The Article 32 Investigating Officer for PFC Bradley Manning’s case has recommended that a General Court Martial be convened to try PFC Manning on various charges stemming from accusations that he unlawfully downloaded to a non-secure information system (Army-speak for ‘computer’) and then caused that information to be delivered to one or more persons who were not authorized to access it.
I don’t have any information on specific charges that the IO recommended be formally placed against PFC Manning at this time. HT to commenter IM, who, having actually read the above-linked article, noticed that the IO has recommended that all 22 of the previous charges go forward to full General Court-Martial.
Nor do I have any information about a timeline for this case. As soon as I find something new, I’ll let you all know via update.
Also too, this is an open thread as well.
Also Also too too, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) has summarily denied Julian Assange’s and the Wikileaks organization’s writ appeal to demand that the Army grant their lawyer (who supposedly has a TS/SCI clearance) access to ALL court documents as well as reserve a place for their lawyers at PFC Manning’s impending General Court-Martial. Source
Yutsano
The moon is waxing. I can tell.
General Stuck
It’s Pitch Black, and all the flying monsters will come out
Maude
@Yutsano:
The hair is all gone. Bald as a baby’s…
Mark S.
Even Sarah Palin thinks Mitt should release his tax returns.
JPL
I interrupt this story to report shocking news…
Among those aware of the Tebow phenomenon, 43% said they believed divine intervention was at least partly responsible for his success. Forty-two percent disagreed, and 14% expressed no opinion.
I can believe 27 percent but 43%…just wow.
also, too…I hope John doesn’t see this poll
Steve
@JPL: I don’t believe in God, but honestly I don’t have a better explanation. If he beats the Patriots I might find Jesus on the spot.
IM
On every charge:
So the defense hasn’t been very successful until now.
Soonergrunt
@IM: So you actually stopped and fully read through the article that I scanned and quoted.
Good for you.
Don’t I feel like a fucking asshole.
Updated.
Mark S.
@JPL:
We are a
stupidreligious nation.gogol's wife
Since it’s an open thread, I want to tell everyone to watch “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” tonight at 8:00 ET on TCM. Roger Livesey is so great, Deborah Kerr too, in a triple role. It’s the guys who did “The Red Shoes” and “I Know Where I’m Going.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Steve:
No, Jesus will have nothing to do with it.
Belichick cannot be failed. He can only fail.
gogol's wife
@JPL:
This country is really messed up. And I say that as a Christian. This really offends me.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
We were all pretty much expecting this result from the Article 32 hearing, no? In the sense that most cases actually presented for preliminary hearing get bound over (otherwise they get dealt instead of going to prelim).
Does anyone have retail sources for houndstooth lingerie? It seems a good choice for the winter months.
Redshift
@JPL:
But it’s 43% “Among those aware of the Tebow phenomenon.” Do they report what that number is? Because multiplying them may produce something closer to 27%…
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Mark S.:
Double-fixt.
Our temple-occupying money changers have nothing to worry about, at least in this world.
Warren Terra
Since this is an open thread:
Check out this epic picture of Willard getting his fancy shoes buffed on the tarmac by his corporate jet
(via)
Redshift
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
If Cole had posted that, I’d be worried that his dog-love had gone in an inappropriate direction…
Cat Lady
@JPL:
Yes, nothing says Omnipotent Being of the Universe like uniquely manifesting through a shitty throwing quarterback of a mediocre team that backed into the playoffs. W.T.F. America.
SteveinSC
From Kos: ‘The “Mile High Messiah” told The Associated Press …’ This could be a great name game.
Mark S.
@Warren Terra:
What, you want him to walk into the terminal to get his shoes shined? He might get common people cooties.
Redshift
@Warren Terra: Yeah, I love that photo. I expect we’re going to be seeing it a lot in the next year. I wonder how many more are publicly available to go along with that one and the Gordon Gekko one.
Cat Lady
@Warren Terra:
What, no hundred dollar bills falling out of his pockets? Lame.
IM
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I actually expected that some charges, including aiding the enemy would be thrown out. (That is, not recommended).
The Moar You Know
@IM: Defense doesn’t even get involved yet. This is the military equivalent of an arraignment.
PeakVT
Looks like the “right-to-work” vote is going to happen in Indiana next week. I wonder if that will be enough to tip Indiana into the D column for president.
IM
@The Moar You Know:
As far as I understand, at a article 32 hearing, the defense has the same rights as at a military trial. So in that sense the situation is much better compared to an grand jury.
