Bradley Manning’s defense rests its case
On Wednesday, the defense rested its case in the court-martial of Bradley Manning, the US Army private who has pleaded guilty to releasing 700,000 documents exposing the crimes of US imperialism to the WikiLeaks website in April 2010. The trial, which began June 3, has laid bare the fiercely anti-democratic character of the Obama administration, which came to power promising transparency and openness, yet has indicted more individuals for espionage (i.e., exposing government and military misdeeds) than all previous US administrations combined. The political and military establishment is now seeking to make an example of Manning to intimidate any who would follow in his courageous footsteps. Manning is being tried for political acts in a court-martial before a military judge with almost unlimited powers. Moreover, military judge Colonel Denise Lind ruled that Manning’s political motives were irrelevant to the case and could not be considered, making the proceeding a travesty of fairness and justice. In a 35-page pre-trial statement, Manning made clear the political nature of his actions. He noted, “In attempting to conduct counter-terrorism … and counter-insurgency (COIN) operations, we became obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists … and ignoring the second- and third-order effects of accomplishing short-term goals and missions.