US embassy cables: Barack Obama may have 'prejudiced' Bradley Manning trial

[kpete]

Source: Guardian UK

US embassy cables: Barack Obama may have 'prejudiced' Bradley Manning trial
Remarks that 'Manning broke law' could prejudice army private's trial over leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks

Robert Booth
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 May 2011 19.30 BST

US president Barack Obama may have prejudiced the trial of US army private Bradley Manning who is charged with leaking classified US documents to WikiLeaks, by saying at a fundraiser that Manning "broke the law", a leading British MP has warned.

Ann Clywd, chairwoman of the all party parliamentary group on human rights chaired a meeting on Tuesday about the plight of the alleged WikiLeaks source to coincide with Obama's state visit to Britain. She said she found the presidents remarks at a fundraising event in San Francisco last month "an amazing thing for the president of the United States to comment on when the man hasn't stood trial yet".

....................
Emily Butselaar, an editor at Index on Censorship, the free speech pressure group, said her organisation is also concerned that Obama may have prejudiced Manning's right to a fair trial by declaring he has broken the law.

"Despite making freedom of information and transparency key commitments of his presidential campaign, Obama's administration is cracking down on whistleblowers," she said.

..............


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/24/us-embassy-cable-bradley-manning

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. Then there will be a mistrial, right?

:shrug:

[jberryhill]

4. Because, clearly, one of the requirements of being a Welsh Minister of Parliament

...is familiarity with the rules of procedure under the UCMJ.

[boppers]

11. Heck, I think they're supposed to be global experts in all regional law systems.

After all, that's why they're elected, right?

[Ikonoklast]

12. I heard the elected ratcatcher on the Isle of Man is.

But he doesn't do interviews to spew nonsense.

[jberryhill]

13. Catching rats is indeed a learned profession.

[TimLighter]

5. No, the trial hasn't started yet.

Besides it didn't work for Manson, And Nixon was a lawyer too.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[Mr. Jefferson]

3. That ought to work...

:eyes:

[Wilms]

6. .

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2010/06/13/jamiol-presents-22/

[yodermon]

7. Well! double-plus super-secret chess move! Guess Obama's on Manning's side

after all !

[Canuckistanian]

16. It's..... breathtaking

:sarcasm:

[MilesColtrane]

8. Is a court martial ever a "fair trial"?

It's certainly not conducted under the same rules as a trial in the civilian justice system.

[Cid_B]

17. Frankly... it is a better deal than many civilian courts...

[bvar22]

9. May have?

Did.

[struggle4progress]

10. Is Clywd moving to repeal the UK's official secrets act? If Wikileaks had obtained and published UK

documents, instead of US documents, there would have been a dragnet out for everybody who had any part in the release, including the newspapers publishing the stuff

[jberryhill]

14. Bra-vo!

[Scuba]

15. It's called "command influence". n/t