Some Ugly Implications of the Manning Prosecution

Glenn Greenwald writes of some

bad-for-press-freedom implications of the latest charges

against alleged WikiLeaker Bradley Manning:

the most serious new charge is for “aiding the enemy,” a capital

offense under Article

104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Although military

prosecutors stated that they intend to seek life imprisonment

rather than the death penalty for this alleged crime, the military

tribunal is still empowered to sentence Manning to death if

convicted.

Article 104 — which, like all provisions of the UCMJ, applies

only to members of the military — is incredibly broad. Under

104(b) – almost

certainly the provision to be applied – a person is

guilty if he “gives intelligence to or communicates or corresponds

with or holds any intercourse with the enemy, either

directly or indirectly” (emphasis added), and, if

convicted, “shall suffer death or such other punishment as a

court-martial or military commission may direct.”…

In light of the implicit allegation that Manning transmitted

this material to WikiLeaks, it is quite possible that WikiLeaks is

the “enemy” referenced by Article 104, i.e., that the U.S.

military now openly decrees (as opposed to secretly

declaring) that the whistle-blowing group is an “enemy” of the

U.S. More likely, the Army will contend that by transmitting

classified documents to WikiLeaks for intended publication, Manning

“indirectly” furnished those documents to Al Qaeda and the Taliban

by enabling those groups to learn their contents. That would mean

that it is a capital offense not only to furnish intelligence

specifically and intentionally to actual enemies — the way that,

say, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen were convicted of passing

intelligence to the Soviet Union — but also to act as a

whistle-blower by leaking classified information to a newspaper

with the intent that it be published to the world. Logically, if

one can “aid the enemy” even by leaking to WikiLeaks, then one can

also be guilty of this crime by leaking to The New York

Times…..

since the UCMJ applies only to members of the military,

newspapers (or WikiLeaks) couldn’t actually be charged under

Article 104; still, “there is still something profoundly disturbing

about the prospect of convicting Manning and sentencing him to life

imprisonment [GG: or the death penalty] for doing exactly what

media organizations did, as well.”

In other Manning commentary, to paraphrase Ali G,

“What do you think about the conspiracy theory involving Bradley

Manning?” “What, that he’s being cruelly repressed by a

transnational system of murder and mayhem out to crush the spread

of information?” “No, that he

don’t exist!“