And the defense was active here. And trying to get a recommendation not to go to court-martial or at least not to charge all counts at the court-martial is a quite common defense tactic.
The Moar You Know
@Warren Terra: Great pic, and was very instructive. Showed it to my office wingnut, who hates Romney.
She took one look at it, said “that’s fake”, and stormed out. So even the ones who hate him will rally to his defense once he gets the GOP coronation. Unfortunate but good to know.
David Hunt
@Cat Lady:
Old money would never do something so silly. The money might fall to the ground and be picked up by poor people. We can’t have that. Ostentatious displays of wealth should be actions like lighting a cigar with a hundred dollar bill…or having your shoes shined on the tarmac outside your private jet.
The cigar lighting is especially good as it also makes sure that no money can accidentally filter through to benefit a poor person.
eemom
what’s going to happen to all the godbotherers if Tebow loses the next game?
mikeyes
In a grand jury the defense has very few rights. The person who is the object of interest can’t even have a lawyer present. Instead they have to halt proceedings and go out of the room to talk with their lawyer. Nothing says innocent like stopping proceedings and talking to your lawyer every time you get nervous.
JPL
@Redshift: True.. I would think that the field could be narrowed even further if we assume those interviewed know something about football or attend a place of worship that prays to Tebow…
Redshift
@David Hunt: Then I guess this is okay because it was inside Bain HQ, where there’s no danger of any poor people getting hold of it.
eemom
@The Moar You Know:
Everyone keeps saying that, but I’m not so sure.
I think there’s a sizable number of Mitt-hating republicans, and so called “independents,” that will sit this one out rather than vote for him.
eemom
@Redshift: @JPL:
Take my word for it: if I know about Tebow, there is NO ONE who doesn’t know about Tebow.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@eemom:
Godbotherers thrive on a sense of persecution and martydom. Hardcore sports fans will complain until your ears fall off about the defensive pass interference penalty that wasn’t called if the opposing cornerback or safety so much as uses harsh language at one of their receivers.
Now imagine the fusion of those two traits. The crucifiction of St. Tebow on a skinny post pattern, as it were.
JPL
Another OT…from tpm
gogol's wife
@eemom:
Oh no, I get blank stares when I mention Tebow to anyone who isn’t involved in either football or Balloon Juice.
Amir Khalid
@Warren Terra:
You’d think a guy with money like Mitt could afford one of those silicone-impregnated instant-shine sponge thingies. Those are, what, a couple of bucks each?
arguingwithsignposts
@JPL: Could Tim Tebow Really Be the Antichrist?
The evidence is frightening.
gogol's wife
@JPL:
Good one! They really can’t help themselves, can they?
IM
Is this Tebow fellow playing football or baseball?
Redshift
I had an interesting conversation with one of my few Republican friends last weekend. He led off with something like “just so you know, no, I haven’t been watching the debates, no, those people don’t speak for me, and I don’t plan to have an opinion until there’s a nominee.” I’m not sure what to make of it, but I’m hoping it’s a good sign, considering that everyone on our side was eager to talk about the primary debates in 2008.
JC
You know, I guess I understand why they are doing this to Manning – how could they do anything else? – but a LOT of good has come about because of the Wikileaks publishing.
You can give some create to Manning’s leaks, at least some, to the Arab spring. Not sure what percent, but it was a catalyst, some of what was revealed about those now gone dictators.
JPL
@gogol’s wife: Unfortunately, a paler shade of what we have will be enough for some…ugh.
Martin
@Warren Terra: Meh. $400 haircut. Obama bowled a 37. Embarrassing photos/stories are a dime a dozen from politicians.
Romney’s vulnerability is Bain. It’s not how much money Romney has or how he chooses to spend it, but how much damage he was willing to do to workers/companies/the nation in order to get it. Stay focused on the corporate raiding and he’s done for.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Amir Khalid: Of course he could. But it would polish his ego the way the nice gentleman performing the shine on the tarmac does. And that’s really the point, isn’t it?
JPL
@IM: only god knows..
Redshift
@IM: Heh. I suggest checking out panel 3 here (the one labeled “As you may have guessed, The Oatmeal does not watch sports, and his comprehension of football may not be entirely sound.”)
Steve
@Martin: Bowling a 37 is personally embarrassing, not politically embarrassing.
PeakVT
This article at WM on narcotics, Columbia, the US, and Mexico is worth reading.
Benjamin Franklin
What thread is this. Oh well, no matter, never mind………..
Back in December a herd of cows required drones to find.
