Glenn Greenwald Reports on Bradley Manning's Military Pre-Trial Hearing
Uploaded by
democracynow
on Dec 19, 2011
DemocracyNow.org
- Democracy Now! interviews constitutional lawyer and Salon.com blogger
Glenn Greenwald about the military pre-trial hearing now underway for
alleged U.S. Army whistleblower Bradley Manning, who has been accused
for releasing classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. Greenwald
comments on the possible strategy being put forth by Manning's defense.
"All the Manning [tribunal] hearings have been shrouded in secrecy,"
Greenwald says, noting there may be more transparency in Guantánamo
detainee hearings than there has been for the Manning tribunal.
"Presumably, his lawyer believes that one of the best ways they have to
keep him out of prison for the next six decades is to argue that he had
diminished capacity by virtue of emotional distress over the gender
struggles that he had, over his sexual orientation being in a military
that had a policy of banning those who were openly gay, and so part of
this emotional distress that they're raising is designed to say that he
should be excused of his actions because they were not the byproduct of
full choice," says Greenwald, who is openly gay, and has been writing
extensively about this aspect of Manning's case. "He is, and I don't
blame him at all, trying to do whatever he can to avoid having his life
destroyed: Either being killed by the state or locked up in a cage for
the rest of his life."
To watch the complete daily, independent
news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, and for more
information about Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks, visit
http://www.democracynow.org/tags/wikileaks