunk a captured German battleship, and that embarrassed the hell out of the navy, which was worried about losing funding to army aviation. It was a political trial then, as it is now. By the way, the one member of the court martial panel who voted to acquit Billy Mitchell was none other than the great later General Douglas A. MacArthur, who understood that Billy Mitchell had to go public to get the funding for army aviation because the agencies he had to deal with - the navy and defense deparrtment - cared more about their own selfish interests than the national security.
Dude, you know nothing of history if you think Manning is anything like Mitchell.
Plain and simple, this man knew he was stealing information from the U.S. government that could harm our own soldiers and our national security. Most countries in the world would have already shot him out back...While I do not agree with capital punishment in this case, letting him sit in a cell for 23 hours a day sounds about right...