Manning supporters shocked(!) that hearing on classified info will be closed to public
posted at 11:25 am on December 19, 2011 by Jazz Shaw
Supporters of Bradley Manning (or Breanna, depending on who you ask) are up in arms over the latest development in the accused traitor’s pre-trial hearing. It seems that portions of the next phase will involve discussions of classified documents and the Army has granted a request to have those sections closed to the public and the press. Ah… the unfairness of it all. You can simply smell the injustice in the air.
Supporters of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks are objecting to plans to close portions of Manning’s military hearing to the public and media on Monday.
Manning, 24, is accused of giving hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, which published much of the material on the Internet last year.
Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, the investigating officer who is conducting the preliminary hearing at Fort Meade, said Sunday he would empty the courtroom on Monday to hear testimony involving classified information.
Among those to be excluded are an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
I initially found out about this via an urgent, outrageously outraged e-mail alert from the Breanna Bradley Manning Support Network.
The Bradley Manning Support Network is deeply troubled by the imposition of an unexplained media blackout without any avenue for redress. The investigating officer has already prevented Manning’s defense from considering internal administration assessments that found these materials did not pose a threat to national security. Now he is seeking to prevent journalists and the public from reporting on testimony related to materials that are already in the public domain.
I see. So, essentially your argument is that the classified material to be discussed shouldn’t be a reason to keep you all out of the hearing because… he already leaked all of the classified material to Assange anyway? It’s an innovative argument to say the least. And Manning is likely going to require quite a few more creative bits of defense if he ever hopes to see the sun shine again without shadows of prison bars obscuring it. According to The Guardian, it seems that a forensic investigator has been pouring through all of the files on the private’s computer and found them to be an exact match for the ones that showed up on Wikileaks. And he’s going to be testifying to that effect.
Adding fuel to an already expanding fire, investigators found records of searches which Manning performed on the government databases with keywords that included “WikiLeaks,” “Julian Assange” and “Guantanamo Bay detainee assessments.” None of these, according to the report, are things which Manning would have needed to be searching on in the course of his assigned duties. (There’s a reminder for you here kids… always clear your browser history.)
The latest round of pearl clutching and hand wringing from Manning’s supporters is almost comical in its failed attempt at rational discourse. Even if the privileged material already was dumped off to Assange via a third party, there hasn’t been time for everyone to go through nearly three quarter of a million documents in detail. There is absolutely no excuse for trotting them out in front of the media or anyone else at this point simply because you feel that cat is out of the bag. Further, leaked or not, classified material is still classified material, and exposing it all over again is no less of a violation.
The hearing is slated to wrap up either tomorrow or Wednesday. Shortly after that we should know the details of the court martial. Given the nature of these recent items which the prosecution will present, I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t going to be one.
This post was promoted from GreenRoom to HotAir.com.
To see the comments on the original post, look here.
Related Posts:
Breaking on Hot Air
Report: Oversight on IRS targeting came from Washington all along
DOJ seized logs for five Fox News phones, possibly James Rosens’ parents’ house
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Their is no other god……except the government.
–Progressives.
PappyD61 on May 9, 2013 at 8:48 AM
So where does Maj. Nidal Hassan fit into this?
gryphon202 on May 9, 2013 at 8:51 AM
Sky pilots beware…times have changed.
It is no longer “Onward Christian Soldiers…” It is become “Nahnu Jund Allāh Jund Al-watan.“
coldwarrior on May 9, 2013 at 8:53 AM
Ed, anybody who has served in the military could have told you this without the need of a follow-up.
The real issue here is who gets to define “forcibly.” Clearly something like mandatory Bible study would be considered forced proselytizing but what about mentioning Christ during the prayer at a retirement ceremony? There is a real danger here that is covered up by going to the extremes. The left hates faith and is looking to slowly eradicating it from the military and nobody is going to convince me otherwise. Just wait until the first chaplains are kicked out of the service because they refuse to preside over sodomite fuax-marriage rites in a military chapel.
Happy Nomad on May 9, 2013 at 8:57 AM
They are backing off the trial balloon they floated due to massive push back. But the seed has been planted.
tommyboy on May 9, 2013 at 9:00 AM
Why bring up a military officer who merely went postal on a crowd of soldiers? That was an instance of workplace violence. The 13 killed and 30 wounded are not even eligible for the Purple Heart because, you know, that would mean they were attacked by a Muslim…. in Texas.
