Brad Manning's Lousy Defense

(Updated below)

In cross-examination, defense attorneys for Manning, who was spending his 24th birthday in court, questioned the witnesses about whether they had come across any evidence that the US Army private had “gender identity disorder.”

The line of questioning appeared to be an apparent bid by Manning’s defense team to establish that he may have been suffering from mental health issues at the time of his arrest over 18 months ago.

  Raw Story

Well, I hope not. “Gender identity disorder?” What’s that got to do with the issue of leaked military info and diplomatic cables? Mental health issues? If we’re going to claim gender identity to be a mental health issue, we’re back in the dark ages and not doing currently serving gays any favors. I hope the defense has an alternate reason for bringing this up.

When prosecutors objected to the line of questioning, Kemkes said it was relevant because it goes to Manning’s “state of mind.”

“If the accused is facing gender identity disorder and is maintaining medical articles and pamphlets in his (housing unit), then that’s relevant to his state of mind,” he said.

Well, that doesn’t look very hopeful.

I was looking forward to a defense on the grounds that the young man was acting out of morality and the desire to halt war crimes. Not – he’s obviously a mental case, after all he’s gay!

Another lawyer for Manning, Captain Paul Bouchard, sought to establish that other soldiers could have had access to the machines apparently used to send the files to Wikileaks.

He didn’t do it. Only a little better.

Robertson, who examined Manning’s personal laptop and other devices following his arrest, was asked by Bouchard whether he had “come across any evidence that PFC Manning suffers from gender identity disorder,” was “trying to create an alter ego called Breanna Manning” or was “emotionally troubled.”

OK, well there you go. And I’m very, very disappointed.

UPDATE:

What I can't know is whether this is Brad Manning's choice of defense, in which case he's no hero at all.  And it could be that the defense knows this about him.  Still, very disappointing.

In addition to the "gay sickness" defense, it appears that we are going to be blaming lax security for Manning’s actions.

This whole thing is taking a nose dive: Gender identification issues and the lack of even stricter security are causing the country harm.

[M]emorandums gave details of an email that Manning had sent Atkins in April that year in which the soldier confessed that he was suffering severe psychological problems including gender identification disorder that was making it difficult for him to do his job, to interact with other people or even to think.

[...]

In December 2010 he had to be restrained after he flipped over a table and made to grab a gun from a gun rack. In another incident he was found curled up in a foetal position on the floor of the unit.

[...]

Questioned by Manning's defence lawyer, David Coombs, Lim admitted that the incident with the gun rack was not a "minor" disciplinary matter as earlier suggested by the prosecution. Had he known about it at the time, Lim said, he would have recommended that Manning be issued with a "derog" – a disciplinary complaint that would probably have seen him removed from the intelligence unit and stripped of his security clearance.

That in turn, Lim admitted, would have meant that Manning would no longer have had access to the huge databases of state secrets from which he allegedly made his WikiLeaks downloads.

Because of his dereliction of duty in failing to pass on crucial information about Manning's state of mind to his superiors – at a key time in the soldier's alleged leaking to WikiLeaks – Atkins was demoted earlier this year to the rank of sergeant first class.

[...]

Under cross-examination by Manning's defence team, the head of the intelligence unit at the military base in Iraq where Manning was posted painted a picture of staggeringly loose controls. Soldiers were allowed to store movies on secure computer databases, were permitted to bring in commercial music CDs to areas where secure computers were in operation, DVDs were left strewn about and there was no system for checking that classified information was not removed from the building.

  UK Guardian

Could they not have claimed that the stress of being a part of the war crimes he allegedly leaked drove him to the outbursts on his record?

No. This is the defense: Brad Manning is a sick person, i.e. gay, and we need to tighten up the ship.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.