June 11, 2013

The trial of disgraced Army private Bradley Manning has revealed troubling information about the May, 2011, raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hideout: one of the raid members - presumably a Navy SEAL member - suffered memory loss stemming from 'repetitive' traumatic brain injury.

The raid member, identified only as 'John Doe,' may testify at Manning's trial to demonstrate that files that Manning released to WikiLeaks ended up in bin Laden's possession, as they were found inside his Abbottabad, Pakistan, complex when it was raided by members of SEAL Team Six.

According to a filing in Manning's court marshal, the presumed SEAL has 'occasional short-term memory deficiencies,' like forgetting where he put his car keys. The memory issues, the raid member says, started two to three years ago, which means he would have suffered from the memory issues prior to the raid on the terror mastermind's compound.

The raid member, however, says the memory issues 'do not impact my life in any discernible way' and have not effected his memory of the raid that killed bin Laden. 

The memory issues arose as prosecutors plan to argue that Afghanistan War Logs and the Department of State's diplomatic cables that were leaked by Manning were found in bin Laden's compound in an attempt to prove that the leaks were a direct threat to U.S. security. The raid member's testimony presumably would be used to establish a chain of custody of the documents found in the compound.

Life: the Army Private First Class faces life in prison if he's convicted of the most serious charges against him

Manning's trial, which is heading into its fifth day, comes three years after the Army private first class was first arrested for allegedly stealing classified government documents and giving them to the anti-secrecy website .

In all, Manning, 25, faces charges of larceny, aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act, as well as 10 lesser counts - such as improper handling of classified information and impeding the order and discipline of the military - on which he already has pleaded guilty.

Manning has been considered both a hero and a traitor after his May, 2010 arrest for giving the sensitive government materials to Wikileaks -  his supporters say he is a 'political prisoner' who simply shed light on serious problems within the military and the U.S. government as a whole. His critics say he put American lives at risk by distributing military secrets that could help enemies of the U.S. kill soldiers.

WikiLeaks attorney Jennifer Robinson takes a break outside of the courthouse during the fourth day of Manning's trial

Of the items Manning is alleged to have stolen and given to the website are more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, more than 500,000 Army battlefield logs, and videos of airstrikes in Baghdad and Granai, Afghanistan, during which soldiers are heard making disparaging remarks about the men they had just killed.

Manning says he stole the information after becoming disillusioned with U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a policy geared towards 'killing and capturing people.'

'They dehumanized the individuals they were engaging and seemed to not value human life, and referred to them as, quote-unquote, dead bastards,' Manning said of the video of the airstrikes, noting the 'blood lust' the soldiers appear to show by their comments.

Australian human-rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson has been a member of a legal team representing Julain Assange and WikiLeaks in London and has been attending the court marshal

Manning's attorney, David Coombs, issued a brief statement on his website prior to this week's court marshal. It reads in part, "On behalf of both myself and Pfc. Manning, I would like to thank everyone for their continued support over the last three years." He also thanks supporters for raising money and awareness of the case.

Coombs has made few public statements during the Manning case.

If convicted of the more serious charges, Manning faces up to life in prison.

Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2339315/Bradley-Manning-cou...