Last week I spent two days in court for a pretrial motions hearing in the court martial of Bradley Manning, the private accused of leaking documents to WikiLeaks that showed widespread unethical and illegal behavior by the Department of Defense and State Department. Manning has suffered the fate the Queen put on Alice when she …
Continue reading “Dismissal Is the Only Option in Bradley Manning Case”
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called it “utterly deplorable.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “total dismay.” General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was “deeply disturbed” that the actions in question would “erode the reputation of our joint force.” Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos declared them to be “wholly inconsistent with the high standards of …
Continue reading “Blood on Whose Hands?”
Next week, as the country’s Christmastime frenzy is in full swing, a 24-year-old American Army private will be on trial for his very life. His supporters say “we are all Bradley Manning,” and perhaps they are right. His first hearing since he was arrested in May 2010 and put in military custody takes place on …
Continue reading “Bradley Manning Finally Gets a Hearing”
It’s hardly a secret at this late date that, while the Obama administration arrived in office promoting “a new standard of openness” in government, in practice it’s cast not sunshine, but a penumbra of gloom over the workings of Washington. Talk about a closed and punitive crew. Its Justice Department has notoriously gone after government …
Continue reading “WikiLeaked at the State Department”
Even though the yellow ribbons of the Bush era are out of fashion, the admonition to support our troops continues to grate. In January 2006 then-Los Angeles Times humor columnist Joel Stein wrote an inflammatory oped titled “Warriors and Wusses.” “I don’t support our troops,” he began. “But I’m not for the war. And being …
Continue reading “No One Supports the Troops More Than Bradley Manning”
Chase Madar on why he should be praised, not in prison
Was Adel Hamlily an agent for MI6, the British secret services, and simultaneously a "facilitator, courier, kidnapper, and assassin for al-Qaeda"? Was there a secret al-Qaeda cell in Bremen that even the German government knew nothing about? And could it be possible that an 11-year-old Saudi villager was leading a terrorist cell in London? Earlier …
Continue reading “WikiLeaks Files Reveal Failures of US Intelligence”
The WikiLeaks documents released on Guantanamo prisoners indicate appalling military incompetence in haphazardly patching together sketchy and contradictory information that has allowed many high-risk terror suspects to go free, while low-risk or innocent detainees continue to be incarcerated. Yet some members of Congress would like to strengthen the military’s role in holding and trying such …
Continue reading “Don’t Expand the Military’s Antiterrorism Role”
Imperial powers hedge their bets. The most striking recent example we have of this is in Egypt. While the Pentagon was pouring money into the Egyptian military (approximately $40 billion since 1979), it turns out—thank you, WikiLeaks!—that the U.S. government was shuttling far smaller amounts (millions, not billions) to various “American government-financed organizations” loosely connected …
Continue reading “An Empire of Failed States”
One hundred and forty-five years later, the room was almost pleasant. There was an embrasure with an open window at the extreme end of the casemate, looking out over the moat and the pretty buildings of Fort Monroe beyond. The sun played over the water and sent dazzling reflections back into the room, which boasted …
Continue reading “Prisoner Isolation, From Jefferson Davis to Bradley Manning” 
