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(update below)
The defense for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, has decided to do its part to bring transparency to the ongoing pre-trial legal proceedings. In the face of refusal from the US government to be transparent, the defense has made an attempt to share court filings with the press that are usually made available during most federal trials but have not been available to press. However, the filings the defense posted—mainly defense motions—include redactions requested by the government, minimizing the value of the published filings.
A prime example is the defense’s reply to the prosecution’s response to a motion to dismiss all charges with prejudice. During the last motion hearing, Manning’s defense lawyer David Coombs called for the dismissal of charges that had been prejudiced by the failure of the government to produce evidence requested by the defense. The government is accused in the motion of deliberately withholding material, including damage assessment reports, which would reflect how “national security” was truly put “at risk” when Manning allegedly released information.
Below is a section of the defense’s reply. The defense highlights the government’s contention on the motion, but why exactly is anyone’s guess. Coombs provides some hints. The government does not think it clearly outlined how there have been “discovery violations.” Coombs points out the government does not even challenge the assertions that it has committed violations. Instead, the government has said:
Instead, the government has argued – Well, who really knows what was argued? The explanation has been redacted in its entirety.
The eighth page of this defense response has another huge chunk blacked out. It reads, “On 22 March, 2012, Cpt. Fein sent an email to the parties where he stated, in no uncertain terms, the Government’s position that RCM 701 [a military rule] does not apply to classified discovery.” Why? Again, the government does not think the press or public should be able to know.
The defense explains in the response that the government is engaged in “revisionism by pretending that they did not say what they clearly said and did not do what they clearly did.” The defense illustrates examples of how the government is doing this – six examples. One can scarcely figure out any specifics around this obstruction because what the government has said is withheld. It appears the government has flip-flopped on what classified information could and could not be shared with the defense, but what has led to this inconsistency, specifically, is censored.
Another section features a chunk of the government’s argument on why charges should not be dismissed is referenced. Again, this is apparently material in a public court proceeding that the government believes it should be able to keep secret from everyone.
In another recently filed defense motion made public that deals with a ruling on the discovery of evidence made in court during a March hearing, the defense challenges the withholding of “grand jury materials.” Thi
The defense put up the two motions previously mentioned on their website, along with motions that had already been filed and litigated in court. The decision to post motions came after the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), which had the support of several media organizations, sent a letter on March 12 requesting the US Defense Department grant the press access to court filings. And it came after the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) sent a letter demanding the same access on March 22.
In the interest of bringing some level of transparency to the proceedings, the defense voluntarily agreed to redact portions of the motions, which the government did not want published. The “redacted motions” were submitted to the court for approval and then authorized for posting.
It has been more than a month since the Defense Department and the government still refuses to make all filings available. The legal fun and games that the government is playing makes it clear that the government wants to prosecute and convict Manning in secret.
Michael Ratner, CCR President Emeritus, has wholly condemned the government’s commitment to secrecy: “It’s not like it’s up to the individual defense counsel or government lawyer to decide what the public should have…I find it completely outrageous that we are not getting both the government and the defense filings.” He added, the provision of defense motions only is “worse than nothing if the court or the government thinks this is what’s required by a public trial.”
The press and the public do not even get to know why the judge presiding over the proceedings, Judge Col. Denise Lind, does not think the government should be forced to make their filings public. There are no judge’s orders or government responses being published. The government believes everything it is doing in the legal proceedings should be concealed and private, and the effect of this belief is that legal proceedings for Manning are less transparent than military commissions for Guantanamo Bay detainees.
To show how reasonable this suggestion happens to be, here is a list of media organizations, who support this suggestion made by RCFP:
ABC News; Advance Publications, Inc.; A. H. Belo Corporation; Allbritton Communications Company; ALM Media, LLC; American Society of News Editors; The Associated Press; Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; Atlantic Media, Inc.; Bloomberg News; Cable News Network, Inc.; CBS News; Cox Media Group, Inc.; Digital First Media; Digital Media Law Project; Dow Jones & Company, Inc.; The E.W. Scripps Company; First Amendment Coalition; Gannett Co., Inc.; Hearst Corporation; Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association; The McClatchy Company; Meredith Corporation; Military Reporters & Editors; MPA – The Association of Magazine Media; The National Press Club; National Press Photographers Association; NBC News; New York Daily News; The New York Times; Newspaper Association of America; The Newspaper Guild – CWA; The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC; North Jersey Media Group Inc.; NPR, Inc.; Online News Association; POLITICO LLC; Radio Television Digital News Association; The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; Reuters News; Society of Professional Journalists; Stephens Media LLC; Time Inc.; Tribune Company;USA TODAY; The Washington Post; and WNET
Just about any media organization that is or will cover Manning agrees with the suggestion that Manning is denied the same rights that are afforded to accused terrorists. That is why this is unlikely to go on much longer before a lawsuit is filed in court against the government to force the proceedings to be transparent.
