Bradley Manning Charged: Alleged WikiLeaks Source Faces 'Aiding Enemy' Charge

The U.S. military has filed 22 charges against alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning. According to NBC News, Manning is facing a charge of "aiding the enemy," which can carry the death sentence.

The Pentagon confirmed to The Huffington Post that the charges had been filed. In a statement, the military stated:

After seven months of additional investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) and other investigative agencies, the U.S. Army has charged Pvt. 1st Class Bradley E. Manning with 22 additional charges. These charges allege that as a military intelligence analyst, Manning introduced unauthorized software onto government computers to extract classified information, unlawfully downloaded it, improperly stored it, and transmitted the classified data for public release and use by the enemy. The investigation is still ongoing.

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, a supporter of Manning, wrote in a statement, "The government alleged nothing regarding 'aiding the enemy' when they originally charged Manning in July of 2010. Surely they must have new and compelling evidence to substantiate such serious charges."

Manning was originally charged on July 6, 2010, for allegedly leaking the "Collateral Murder" video to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied having any dealings with Manning before "reading his name in a magazine." He has also referred to Manning as a "political prisoner."

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Comments

[Krisgi]

04:35 PM on 03/07/2011

If Manning is proven to be the one who leaked the documents, then he will be unfairly punished for doing a good thing.

Being a soldier should not mean that you must lose your sense of what is morally right and what is morally wrong in blind obedience to an institution. I agree that there should be stringent conduct codes in the military, but I also believe that these codes should be ESPECIALLY unwavering with regards to treatment of CIVILIAN POPULATION by US military personnel. In the CM videos, the blasé attitude -- the coldness --- of those who were commenting from within the helicopters before, during and after the shootings, left me speechless. These soldiers, and not those like Manning, are a dishonor to our nation and everything that it is supposed to represent.

All my support to Bradley Manning.

[bass man86]

02:47 PM on 03/07/2011

Really? From what I can see Manning is at least guilty of Article 92, and article 106-A, or am I missing something? The fact is that you do not know what Manning owned up to when he was confronted, and in fact he may even have requested court martial. Do not get me wrong, Manning is hardly the only one that is wrong here. What was is supervisor doing? What were the IT people at his command doing? But he is about as innocent as a Las Vegas hooker!

[H Seldon]

06:06 PM on 03/05/2011

Bradley Manning remains incarcerated after NINE MONTHS, because the US Justice Department fears the wrath of the Republican Right if he is freed. ...end

[H Seldon]

05:42 PM on 03/05/2011

Oh and the US government is basically torturing a US citizen

For those that say he's a traitor, whatever that may be YOUR OPINION, BUT he hasn't been found guilty yet, NO TRIAL!!!
Thus so far he is INNOCENT and does not deserve t be kept 9 months in solitary confinement without even the most BASIC human dignity offered to him ... a so far INNOCENT MAN

[H Seldon]

05:34 PM on 03/05/2011

"In his internet chat with Adrian Lamo (the guy who turned him in), Manning made it clear that if he was trying to cause problems for the US or had malicious intentions, he could have sold the info to foreign governments. However, his reasoning for leaking the info was clear, saying he was hoping it would cause "worldwide discussion, debates and reform." He also noted that he was driven to do this after being involved in detaining Iraqis who had simply done a scholarly critique of the current government, which he believed went against basic free speech principles. Again, no matter what you believe about his specific actions, it's pretty clear his intent was to whistleblow. He was upset about what he felt were illegal activities and his goal was to get that information out and to create discussion leading to reform. That's the classic definition of whistleblowing."

[justanotherbushhater]

05:29 PM on 03/05/2011

Wonder if his court martial will also require he be in the nude...

[Am I the only one who finds Bradley Manning's whole incarceration regimen barbarous?]

[Krisgi]

04:16 PM on 03/07/2011

I´m with you there, too.

[Vindictive]

03:30 PM on 03/05/2011

An explanation of why Manning is being forced to sleep naked from his lawyer: http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=14

[Tesarra]

01:09 PM on 03/06/2011

I'm glad his lawyer is every bit as skeptical as we are about this. This is an absolute travesty of justice.

[bass man86]

01:55 PM on 03/04/2011

Anyone here have time in the military besides me? Not too many of you I am willing to bet. Here is the lowdown; when you are given access to classified information, you have sign what is called a page 13 entry of your service record in which you agree to safeguard this information. If the allegations are true, Manning disobeyed a lawful order and that is a court martial offense, and that is just for starters. Manning is also a volunteer, there is no more draft folk, and when he entered the service, he swore to obey the orders of the officers appointed over him. Wait, it gets better. When you are in the military and you are given access to classified material, and in Manning’s case a Top Secret clearance, you have to undergo a SSBI (Special Security Background Investigation). In Manning’s case probably included a polygraph, and signing a whole lot of documents in which you swear that you will protect the information that you are given access to. The bottom line is that Manning is a liar, a cheat, and a traitor. If he had a problem with the actions that he was required to carry out, there were ways in which he could have excused himself from them. He could have taken steps after getting out of the Army that would have been legal and would not have landed him behind bars, instead he played morality vigilante and now he is paying the price.

[Neil Bolton]

06:17 AM on 03/05/2011

His PRIMARY duty is to uphold the constitution. Anything else is subservient to that. He has a duty to report war crimes. The Nuremburg defense is not valid.