Covert Ops; an invaluable domestic resource.
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drone-arrest-20111211,0,324348.story
Martin
@Steve: But he didn’t bowl a 37. He bowled a 37 through something like 4 frames.
It’s nutpicking if the details are left out. We don’t know why Romney is there or why he’s having his shoes shined. For all we know he went to the airport as Governor to meet a dignitary, got his shoes dirty and wanted them cleaned up first. That’s reasonable. Commendable even. Is it his plane? That’s notably not mentioned. Why was he there? Also not mentioned. The photo is a great opportunity to pile on, and yet there is no piling on, so my guess is that nothing surrounding the photo plays into the narrative we’re supposed to infer from the photo alone.
Edit:
Oh, and the 37 was supposedly to prove that he wasn’t a real American, but because the Koran forbids wearing shoes of two different colors, or some fucking thing.
IM
@Redshift:
Very funny. may be a cultural thing, though. On the other hand, true soccer fans tend to complain about my shallow interest/understanding too.
burnspbesq
@Steve:
Bowling a 37 is embarrassing on every imaginable level.
MikeJ
@The Moar You Know:
HEre’s a different source: 2008 the year in pictures.
JPL
@MikeJ: Yeah..but they are screening him not buffing his shoes.. Still a pretty nice service though.
My favorite picture is 30 with McCain expressing dismay.
Martin
@MikeJ: The caption, for those who didn’t find it is:
He’s not getting his shoes shined. It’s TSA screening him there because he’s embarking on a charter rather than on a commercial flight.
This petty shit drives me crazy.
Gust Avrakotos
Good, get it over with so we can stop listening to firebaggers whine like Manning is some sort of whistleblower hero good guy.
Manning probably caused more damage than any terrorist could.
Benjamin Franklin
@Gust Avrakotos:
You saw the subject of the thread, yet you persisted and even commented.
What was the result you sought from your inane, and incendiary opinion?
ruemara
@Martin: Um, I bowled a 35 through 4 frames 12/29/11. It’s called, “I NEVER PLAYED BEFORE” and it means you’re a good sport that you’re willing to do it even among friends, much less on national display for a nation of fat bastards who can barely roll off their barcaloungers to bowl a 100 once a month.
General Stuck
Pop Quiz
Who is Mitt Romney’s favorite president after Ronald Reagan?
Bubblegum Tate
Ben Stein is suing Kyocera for backing out of a proposed–but not signed–contract to hire him as a pitchman because Stein’s a cliamte change denialist.
Man, the wingnut poutrage around this is gonna be phenomenal–expect to hear all of them trumpeting Stein’s claim that he was discriminated against for his belief in God.
IM
@General Stuck:
Jefferson Davis.
Gust Avrakotos
@Benjamin Franklin: You mean besides the obvious???
General Stuck
@IM:
Nope, in fact his presence is among us on this thread. None other than Ben Franklin, it was the C- Note administration you’ve heard almost nothing about.
Benjamin Franklin
It seems the Obama gambit may be working.
China already slowing imports of Iranian Oil after US promises Asia that
Saudi Oil will fill the gap.
But is the paper of record, so we have that going for us.
nytimes.com/2012/01/13/world/asia/asia-buyers-of-iran-crude-get-assurances-of-alternate-supply.html
Benjamin Franklin
@Gust Avrakotos:
Flame-throwing?
trollhattan
@Bubblegum Tate:
Okay, that’s some first class poutrage from the putz.
Mind–I’m still pissed at Kyocera for killing off Contax cameras, but their home nation is under considerable threat from the climate and sea level, and they’re not exactly prepared to swap all their conventional power with nukes at this point in time. Stein would be a horrible face for the corporation.
IM
@General Stuck:
As far as I know Benjamin Franklin was at best in some alternative history scenario president.
flukebucket
Mitt really pushed the states rights angle in Greer, SC today. I almost expected him to break into a rendition of “The Bonnie Blue Flag” at one point. I bet if you ask him right now his favorite dish is pinto beans and corn bread.
trollhattan
@IM:
Might Franklin have been president in “Battlefield Earth”?
IM
@trollhattan:
If you want me to lure in to Battlefield Earth, you are quite malevolent.
I think he learned it from one of Gringrichs alternative history novels.
trollhattan
@IM:
Whoa, tough choice–Hubbard or Gingrich? I believe steel needles through the eyes might be a reasonable choice #3.
