MANNING COURT-MARTIAL
Key moments
2007
Bradley Manning joins the Army and trains in Arizona as an intelligence analyst.
May 21, 2010
Manning, working in Baghdad as an intelligence analyst, begins communicating with R. Adrian Lamo, a former computer hacker. According to the chat logs that Lamo submitted to Wired.com, Manning said he had copied compact discs of data. Manning wrote that he exploited the vulnerabilities of the military computer system: “weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counterintelligence, inattentive signal analysis.” Manning told Lamo he had sent 260,000 State Department cables to WikiLeaks.
May 29, 2010
•Manning is detained by military authorities in Baghdad on suspicion of leaking a classified video.
•Manning is charged with multiple counts of mishandling classified data and putting national security at risk. The charges include putting the classified video of the helicopter shooting on his personal computer and accessing more than 150,000 classified State Department cables.
March 2011
•The government files 22 new counts against Manning, including aiding the enemy.
•Manning is transferred from solitary confinement in Quantico to an Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he is allowed to live with other inmates.
July 2011
Hearing that determines if Manning should face a court-martial concludes. Military District of Washington commander Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington refers all charges aginst Manning to a general court-martial.
Feb. 28, 2013
Manning confesses in court to providing vast archives of military and diplomatic files to WikiLeaks. He says he released information to help enlighten the public and spark debate about foreign policy; pleads guilty to 10 criminal counts.
June 3, 2013
Court-martial of Manning begins. Adrian Lamo testifies against Manning. He says his leak recklessly endangered others.
July 18, 2013
Military Judge Col. Denise Lind rules that Manning will face a charge of aiding the enemy; Manning, if found guilty on all counts, could face life in prison without parole plus an additional 154 years.
Today
Verdict will be announced.
Associated Press
Pfc. Bradley Manning will learn today whether he will be convicted of aiding the enemy — punishable by life in prison without parole — for sending more than 700,000 government documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, a military judge said Monday.
Col. Denise Lind said on the third day of deliberations that she will announce her verdict in Manning’s court-martial at 1 p.m today.
The charge of aiding the enemy is the most serious of 21 counts Manning is contesting. He also is charged with eight federal Espionage Act violations, five federal theft counts, and two federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violations, each punishable by up to 10 years; and five military counts of violating a lawful general regulation, punishable by up to two years each.
Lind has tentatively scheduled a sentencing hearing beginning Wednesday. The sentencing phase could run for several weeks; each side has more than 20 potential witnesses.
Manning is being tried by a judge alone, which was his choice. The trial began June 3.
The 25-year-old native of Crescent, Okla., has admitted to sending more than 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables, and other material, including several battlefield video clips, to WikiLeaks while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in early 2010. WikiLeaks published most of the material online.
The video included footage of a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed at least nine men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
Manning claims he sent the material to expose war crimes and deceitful diplomacy. In closing arguments last week, defense attorney David Coombs portrayed Manning as a naive whistleblower who never intended for the material to be seen by the enemy. Manning claims he selected material that wouldn’t harm troops or national security.
Prosecutors called him an anarchist hacker and traitor who indiscriminately leaked classified information he had sworn to protect, knowing it would be seen by al-Qaida. They showed that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden obtained copies of some of the documents WikiLeaks published before bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in 2011.
Manning pleaded guilty in February to 10 counts, including less-serious military versions of all the federal charges. His admitted offenses carry prison terms punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors accepted one of his pleas and tried to prove him guilty of the greater offenses for the other nine counts.
After sentencing, the verdict and sentence will be reviewed — and might be reduced — by the commander of the Military District of Washington, currently Maj. Gen. Jeffery S. Buchanan. If Buchanan approves a sentence that includes a bad-conduct discharge, a dishonorable discharge or confinement for a year or more, the case will be automatically reviewed by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Further appeals can be made to the military’s highest court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
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