Happy Nomad on May 9, 2013 at 9:00 AM
Don’t buy it or they wouldn’t have Mikey Weinstein “consulting” them..
melle1228 on May 9, 2013 at 9:04 AM
27 comments or bust!
Bishop on May 9, 2013 at 9:07 AM
The heat got too hot for them, so they backed their plans down…for now.
kingsjester on May 9, 2013 at 9:14 AM
A poster here summed it up last week … (paraphrased) …
Gay — out and proud
Christianity — don’t ask, don’t tell
Paul-Cincy on May 9, 2013 at 9:19 AM
The watch for violations of the right of religious expression needs to continue.
22044 on May 9, 2013 at 9:21 AM
Coke and Christianity are OK..of course…Don’t ban anything.
We can just do a “big gulp” type regulation, yea, that’s the ticket! Legislate civility or a reasonable limit.
This preaching limit is redolent of second amendment limits.
Does every tradition or sacred object have a bull’s eye painted on it lately — or is it me?
I would be a lot more comfortable if it were not for the smell of Christian and traditional faith bashing I keep getting a whiff of in so many places. I keep feeling that it starts with the media and top officials and they just don’t want to come out and say what is really on their minds.
WAS THIS REALLY A PROBLEM?
I doubt it.
IlikedAUH2O on May 9, 2013 at 9:21 AM
Mormon missionaries at my door don’t bother me half as much as gays in bars.
Darn! Now I just lost my pass for cool left coast parties….hope the attentive ones are busy with the early showers in rehab.
IlikedAUH2O on May 9, 2013 at 9:25 AM
Remain vigilant especially when you have like likes of Mikey Weinstein whose sole area of expertise is denigrating Christianity.
AH_C on May 9, 2013 at 9:29 AM
Hhhmmm… “forcibly” can have different contexts. I too had a negative initial reaction to the DOJ policy. In discussing this with some friends, I remembered a personal incident that moved this into a much grayer area for me.
Twenty some years ago I was a young college student on ROTC scholarship. Being a “military brat” it seemed like a good path. Unfortunately, the command structure in that unit was (I didn’t know until much later) far different, bordering on abusive, than the typical ROTC command eventually leading to disciplinary action for the active duty personnel running it. So, I am not writing this claiming it to be typical, but merely as a way in which “forcibly” can have a different meaning in a military structure.
During an intensive 2 week pre-semester “boot camp” at a local military base, we were there for 2 Sundays. We did the basic boot camp stuff, PT, marching, tear gas chamber, obstacle course, cleaning baracks, polishing shoes and brass, etc. On Sunday mornings we were offered an option – attend Sunday ecumenical services or clean the barrack’s bathroom. Needless to say, all of us 18-19 year olds atttended church services.
We certainly weren’t forced in the conventional sense, however, we were certainly coerced. Who wouldn’t want to put on kahkis and sit in church rather than don dungarees and scrub the head? I’m not suggesting that this particular type of coersion is happening regularly or even today, but I have heard friends tell of not dissimilar events in the regular military in the 80s.
I have no idea if it was events such as that leading to the DOJ pronouncement, something vastly different or just the general anti-Christianity of so many in this administration. However, I do think that there may be another side to this story that has not been articulated or complaints about some specific events or command that led to it. At this point, I’m going to keep a more open mind about it until/unless there is some evidence, at least anecdotal, that this is in some way restricting service members normal practice of their faith.
deepdiver on May 9, 2013 at 9:29 AM
You may be hanging out in the wrong bars.
tommyboy on May 9, 2013 at 9:31 AM
To a certain degree and in particular to this conversation I would agree.
However, the problem lies in trying to reconcile religious freedom with the social changes that force leaders are so fond of. This is especially pertinent to homosexuality.
For example, if one believes according to their religion that homosexuality is wrong (please take notice I mean morally wrong, not a hateful response or discriminatory) how does their “freedom” to believe that comport with the “freedom” of one to be homosexual? How does that affect unit cohesion and dilute the overall mission? Will my religious views affect an ability to be promoted? Will I be socially castigated by the CoC for not being a “team player” by adhering to matters of faith?
While I love my brother in a biblical sense, I may disagree with him on such matters. That disagreement manifest itself in not wanting to room with him or being exposed to his lifestyle. So is my “religious freedom” which is under-girded by moral tenets still protected and respected?
This is just one of the complexities and issues which are tangential. It also aptly displays why a military force is no place for social experimentation.
Marcus Traianus on May 9, 2013 at 9:36 AM
What is the social experiment? People keep using that phrase, but I don’t think it applies here.
segasagez on May 9, 2013 at 9:49 AM
That word was only in there for PR. To a leftist, “forcibly” means all sorts of weird things that a normal person would never connect with the actual word.