(And in case anybody hadn’t heard)
slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2007/05/mitt_romneys_hidden_geek.html
Benjamin Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
I understand what you meant….now/
burnspbesq
@JC:
I don’t know of too many sentient beings who don’t agree with the second part of that statement. That said, the evidence that he did what it is alleged he did appears to be sufficient for a conviction.
I’ve said this before: being a criminal and performing an important public service are not mutually exclusive. If you think that Manning did some good, and if he is court-martialed and convicted, the thing to do is write to the Convening Authority after he is convicted, and ask that his good works be taken into consideration in sentencing. That’s also the appropriate time to raise hell about the conditions of his pre-trial confinement (I am totally down with the idea that that was inexcusable).
burnspbesq
@Benjamin Franklin:
You really are an ass, and that is a completely bullshit characterization of what happened.
The drone was used to locate armed men who had threatened to kill the local sheriff if he tried to serve the search warrant for the cows that had been reported stolen.
Just once, would you make an effort to stay in touch with reality?
Benjamin Franklin
@burnspbesq:
Your compulsion to address my comments is pathological. Why don’t you
take a Vicadin and calm yourself the fuck down, USC lawyer. Were you
a legacy after Donald Segretti?
Benjamin Franklin
Don’t address me again. lawyer. I’ve told you once; now twice.
I will eviscerate you, linguistically.
General Stuck
@Benjamin Franklin:
I call dibs on making this a rotating tag, or whatever those things are, on at the top of the blog.
JC
@burnspbesq: Good suggestion, thanks.
Benjamin Franklin
@General Stuck:
Thank you very little. Fuck you very much…
General Stuck
@Benjamin Franklin:
You sure are grumpy after being dead for so long.
Don’t linguistically eviscerate me, bro!
j
Thank God! Yet another opportunity for Jane Norquist to beg for money.
i.e., “Bradley Manning needs your help!! Send MEEEEEE MONEY!!!”
General Stuck
@eemom:
Hey eemom! A belated thanks.
Benjamin Franklin
@General Stuck:
Don’t take my handle too literally. I won’t ‘taser’ you, either.
grandpa john
@flukebucket: He should have gone a few miles farther North, up to the foot Of “glassy Rock and Hogback mountain” or as residents call it “Dark Corner”. Personally I always told everybody that I lived south of dark corner in a place called
Little Chicago” The main industry there of course was moonshine liquor . Now if they had taken good ol boy mitt up there, gave him a quart of moonshine then took him up on glassy rock and turned him loose there would have been a good chance that we would have heard the last of Mitt.
burnspbesq
@Benjamin Franklin:
When you stop lying, I’ll stop exposing your lies.
burnspbesq
@Benjamin Franklin:
I will address you whenever it suits me, and there is nothing at all you can do about it.
AxelFoley
@JC:
Seriously?
Gust Avrakotos
@Benjamin Franklin: It only appears to be ‘flame’ throwing if you are a ‘firebagger’. To the vast majority it’s just stating facts!
Ha…..so I guess we know where you’re coming from!
El Cid
@AxelFoley: Actually, this is pretty commonly stated by participants in the Tunisian uprisings. Some of the disclosures regarding the direct corruption of the regime really seemed to strike a chord. I’ll Google references when I can.
Soonergrunt
@El Cid: You do understand that whatever happened in Tunisia, and whatever the participants in those events think about them or their causes, is utterly irrelevant to the questions of whether or not PFC Bradley Manning accessed files that he was not cleared to access, whether he copied those files to non-secure Information System to which he was not cleared to copy them, and whether or not he then passed those files on to a third party who was also not cleared to access them?
Nellcote
@grandpa john:
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Basically, this.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Benjamin Franklin:
Grumpy Code Monkey
@burnspbesq:
Yeah. It’s like robbing a bank and using the money to build a women’s shelter. The latter doesn’t get you off the hook for the former.
Whether the information Manning (allegedly) leaked had any positive effect (not judging one way or the other) is completely orthogonal to his (allegedly) leaking classified information in the first place (I say “allegedly” since he hasn’t been convicted yet).
Just losing classified information is enough to get you thrown in the pokey (18 U.S.C § 793). Clearances are not given out lightly; you have to pass a fairly thorough background check, you get briefed on your responsibilities regularly, and you have to demonstrate a need for that clearance to maintain it.
The content of the leaked information is irrelevant; whether it’s the seating plan for a dinner function or detailed plans of a cruise missile or the positions of troops in Afghanistan has no bearing on the nature of the crime.
Ed Drone
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Exactly. Does the name John DeLorean ring a bell?
Ed