Legal proceedings in the case resume this week at Fort Meade in Maryland. They will go on from April 24-26. The proceedings will be a motion hearing similar to the hearing last month.
The defense has already made public details on what will be deliberated. At least four motions will be addressed, including a motion to dismiss the most egregious and severe charge of “aiding the enemy,” which the government has indicated is al Qaeda or any other groups related.
There is no trial date yet. This is all part of a pre-trial process that has already been long and drawn out.
I will be at Fort Meade covering the proceedings. A live blog will appear at The Dissenter on Tuesday morning. It will follow the proceedings throughout the day. Hopefully, there will be some challenge in court by Coombs to the secrecy the government has subjected this legal process to thus far.
Update
CCR has renewed its request that the press and public be granted access to documents and information filed in the case. The group has sent a letter to Coombs and requested he pass the letter on to the government and the judge. It specifically calls for all orders issued by the court, including the case management order, pre-trial publicity order, protective order regarding classified information and other protective orders to be released, along with the government’s motions and responses to the defense motions and any authenticated transcripts of the proceedings. (There has, to my knowledge, been no transcripts of proceedings yet, however, Lind did express interest in seeing a transcript of the Article 32 hearing.)
Even more importantly, CCR requests:
…the Court require all conferences held pursuant to R.C.M. 802 be held in open court and be made part of the record in this case, to the extent they involve substantive matters,and regardless of whether the parties agree to have those substantive matters discussed and decided off the record. Moreover, we request that all Rule 802 conferences which have already occurred be reconstituted in open court.
This specifically refers to the many instances where the government, defense and military judge have been in chambers secretly conferring over matters for lengthy periods of times. They have repeatedly delayed the beginning of proceedings because the government and military judge prefers to handle matters in private.
The letter requests a legal explanation for the denial of any of these requests. And, it indicates that a senior attorney will be attending the hearing on April 24 and would like to address the court directly and present arguments concerning “requests for public access to documents and information filed in this case.”
Kevin Gosztola is the co-author of the new book, “Truth and Consequences: The US vs. Bradley Manning.” He will be doing an FDL Book Salon on April 28 on the recently published book.
20 Comments
thanks for keeping us informed, Kevin. i learned a lot from last book salon and look forward to yours next saturday.
the above answers the question re the defense work by combs: how can you obtain public support if you are not even able to obtain a gitmo level of “transparency??”
i have a forelorn hope that a few (even one!) of the news agencies will attend the hearings this week. extremely pleased that you’ll be there.
ROAR!!!
UPROAR!!!
So far, this has been a complete farce on the part of the Government and the Military. Is it too early to call a Mistrial? The hearings are a foretaste of the positions prosecution has. Every American should be disturbed about this. Even if Obama can do whaat he wants now, the Manning case started long before the new secret laws hit the books!
I kicked in $25 for Kevin. Not a princely sum, but at least it’s something.
All that blacking out is absurd. The government is just trying to keep us ignorant.
We should not expect Torturers and Assassins and War Criminals, to follow any rules. This Court has more Kangaroos than the zoo. The Kangaroo in Chief Obama may lose a few votes by this phony, charade.
But perhaps the Kangaroos have no real evidence, other than the Snitch Lamo. In that case, they will falsify evidence to imprison Manning in the Gulag..
Facebook this article to your friends, if you are on Facebook. Even the apolitical ones will take notice.
From this very interesting document:
The Art of Trial Advocacy
There will be maybe 10-20 media organizations present. It will be extremely important for FDL to be there.
Oh, the government has evidence. It could give Manning quite a few years in prison, but the government insists on acting with smug arrogance. And, as a result, they are making it easier by the day for Coombs to argue for something like a mistrial. He already wants all charges with prejudice dismissed. The government should do this out in the open if officials are so sure they are right to put this young man away for life. But, it doesn’t think it has to show us what it is doing.
