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<\/p>\nLawyers for the soldier at the center of the largest intelligence leak in United States history asked the government to acquit their client on the most serious of charges as the defense began its turn at arguing in favor of the WikiLeaks source Monday.<\/p>\n
Six weeks after the military trial of Private first class Bradley
\nManning began in Ft. Meade, Maryland, attorneys for the Army
\nintelligence analyst opened their case by playing a 39-minute
\nvideo shared by the soldier with WikiLeaks showing a US Apache
\nhelicopter opening fire on civilians and journalists outside
\nBaghdad.<\/p>\n
That footage, published by the whistleblower website in April
\n2010 under the name \u201cCollateral Murder\u201d and considered by many to
\nbe a turning point in the Iraq War, is one document among many
\nthat government prosecutors say Manning leaked with intent to aid
\nto international Islamist terror group al-Qaeda. The 25-year-old
\nsoldier\u2019s attorneys have long attested otherwise, however, and in
\nthe wake of the prosecution calling their final witness to
\ntestify last week, Manning\u2019s counsel requested Monday that the
\ngovernment drop charges of aiding the enemy and other counts
\namong the two-dozen-plus that have left the Army private looking
\nat potentially a life in prison.<\/p>\n
Col. Denise Lind, the presiding judge in the court-martial that\u2019s
\nbeen more than three years in the making, has until later this
\nweek to decide if the court will honor the defense\u2019s request to
\nacquit Pfc. Manning on aiding the enemy, a Computer Fraud and
\nAbuse Act charge, a charge relating to federal larceny and
\nanother that has left the soldier accused of stealing the contact
\ninfo of US forces in Iraq. Meanwhile, the defense began calling
\ntheir first witness in the courtroom Monday morning, then spent
\nnearly ten hours blowing through a list of other individuals they
\nhope will help their case.<\/p>\n
Following weeks of testimony from the likes of roughly 80
\nwitnesses called by the prosecution, the defense opened Monday\u2019s
\nhearing by requesting those acquittals, then calling soldiers who
\nworked alongside Manning during his deployment in Iraq to speak
\nto the conditions in the military unit where the WikiLeaks source
\nsurrounded himself in classified intelligence that he quickly
\naccumulated and then dissipated to the anti-secrecy website.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua Ehresman was the first witness
\ncalled by Manning\u2019s attorneys, and within the course of an hour
\nhe attested that the accused soldier was among the best in his
\nrank, even while working in what was painted as a highly
\ndisorganized workplace where it seemed far from impossible for
\nclassified intelligence to end up in the wrong hands. Manning has
\npreviously already admitted guilt in an array of the charges
\nlobbed against him, but Ehresman did not add to the prosecution\u2019s
\ncase that the WikiLeaks source went out of his way to share
\nintelligence with the intent to harm his fellow soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was our best analyst by far when it came to developing
\nproducts<\/i>,\u201d Ehresman said, going as far as to describe Manning
\nas \u201cour go-to guy<\/i>\u201d for intelligence analysis, working
\nrelentlessly to assist his Army peers even during the time frame
\nwhen he volunteered intelligence to WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere Monday morning, the defense relied on Captain Steven
\nLim, Sgt. David Sadtler and Capt. Barclay Keay to detail the
\ncircumstances in which Pfc. Manning handled classified
\nintelligence while deployed overseas, then called a one-time
\nInternet pal of the soldier to speak to his character.<\/p>\n
Lauren McNamara told the court how beginning February 2009 she
\nspoke over an instant messaging client with Manning and said the
\nsoldier often spoke about his desire to run for elected office
\nafter his deployment was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe often had interesting things to say about his job and what
\nthat entailed and his interest in politics, world affairs and
\nthings like that,<\/i>\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe seemed to have some very well-informed and complex
\nopinions<\/i>,\u201d McNamara added, speculating that Manning wanted to
\n\u201center the political sphere to effect the change he was
\ninterested in<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNamara\u2019s testimony came just more than a month after another
\nInternet confidant, Adrian Lamo, testified on behalf of the
\nprosecution. Manning admitted to Lamo in 2010 that he was the
\nsource for a handful of WikiLeaks releases, only for Lamo to
\nalert the authorities who ultimately arrested Manning that April
\nnear Baghdad. During cross examination at the time, Lamo admitted
\nto defense attorney David Coombs that he considered Manning
\n\u201cdesperate and isolated<\/i>\u201d with the desire to impact the
\nworld for the better by taking documents to WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n
When the court-martial resumes on Tuesday, the defense will ask
\nRetired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor
\nfor the Guantanamo Bay military commissions, to weigh in on
\nwhether Gitmo Detainee Assessment Briefs, or DABS, released by
\nManning to WikiLeaks caused significant damage. Davis was on the
\nstand for 90 minutes on Monday before Col. Lind determined that
\nhe could be considered an expert witness on the DABs, but not as
\na specialist on national security.<\/p>\n