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Soldier in WikiLeaks Video Case Transferred to US
WASHINGTON - A US soldier accused of leaking a military video from Iraq and suspected in the release of thousands of secret documents on the Afghan war has been moved to a US military jail, the Pentagon said on Friday.
This image captured from a classified U.S. military video footage shows Iraqis being shot from U.S. Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff on July 12, 2007. (REUTERS/WikiLeaks/Handout/Files) Private First Class Bradley Manning arrived at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia late on Thursday, the Pentagon said, after his court martial proceedings were transferred from Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Manning is facing four charges related to the leak to the website WikiLeaks of a video showing a US Apache helicopter strike in Baghdad in July 2007 that killed several people.
He now is also suspected of possible involvement in the bombshell leak to the same website of tens of thousands of classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon and the FBI have launched an investigation into the case while US leaders and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have condemned the leak, citing fears that Afghan informants named in some of the documents could now be at risk.
Top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen on Thursday expressed outrage over the leak, saying the founder of the Wikileaks webiste, Julian Assange, may have blood on his hands.
"Mr Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," he said.
Assange has defended the release of the files, saying he hoped it would spark a debate about the war and that his site had checked for named informants before distributing the papers.
The website founder has also called Manning a "political prisoner" and alleged the United States kept him under detention in Kuwait to render him effectively "incommunicado."
The graphic video of the helicopter attack was posted on the Internet by WikiLeaks in April this year, prompting an international outcry and renewed demands for compensation from the victims' families.
In addition to leaking the video, Manning, 22, is accused of illegally downloading more than 150,000 diplomatic cables, 50 of which he is alleged to have transmitted unlawfully to the danger of US national security.
US officials could not confirm a report by The Wall Street Journal that authorities have evidence linking Manning to the latest secret US material released by WikiLeaks -- 92,000 classified US military files on the Afghan war between 2004 to 2009.
In a statement, the Defense Department said his transfer to the United States had been requested "due to a potentially lengthy pre-trial confinement because of the complexity of charges and an ongoing investigation."
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11 Comments so far
Show AllI don't know the soldiers true motives but, he says that he wanted the American people to know the truth about the war, and how we are really fcking up, and killing many civilians. If this is his true motive then I for one, support him. I am glad that he has sacrificed himself because, the American people are asleep through this whole war. If you do not have a child in the service, the war is just someting on T.V. ...During Vietnam we saw the war everyday on T.V. we saw our soldiers dying, and suffering, and we saw the civilians horror, and we stopped eventually, and came home. The pressure from the public was to much, and the war ended. With this war our minds are far from the slaughter of those thousands, and thousand of innocent people that we are murdering all in the name of OIL. I am so against these wars, I am ashamed of these wars. I am not a killer, and yet my taxes make me one.
So good for him, and I hope more, and more soldiers show the people what a monsterous thing we are doing to our nieghbors on the planet... the good people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Adm. Mullen says Wikileaks may have blood on their hands? Are you kidding me? What about all the blood Mullen and other military and political US leaders have on their hands? What about the 10's or 100's of thousands of innocent civilian lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan? And are still being lost. What a f*cking hypocrite!
Do you have blood on your hands when you are trying to stop legalized mass murder, that thing we call war? Why are we in Afghanistan and Iraq? It's not to stop terrorists. That ship has sailed. The terrorists can set up anywhere. And besides who is a bigger terrorist than the United States of America? Or should I say the United Corporations of America? That's what this country really is. Our politicians, with a few notable exceptions, are merely employees of a handful of large corporate interests.
Top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen on Thursday expressed outrage over the leak, saying the founder of the Wikileaks webiste, Julian Assange, may have blood on his hands.
"Mr Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," he said
Assange is not the one that sent the 'young soldiers' to Afghanistan to be killed!!!!
adm mullen's is typical senior military bs. war mongering dick heads the whole bunch of them and this is how our tax dollars are pissed away. all to prop up corporate america's interests. like another poster said the united corporations of america.
screw you mullen and all of your senior military assclowns. this is the reason i never wanted to be in the military. take orders from these assholes? no thanks.
i would not any respect for any of them.
So razormirror and other writers, when will you get out your checkbook or credit card and help finance the legal defense team for Bradley Manning's extraordinary act of courage and self-sacrifice??? When will you write a letter to the editor of your local and regional papers publicly declaring your support of this brave man, even as some label him a "traitor"? When will you challenge political candidates for office or holding office in your area on the issue of punishing Private Manning for revealing the truth, but not the men who were in the helicopter which slaughtered civilians on the ground? Information on supporting the legal defense is available at "Help Bradley Manning".
Hey thanks for that info...I have already called my Senetor, and local Congressmen, but I should do more, and I will. Since the Press is not allowed into the Wars to show us what we are paying for, and doing, then I am glad that someone had the guts to put themselves on the chopping block, and show us. Anyone who just ignors the world around them contributes to the problems. It is my Country that is committing these war crimes against humanity, and when the history books read the truth, and they will, I want to be part of the group that stopped it !
There is a great need for MORE Bradley Mannings in this pentagon shaped circus ring.
Mullen, you military vampire, you don't just have blood on your hands, you drink the blood of humanity every single day, you cannibalistic barbarian.
The coverage of the wars against Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan as well as the push for a war against Iran, is a carry over from our media's long history of Israel/Palestine in which Israeli Jews are the white good guys against the non-white Palestinians who somehow manage to be both occupied and ethnically cleansed by Israel and simultaneously make Israel some kind of victim. The racist antisemitic images start with Palestinians and have extended to all Arabs, Iranians, Afghanistanis and Pakistanis. It makes them that much easier to kill.
Any want to know about this Mullen guy???? And Mattis (murderer, bombastic, RAVING MAD fiend). And that guy sitting beside Mattis not knowing what expression he had better put on his face.. and that simpering Gates... ("he won't say things like that ******ALOUD*****, again"!!!!) And then the stuttering, stammering Mullen... Frightened he may have to face a firing squad, one day, by the looks of him.
Here is the most disgusting, political speech video of the war...in my view :
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/211837-Video-US-General-Mattis-It-s-fun-to-kill-in-Afghanistan-
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I read an article that said Manning is on suicide watch.
I think freedom loving constitutional protecting Americans need to place a watchful eye on Mr. Manning.
We dont want any foul play, do we. History will show Americans that the Bush/Cheney Regime was the worst thing to happen to America,
and that PFC Mannings actions of pure courage and honor,will be Historical. He honored his oath to the American people to protect the constitution from enemy's foreign and domestic.
And freedom of speech,is used to protect us from tyrants, dictators and lieing controlling war mongers
Some people believe we are headed into 200 years of war mongering empire.
I dont like what America has become, a nation not governed by a constitution, but by fear mongering war loving chickhawks.
And there is a growing number of Americans that have become stazi torture freaks.
I would rather deal with men of truth , then those who lie to justify endless war.