The government finished making its case against accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning Thursday morning with a 60-minute closing statement that piled on new details and exhibits, including snippets of 15 pages of chats allegedly between the Army intelligence analyst and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The prosecution flashed three chat logs onscreen that purportedly show correspondence between Manning and Assange discussing uploading so-called JTF-GITMO documents — classified assessment reports about Guantanamo Bay detainees. The chats also refer to two U.S. State Department cables about Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as a request from Manning to help him crack a password so that he could log onto his work SIPRnet computer anonymously.
Manning’s attorney David E. Coombs opened the morning stating that the Army was overcharging his disturbed but idealistic client and exaggerating the impact of the leaks in order to strong-arm Manning.
Coombs said the government wants to force his client into making a plea deal and turning evidence against Assange, whom the Justice Department is investigating in a criminal case stemming from the leaks allegedly provided by Manning. Coombs asked the court’s Investigating Officer to drop the charge accusing Manning of aiding the enemy and to consolidate some of the charges, saying that many were redundant and that Manning shouldn’t be facing 100 to 150 years in prison.
The court’s presiding officer, Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, will now draw a report of recommendations of what charges, if any, Manning should face in a court martial. That report, which has to be completed by Jan. 16, will go to the special court-martial convening authority Col. Carl R. Coffman, commander of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall who will then make a recommendation to the general convening authority, Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, commander of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, who will make the final decision. Though there’s no hard deadline for Linnington’s decision, that process is expected to take several months.
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