It can definitely be argued that he should have done so through different channels, but the chat logs reveal that he tried through his superior officers and was told to carry on what he was doing. And I can believe that a 23 year old private then didn't know what to do, so he made his own judgement. I don't believe there would have been another way to get the information out.

If he did release the Collateral Murder video I believe he has saved countless civilian deaths.

I believe his illegal treatment, condemned by most people across the world as torture, is primarily aimed at coercing other would-be leakers that the risk is too great.

Which is a great pity. If someone would release the video of the murder of nine Afghan boys collecting firewood it may shorten the war dramatically.

And that's the problem. Shorter war = lower profits for the military industrial complex.

And that leads directly to lower campaign contributions to politicians.

Simple, really.

[Tesarra]

02:53 PM on 03/05/2011

This young man has not even been tried, much less convicted yet. He's an American Citizen and, as such, entitled to the full rights and privileges afforded by our Constitution including due process, speedy trial and the presumption of innocence until guilt has been proven in court.

Bottom line is, there's no excuse for him to be treated like a criminal until he's been proven to be one and there's no excuse for the military to be playing "wheel of death" with his charges. They should pick the ones they can prove and let the court, the lawyers and the jury decide the outcome.

[bass man86]

09:14 AM on 03/07/2011

The military does not work like the civilian world. When you join, you give up certain rights, and yes, he is being treated like a criminal because he is. If you do not want to be held to standards that are more stringent than those of the civilian population, don't join the military.

[Marlyn]

01:11 PM on 03/04/2011

Why is Manning being tortured? Why is anyone tortured? In order to get a FALSE CONFESSION.

[75thRanger]

02:39 PM on 03/04/2011

Short answer? He's not.

[RightnotLeft]

06:57 PM on 03/04/2011

Tortured? He is not being tortured. He is in a military brig.

[GuyCybershy]

12:59 PM on 03/04/2011

PFC Manning forced to strip naked

http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/2011/03/confinement-conditions-worsen.html

[ken607]

07:03 AM on 03/04/2011

whats wrong with this picture? if the media wont do its job who the f@ck will?

[H Seldon]

11:16 PM on 03/03/2011

Expose crime baaad ...Conceal crime goood

[Erewhon7]

10:48 PM on 03/03/2011

Only a inane child would consider release of addresses of various va ccine factories and secured underwater comm. line as heroic.
What's so heroic about release of the address of a secured ty.phoid vac.cine factory in Switzerland and other bio-hazard labs all over Europe?!!!
Why would this Manning steal this kind of info?
Even more revealing, why would he pass it on?

Chances are he was just stealing anything he can get his hands on. And just as haphazardly he shopped the info to any taker online. Some MIT students knew about it months before anyone else, apprently.
It staggers imagination how utterly fooolish this dude was.He gave many thousands of UNEXAMINED classified documents to the first guy who offered to post it online ( a few people turned Manning down.) No one really knows who else got it.
Enter stage left- Assange, anti-American anarchist. Luckily, a non-violent ( except to docile women ) wimp type.

[H Seldon]

10:54 PM on 03/03/2011

"Only a inane child would consider"

"Assange, anti-Ameri­can anarchist. Luckily, a non-violen­t ( except to docile women ) wimp type. "

"Only a person with a childish brain would think ..."

"Only an obtuse person would be incapable to process this factual data thru'..."

"Now this cyber-Jiha­­dist rejoices at Manning's theft ..."

lol ... You master refudiator you.

[GuyCybershy]

10:57 PM on 03/03/2011

Just stealing anything he could get his hands on, like the crooks who have bankrupted America. Why aren't they in the brig?

[H Seldon]

11:04 PM on 03/03/2011

This guy would have been FOR corporations like Enron and its employees who shredded evidence of wrongdoing

[Erewhon7]

02:15 AM on 03/04/2011

Too wrongs don't make a right. Unless you're an irrational child.

[vascopyjama]

10:23 PM on 03/03/2011

If news reports are correct and Bradley Manning is being checked to see if he is mentally competent to stand trial, then why on earth is he being kept in solitary confinement?

[Erewhon7]

10:51 PM on 03/03/2011

Pretty normal procedure for trait ors arrested by counter-intelligence.

[GuyCybershy]

11:00 PM on 03/03/2011

Torture has become normal because of traitors like you.

[Grada3784]

01:44 AM on 03/04/2011

Treason is defined by the Constitution. Whatever this guy may be guilty of, treason is not it.

[MikeWebster]

01:25 AM on 03/04/2011

Presumably because the medical checks are going to be somewhat less than objective.

[Erewhon7]

08:55 PM on 03/03/2011

Only a person with a childish brain would think that he'll release thousands of classified documents, shop them in the open to all takers and no one will be the wiser.
Time to pay the piper, turncoat.

[H Seldon]

09:26 PM on 03/03/2011

Does Daniel Elssberg have a childish brain?

if so that'd make yours pre-fetal in comparison

[H Seldon]

09:42 PM on 03/03/2011

This is YOU ...

when others don't agree you try to win an argument by saying stuff like ...

"Only a person with a childish brain would think ..."

"Only an obtuse person would be incapable to process this factual data thru'..."

"Now this cyber-Jiha­dist rejoices at Manning's theft ..."

"Automatic defeat in in the debate due to violation of Godwin's Law aka Reductio ad Hitlerum. "

You vaguely understand the existance of godwins law (although have trouble applying it) but ... Have you heard of Ad Hominem?