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February 24th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
“If the government gets its way, he will have been in pre-trial
confinement for over 800 days before trial,” he said.
The young soldier was arrested in Camp Liberty, near Baghdad, in May 2010 and
spent nine months in solitary confinement in a military prison in Virginia
before being transferred to a lower security facility in Kansas.
Wearing the US Army’s formal dress uniform and thick glasses, he spoke only in
short bursts in response to questions from the military judge, Colonel
Denise Lind, saying he understood the charges against him and his right to a
lawyer.
Pte Manning, who faces life imprisonment if convicted, also deferred a
decision on whether he wished to be tried by a military jury or a judge
alone.
Under Army rules he can opt for a jury composed either of only officers or a
mixture of officers and enlisted troops, likely to be senior sergeants.
The jury, known as a “panel of members” could be as large as 12
people or as small as five and would charged with reaching both a verdict
and a sentence.
Military authorities decided earlier this year not to push for the death
penalty, even though the charges are serious enough to warrant it.
During the legalistic hour-long hearing there was a single unscripted moment
as one of Pte Manning’s supporters shouted out: “Isn’t a soldier
required to report a war crime?” A small group of protesters gathered
outside Fort Meade, the sprawling Maryland military base where the hearing
was taking place, to protest the soldier’s innocence.
In the sparse court room’s public gallery sat Michael Ratner, a pro-bono
lawyer for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Mr Assange is under
virtual house arrest at a stately home in Norfolk as he awaits possible
extradition to Sweden on sex assault charges but is paying close attention
to the proceedings in the US.
Pte Manning could strike a deal with the US government at any time, where he
could accept a lesser sentence in return for agreeing to held prosecutors
pursue against Mr Assange.
The next hearing is scheduled to take place at Fort Meade on March 15.
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