Bradley Manning's Trial Postponed as His Pre-Trial Confinement Takes Center Stage

Pfc Bradley Manning's trial, which had been set to begin on February 4, will now begin, at the soonest, on March 16, according to Military judge Colonel Denise Lind, because arguments over his harsh pre-trial confinement are ongoing, the Guardian reports:

Lind is currently hearing evidence relating to restrictions placed on Manning during a nine month stint in military cells in Quantico, Virginia. Defence lawyers have claimed that the extreme custodial regime he was placed under – which included being confined to a 6ft-by-8ft cell for all but 20 minutes every day and being deprived of his clothes at night – amounted to unlawful pre-trial punishment.

Psychiatrists have testified that the brig commander in Quantico kept Manning under these harsh conditions despite their recommendations to ease them.

During the current sessions, Manning has spoken about the trauma he experienced while incarcerated and the effect that long periods of isolation had on him.

Manning has been under arrest since May 2010 when Wikileaks released a trove of documents containing military and state classified information.

Judge Accepts Language Of Bradley Manning's Proposed Plea

Col. Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over Bradley Manning's Wikileaks pre-trial, this morning accepted the language of the six charges to which Manning plans to plead guilty.

These pleas have not formally been accepted, but here's a breakdown:

Under the proposal, Manning would admit to willfully sending the following material: a battlefield video file, some classified memos, more than 20 Iraq war logs, more than 20 Afghanistan war logs and other classified materials. He would also plead guilty to wrongfully storing classified information.

The government is still considering how to move forward on the 15 other charges against Manning, including aiding the enemy by revealing classified information.

Former Marine Base Commander Testifies He was Worried About Handling of Bradley Manning

Pre-trial hearings have begun in the case of Wikileaks soldier Bradley Manning, with the questioning of the former commander of Quantico marine base in Virginia, the Guardian reports:

Daniel Choike told a pre-trial hearing in Fort Meade, Maryland, that when Manning arrived at the brig on 29 July 2010, having been arrested in Iraq on suspicion of being the source of the massive WikiLeaks dump of state secrets, he informed his superior officer in the Pentagon that in his opinion Quantico was not the right place for the soldier should his detention last long.

"I didn't feel that PFC Manning should be detained more than 90 days in the brig," he said.

In the end, Manning spent nine months at Quantico – three times the maximum Choike thought appropriate. The soldier's treatment there prompted international protests from the UN, Amnesty International and other organisations that likened it to torture.

Choike's admission that he had been aware of problems relating to Manning's incarceration at the Quantico brig came on Tuesday, at the end of an intense first day in the latest pre-trial hearing in the soldier's court martial...

...After about seven hours of questioning, Choike told the judge presiding over the court martial, Colonel Denise Lind, that he had been concerned from the beginning that the brig at Quantico was unprepared for the long-term detention of such a high-profile case as Manning. He said he was worried about dealing with the media, about co-ordination of command and about medical handling of the detainee.

He added that he "constantly" told his superior, Lieutenant General George Flynn, based in the Pentagon, that there were problems with the soldier's prolonged detention in Quantico.

Manning could possibly be questioned in the trial, and it would be the first time he has spoken publicly. He is trying to have the charges against him dropped on account of his pretrial treatment.

And New York mag adds this detail about the recent hearing:

At one point, the guards confiscated Manning's underwear after he allegedly said, "I have everything I need right here to be able to harm myself. The waistband of my underwear can do this," the Associated Press reports. That inspired one of the guards to pen a version of Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham that Manning's attorney David Coombs read aloud in court:

"I can wear them in a box,
I can wear them with a fox,
I can wear them in the day,
I can wear them so I say,
But I can't wear them at night,
My comments gave the staff a fright."

Bradley Manning's Pre-Trial Punishments May Save Him From Worse

The miseries suffered by Bradley Manning, the gay Army private and Wikileaker, are well documented. After his imprisonment at Quantico, he was kept in soul-killing isolation, restricted to a 6x8 cell for 23 or 24 hours per day, barred from laying on his rack or leaning against walls during his waking hours, denied toilet paper, and forced to strip naked during cell inspections. Juan Mendez, the United Nation's "special rapporteur" on torture, decreed Manning's treatment "cruel and inhuman."

Manning may yet benefit from his difficulties in the brig. The Guardian reports that Manning's civilian lawyer, David Coombs, has filed an Article 13 motion claiming Manning was cruelly, inhumanely, and illegally punished before he'd been convicted of anything. (Manning still hasn't been convicted of anything.) From Coombs's website:

The Defense is requesting the Court to dismiss all charges with prejudice owing to the illegal pretrial punishment PFC Manning was subjected to in violation of Article 13, UCMJ and the Fifth and Eighth Amendments to the United States Constitution. 

The Guardian explains Article 13 like so:

The defence motion is brought under Article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It states that "no person, while being held for trial, may be subjected to punishment or penalty other than arrest or confinement upon the charges pending against him, nor shall the arrest or confinement imposed upon him be any more rigorous than the circumstances required to insure his presence."

Under Article 13, if a judge decides that a member of the armed forces has been illegally punished before trial, he can grant the prisoner credit on the amount of time they have already served in custody, or can even dismiss all charges outright.

UN Torture Investigator Says U.S. Military Treatment of Wikileaks Soldier Bradley Manning was 'Cruel and Inhumane'

A UN investigation into the treatment of Wikileaks soldier Bradley Manning in Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and in Quantico in Virginia, where he was held in solitary confinement and made to strip naked at night, has been described as  not 'definitive' because the UN rapporteur "has consistently been denied permission by the US military to interview the prisoner under acceptable circumstances."

As you may recall, in March 2011, Obama said of Manning's situation:

"I have asked the Pentagon whether or not the the procedures that have been taken in terms of his condition are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are."

The Guardian reports:

Juan Mendez has completed a 14-month investigation into the treatment of Manning since the soldier's arrest at a US military base in May 2010. He concludes that the US military was at least culpable of cruel and inhumane treatment in keeping Manning locked up alone for 23 hours a day over an 11-month period in conditions that he also found might have constituted torture.

"The special rapporteur concludes that imposing seriously punitive conditions of detention on someone who has not been found guilty of any crime is a violation of his right to physical and psychological integrity as well as of his presumption of innocence," Mendez writes.

The findings of cruel and inhuman treatment are published as an addendum to the special rapporteur's report to the UN general assembly on the promotion and protection of human rights. They are likely to reignite criticism of the US government's harsh treatment of Manning ahead of his court martial later this year.

Bradley Manning's treatment was cruel and inhuman, UN torture chief rules [guardian]

Wikileaks Soldier Bradley Manning Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Gay Wikileaks Private Bradley Manning is among one of 231 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, the AP reports:

The secretive committee doesn't reveal who has been nominated, but those with nomination rights sometimes announce their picks. They include Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private charged with the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history, Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Norwegian Nobel Committee secretary Geir Lundestad told the AP on Monday that "The list of nominees is a mixture of repeated nominations and some new names."

Other names known to be on the list: Tunisian President Moncef Marzouk, Bill Clinton, and Helmut Kohl.

Last week, Manning deferred his plea at an arraignment.

Watch AFP and RT's report, AFTER THE JUMP...