The Pentagon is a stinkhole full of idiots like ol’ General Casey, whose reaction to the Ft Hood terrorist attack was to say,
“As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well.”
These are the sorts of morons who are going to be interpreting what “forcibly” means – and you will be amazed at what they come up with. Just remember, Ft Hood wasn’t a terrorist attack, even though the self-proclaimed jihadi was screaming “Allahu ackbar” while he gunned down Americans and had indicated his displeasure with all things non-muzzie for YEARS before. Ft Hood was “workplace violence” … and you’re going to trust this same crew to reasonably interpret what “forcibly” means? LOL.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on May 9, 2013 at 9:51 AM
The social experiment is that instead of creating unit cohesion and a team; the military is not segmented into special interest groups which defeats the whole purpose of unit cohesion.
Don’t think there isn’t special interest groups see racial and gender quotas in the military.. See the constant powerpoint presentations and EO classes.
melle1228 on May 9, 2013 at 10:06 AM
Not really, Ed. The question that is unanswered is: why this sudden and urgent crackdown now?
When this administration declares there’s a new crisis that needs fixing right now, I think we’ve all learned enough not to let what they do slide, much less lend them any support. Never let a crisis go to waste, y’know. Or just manufacture a crisis when it serves an end.
whatcat on May 9, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Eventually those progressives are gonna run into a bit of a problem with their muslim allies in regard to that concept.
hawkeye54 on May 9, 2013 at 10:58 AM
Even worse, these assclowns who disgrace the uniform they wear are taking their orders from Mikey Weinstein, a particularly nasty and virulent anti-Christian hatemonger. He terms a Christian discussing faith as “being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators”.
whatcat on May 9, 2013 at 11:20 AM
Don’t worry. When they’re in the foxholes, they will convert.
Hucklebuck on May 9, 2013 at 11:56 AM
What is “undue pressure?”
That simple question makes a huge difference. We’ve already seen a PR person for the Air Force define “making someone uncomfortable” as the standard for proselytization.
Yes, there’s a balance that needs to be kept. Saying something about your belief in God or the need to believe in God may well make someone “uncomfortable,” but that is not sufficient reason to label it proselytization or call it “over the line.”
Behind the story, there is a power struggle going on. Weinstein and others like him want to redefine what started as a simple standard to prevent coercion by superiors into a strict “zero tolerance” type standard to prevent even a chaplain from encouraging someone to become a Christian.
What’s hard to read here is whether the Air Force is simply trying to clarify the rules without actually changing them, or whether they’re trying to change the rules by interpretation while pretending nothing has changed.
But it’s clear enough that some, at least, are trying to turn “proselytization” into a dirty word implying coercion where it has not typically had that meaning.
In Christian doctrine, it’s simply known as the Great Commission. And you can’t tell a chaplain to take the position that conversion to Christianity is off-limits without trampling religious freedom.
There Goes the Neighborhood on May 9, 2013 at 3:17 PM
I believe the term “social experiment” refers to the fact that no one knows how unit cohesion will be affected and other consequences of the decision to change the policy on open homosexuality in the military, but they’re doing it anyway.
A fairly straightforward point, but it runs afoul of the push to mainstream homosexuality at all costs, regardless of consequences known or unknown.
In this case, the consequence is the natural conflict between homosexuality and religious freedom. Note that the question is not whether homosexuality is permitted, but whether Christians who believe it is sinful will be permitted to continue to believe that.
There Goes the Neighborhood on May 9, 2013 at 3:30 PM
I’d like it if NO Christians were in the military. None. Nada.
Let every other religion/NON-religion (ie -atheist) go sign up and protect the country……..
and die for it.
Why should Christians always be the ones at the front of the lines and then have to be mocked, given few or little support at home when they do make it home?
LET others do it, get stigmatized, and leave the Christians alone. They’ll eventually need to do a draft because those “other” religions or “non-religions” won’t fill all the slots. Watch the uproar then.
athenadelphi on May 9, 2013 at 3:32 PM
Obama Administration Allowed Radical Cleric to Curse US Navy SEAL Heroes at Their Funeral Services (Video & Transcript)
Pole-Cat on May 9, 2013 at 4:39 PM
They didn’t “float” anything. This was a fabricated story from the get-go. It was just the FRC trying to portray Christians as victims.
Mark Jaquith on May 9, 2013 at 5:07 PM