Thank you, Kevin, for all the work you do this. It’s a travesty; very chilling. A message sent out that this is what can and will happen to you depending on what whistles you attempt to blow.
Very discouraging but unsurprising. Keep up the good work, Kevin! Best to you but even more, all the best to Pfc Bradley Manning, a true American hero. My thoughts are with him.
Wow, just wow… if it weren’t so unconscionable (and indicting), this would be hilarious – imagine how the Cohn brothers would handle these “prosecutors”…
OT, Kevin – but did you see these?
http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/nps-production.html
“…initially released documents show:
The private corporate entity Brookfield Properties, which manages Zuccotti Park, had its security agency in communication with cities across the country about police actions designed to evict the Occupy movement and sought information as to Park Police plans to evict in D.C. 48 hours before OWS was evicted.
U.S. Park Police were communicating step by step, as they took action in regard to Occupy DC, with the Secret Service, DHS, and other police agencies as well as personnel affiliated with LEO.gov, the FBI’s nationally integrated network and alert system involving all aspects of civilian law enforcement, intelligence agencies and the military. As its website states, “LEO supports the FBI’s ten priorities by providing cost-effective, time-critical national alerts and information sharing to public safety, law enforcement, antiterrorism and intelligence agencies in support of the Global War on Terrorism.”
Park Police officials executed a warrant to search a tent at Occupy DC in McPherson Square based on a “reliable informant” who told them there was a “pistol” present. The most that the police could find was alcohol.
Government officials used the Occupy live stream, circulating the URL for personnel to watch, as they carried out their enforcement actions at McPherson Square.”
and this, re: DHS – “Department of Homeland Security buying up enough ammo to wage seven-year war against the American people”
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035649_DHS_ammunition_domestic_war.html#ixzz1sswvlYvk
Hollow nose bullets… “Many NaturalNews readers may not know this, but “hollow point” ammunition is never purchased for practice or training. This ammunition is purchased for the sole purpose of being used in active fighting. At the same time, it is a violation of the Geneva Convention to use hollow point ammunition on the battle field.
This is crucial to understand. It means the occupying federal government is acquiring this ammunition to be used against the American people. Furthermore, DHS does not fight wars overseas. It is a domestic agency with domestic responsibilities. Its purchase of .40 ammunition is a clear and obvious indication that DHS plans to wage war on the American people.”
The Geneva Convention is just so quaint.
Unfickendenglaublich!
I keep thinking that this is how it becomes for all of us, first they came for the Muslims, then the Mannings, and eventually, they come for Me. We are well along the path to the end of everything the US has ever stood for.
Deserves more coverage. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to dig into this too much as I have Manning’s hearing and a drone summit to cover.
Thanks for kicking in some money to fund coverage of Manning at FDL.
You are doing so much heavy lifting, K.G. and our gratitude is immeasurably HUGE!
I think a lot of us connect the dots the same way that you do.
And midway through one of the many many apocalyptic YouTube videos about the “End Times,” was some serious footage shot in several different places in California recently. What the citizens with their phone cameras recorded was the boxcars (flatcars, actually) being pulled down railroad tracks. And sitting on those RR cars were drones, were tanks, were armored vehicles.
Just where in Calif. or the Pacific NW were these items going? And we are not talking about a few items – these were dozens upon dozens of these things. If not hundreds.
Is it really “redacting” when you “redact” EVERTYTHING?????
Sad to see such a lack of interest in the proceedings, as that is what allows the government to continue the malicious misuse of secrecy for its perceived gain.
The government has already decided that it is goign to convict Manning and sentence him to something like 30 years at hard labor. And they don’t really care if they make a good show out of doing it. 85 years after Billy Mitchell it’s the same ol’, same ol’, just even more harsh and draconian.
When is FDL hiring an assistant for you? Heh. Srsly, though, I wish someone could guest post on some of the topics you cover since you have waaaay more work than one blogger can do.
The entire trial is nothing but kabuki. 0bama already declared Manning guilty. He will probably spend the rest of his life in prison as an example to all other potential whistle-blowers.
That’s the way it works now: if the Decider suspects you, your life is forfeit.