Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

wikileaks

Bradley Manning’s Defense Attorney Looks to Blame Military for Leaks: Wired

On Dec. 5th, 2011, Kim Zetter wrote for Wired on the upcoming trial of WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning.  According to the article, Manning's defense team is attempting to show that the US military ignored obvious signs of Manning's instability, and thus, the "massive leak of classified diplomatic documents is the military's own fault."  The article links a redacted list of potential witnesses that suggests the defense will hone in on Manning's mental health and the military's lax security in an effort to mitigate punishment. 

There are a few interesting names on the witness list.  Included are Adrian Lamo (the hacker who turned Bradley in), President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and Manning's psychologist. 

The article notes that the Article 32 hearing will begin Dec. 16.

Apparently, Army witnesses will testify that "personnel regularly put unauthorized media on computers, such as programs, games, videos, and music and that it was fairly common to see games, music and movies on the classified Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet)."  Yikes.

The rest of the article can be found here, definitely worth a read.

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