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Bradley Manning Prosecution Rests As Defense Considers Argument To Dismiss Charges

Prosecution Rests In Bradley Manning Court Martial
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FORT MEADE, MD - NOVEMBER 28: U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley E. Manning arrives for a hearing on November 28, 2012 in Fort Meade, Maryland. Manning is attending a motion hearing in the case of United States vs. Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, which he is charged with aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

FORT MEADE, Md. -- The prosecution rested its case against Pfc. Bradley Manning on Tuesday, bringing to a close its testimony in the court martial of the Army intelligence analyst who has admitted giving WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents.

Manning has pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him, but the government is fighting to convict him of the most serious accusations, including aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.

Under military law, Manning's defense lawyer David Coombs may now argue to have some or all of the charges dismissed for lack of evidence. Coombs told Manning supporters on June 24 that he was likely to make such a motion, typical in military law. Judge Denise Lind set a July 4 deadline for doing so.

Moments after resting his case, Army prosecutor Captain Ashden Fein unexpectedly announced the government will drop its attempt to charge Manning with leaking intelligence to an enemy whose name is classfied. Military law experts had expressed surprise at charging someone with aiding a secret enemy, and the idea had aroused some controversy.

"That evidence was not presented and the government will not be presenting it," Fein said.

During the prosecution's 3 1/2 weeks of testimony, the government presented some evidence -- almost all of it circumstantial -- that may show Manning knew his disclosures would wind up in the hands of al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That knowledge is a crucial element of the aiding the enemy charge.

Also on Tuesday, Lind ruled that Daniel Lewis, a Defense Intelligence Agency counterintelligence investigator, could not testify as an expert on the value of some of the documents Manning leaked. Showing that the files Manning turned over to WikiLeaks are worth more than $1,000 is critical for proving several of the minor theft of government property charges.

Lewis was allowed to opine on the value of other documents in a closed, classified session. After offering to present as many as 24 witnesses to testify in secret against Manning, the government chose to bring only Lewis and a computer forensics expert to the stand in the closed session.

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Before You Go

Guantanamo Bay Revelations From WikiLeaks
Abuse Of Prisoners (01 of09)
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As the New York Times reports, Mohammed Qahtani -- a Saudi believed to have been an intended participant in the Sept. 11 attacks -- was subject to coercive questioning and other abuses during his interrogation. The cables describe Qahtani as being leashed like a dog, sexually humiliated and forced to urinate on himself. His file says, "Although publicly released records allege detainee was subject to harsh interrogation techniques in the early stages of detention," his confessions "appear to be true and are corroborated in reporting from other sources." (credit:Getty )
Arbitrary Nature Of Prison System (02 of09)
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As Le Monde is reporting, one "low-value" Iranian-Catholic detainee was kept in Guantanamo even after being deemed ready for release -- given his "cooperative nature" and in the interest of "possible financing relations" between Al Qaeda and traffickers. According to the cables, Abdul Majid Muhammed was deemed fit for release in 2002: "The detainee is not affiliated with Al Qaeda or the Taliban. He was involved in drug trafficking. It is unlikely that he represents a risk for the U.S. or its allies." (credit:Getty )
High-Profile Detainee (03 of09)
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An Al Jazeera journalist was reportedly held at Guantanamo Bay for six years partially so he could be interrogated about the network Sami al-Hajj, a Sudanese national and Al Jazeera cameraman, was captured in Pakistan in late 2001. Though he was never convicted or even tried of any terrorist ties, al-Hajj was held until 2008 because interrogators wanted to find out more about "the al-Jazeera news network's training programme, telecommunications equipment, and newsgathering operations in Chechnya, Kosovo and Afghanistan, including the network's acquisition of a video of UBL [Osama bin Laden] and a subsequent interview with UBL," according to the cables. (credit:Getty )
Violent Threats Against Captors (04 of09)
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Some detainees are described as ruthlessly violent in the documents. As the New York Times reports, one detainee said "he would like to tell his friends in Iraq to find the interrogator, slice him up, and make a shwarma (a type of sandwich) out of him, with the interrogator's head sticking out of the end of the shwarma." Another "threatened to kill a U.S. service member by chopping off his head and hands when he gets out," and informed a guard that "he will murder him and drink his blood for lunch. Detainee also stated he would fly planes into houses and prayed that President Bush would die." (credit:Getty )
New Details On Post-9/11 Al Qaeda Whereabouts (05 of09)
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As the Washington Postreports, the documents describe a major gathering of some of Al Qaeda's most senior operatives in early December 2001. They included Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged planner of the USS Cole attack; and Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a key facilitator for bin Laden. After returning to Karachi, Mohammed "put together a training program for assassinations and kidnappings as well as pistol and computer training." (credit:AP)
"Nuclear Hellstorm' Threat(06 of09)
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The leaked files indicate Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told Guantanamo Bay interrogators that Al Qaeda had hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe which will unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" if Osama bin Laden is captured or killed. The terror group also planned to make a 9/11 style attack on London's Heathrow airport by crashing a hijacked airliner into one of the terminals, the files showed. (credit:AP)
'Impotence-Promoting' Drugs (07 of09)
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The Washington Post reports Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged planner of the USS Cole attack, "received injections to promote impotence" to avoid being distracted by women, and "recommended the injections to others so more time could be spent on the jihad." (credit:Getty )
Prisoner Details And Ranking System (08 of09)
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Gitmo detainees are reportedly assessed "high," "medium" or "low" in terms of their intelligence value, the threat they pose while in detention and the continued threat they might pose to the United States if released. As Reuters reports, most of the 172 remaining prisoners have been rated as a "high risk" of posing a threat to the United States and its allies if released without adequate rehabilitation and supervision. (credit:Getty )
'Terrorist Organizations' (09 of09)
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Gitmo authorities named Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency a "terrorist organization" along with Hamas and other international militant networks, according to leaked documents. As the Associated Press reports, the ISI is part of a list that includes more than 60 international militant networks, as well as Iran's intelligence services, that are "terrorist" entities or associations and say detainees linked to them "may have provided support to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, or engaged in hostilities against U.S. and coalition forces." (credit:AP )
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