Judge refuses to dismiss WikiLeaks case
A military judge refused on Wednesday to throw out the case against an Army private accused of providing reams of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history, AP reported.
Army Col. Denise Lind said she will rule Thursday on whether to dismiss any of the individual charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, including the most serious count of aiding the enemy — which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Prosecutors argue that the leak helped al-Qaida and that Manning knew its members regularly viewed the anti-secrecy website.
Manning hasn't entered a plea to the charges. He also hasn't yet decided whether he will be tried by a judge or a jury. Lind scheduled Manning's trial for Sept. 21 through Oct. 12.
He is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, a website founded by Julian Assange, in late 2009 and early 2010.
Manning's lawyers had sought dismissal of all 22 charges, contending prosecutors had failed their duty to share information that could be helpful to the defense, a legal process called discovery.
Lind agreed that prosecutors had wrongly assumed the discovery rules didn't pertain to classified information but she found no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, turning down the motion to throw out the case.
She heard arguments later on defense motions seeking dismissal of individual charges.
Defense attorney David Coombs said a conviction for aiding the enemy would require the government to show that Manning sent WikiLeaks the material with a "genuine evil intent" that it be seen by al-Qaida.
Manning's alleged motive, as he stated in his online chat logs with a confidant-turned-informant, was "I want people to see the truth."