Manning defense witness: The Army shouldn’t trust soldiers

I guess the Manning defense team is trying to baffle the jury with bullshit, tossing all kinds of defense strategies against the wall until one sticks. So far, they’ve claimed he didn’t release classified communications to Scandi albino, Julian Asange, the Wikileaks founder, but if he did do it, it was only because he’s gay and it’s hard to be gay in the military. But today’s defense is that the military had the audacity to trust soldiers to not release classified documents to Scandi albinos (Associated Press link);

But witnesses said soldiers routinely accessed music, movies and computer games over the network as well.

“I remember thinking that was something we shouldn’t be so liberal about,” said Capt. Barclay Keay, who was in charge of a night shift Manning worked for a few weeks in late 2009.

Hey, Captain, just how “in charge” were you if you allowed it to go on? Seems to me that someone who was responsible for the product generated by that shift could make his own policies. But, irrespective of this captain’s inability to accept responsibility for the actions of his crew, I assume they all had security clearances and had agreed not to release classified documents to Scandi albinos and they all knew the consequences of their malfeasance if they did.

Keay’s impression of Manning was that he was a good soldier who “did good analytical work.”

But Sgt. Daniel Padgett, one of Manning’s supervisors, said otherwise, recalling an incident when he sat down with Manning for a “counseling session” after the soldier was late for work.

When Padgett tried to impress on Manning the importance of being on time, “his demeanor changed,” the former supervisor testified. He said Manning then stood up and overturned a table, spilling a radio and computer onto the floor. Padgett said he moved Manning away from a gun rack while someone else restrained him until he calmed down. Padgett said he didn’t remember reporting the incident to his supervisors.

So, despite the fact that Ron Paul and Code Pink think that Manning was mistreated by the Army which therefore mitigates his malfeasance, someone in the Army was coddling him. Further evidence of the Amy coddling the sociopath;

Former Spec. Jihrleah Showman, who was Manning’s supervisor, described a succession of outbursts by Manning at their Army base stateside and, later, in Iraq, leading up to a confrontation in which she said Manning “punched me in the face, unprovoked, and displayed an uncontrollable behavior.”

And when Showman reported Manning to her supervisors for the assault, nothing happened. So where is the evidence that he was victimized by the Army because he was gay? It looks to me like they were protecting him.

They should have imprisoned him the first time he was caught lip syncing Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”.

ADDED: ROS sends this nugget;

The Advisory Board of the Bradley Manning Support Network includes Robert Meeropol, whose parents, communists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were convicted of violating the Espionage Act and executed for giving the secret of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Meeropol says “it is an honor to join a Board that includes Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, as well as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, and filmmaker Michael Moore, among others, but also because I believe it is imperative for as many people as possible to raise their voices in support of Manning.”

Emphasis is mine.

I’m glad to see those traitorous genes still gainfully employed and in the proper company.

Category: Military issues, Shitbags