Too Much Secrecy: Press Ask The Court To Open Up Bradley Manning Court Martial
from the how-we-got-into-this-mess dept
As the case against Bradley Manning moves forward, the government is doing what it always seems to do: trying to keep everything secret. However, over 30 news organizations have now asked the armed forces appeals court to open up, allowing public access to motions, briefs and written rulings associated with the case. The military's response has been that the only way the press should be able to access such documents (which are regularly available via things like PACER in the civilian court system) is through filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which can take a long time, and are all too often ignored. Of course, it's the over aggressive attempts to keep information secret that may have resulted in this case even existing in the first place, as Manning allegedly believed that the over-classification of documents was harming US interests.This Court should find that such an arrangement is uncon-stitutional. More than thirty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a presumptive right of access to criminal proceed-ings. See Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555, 573 (1980) (plurality opinion). As discussed below, the Court has reiterated its holding repeatedly, and the nation’s military courts have applied the same reasoning to extend this right of public access to courts-martial. Amici recognize that various interests, including the need to protect national security information, may justify sealed records in certain circumstances. They do not, however, general-ly justify complete secrecy. In fact, previous disputes about claims of national security have been litigated in the open: “Briefs in the Pentagon Papers case and the hydrogen bomb plans case were available to the press, although sealed appendices discussed in detail the documents for which protection was sought.”Hopefully the court recognizes the significant public interest here and makes such documents public by default.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: bradley manning, docket, foia, freedom of information, journalism, secrecy
Companies: wikileaks
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
never going to happen, just like we'll never see the assange indictment, or the evidence against kim.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Fixed that for you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Apologist much? Classified information is supposed to be kept secret. That's the whole point of it being classified. Individual soldiers don't get to decide which classified information should be released to the public. I don't care what he "allegedly believed." You really won't anyone responsible for what they do with a computer, will you?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I also find it interesting that you think Mike or, well, anyone here thinks that being on a computer automagically absolves anyone of guilt. It doesn't. However, it is relatively difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt to link a person with an offence from a computer (barring, of course, stupidity of some sort.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cynicism or experience talking...
Report it to his superiors in the military? It get's buried and he gets court marshaled.
Report it to the government? It get's buried and he gets court-marshaled.
Keep in mind the info he leaked made a lot of very highly placed people in the government/military look very stupid (at best), so all of those affected would have done everything they could to see that none of it saw the light of day had he tried going that route.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cynicism or experience talking...
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/1034
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres /pdf/705006p.pdf
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Cynicism or experience talking...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Cynicism or experience talking...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Cynicism or experience talking...
'Supposed to' is meaningless, all that matters is what's actually practiced, and these days whistleblowing of any sort is very much not treated as a protected activity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
There is a big difference between making something classified to protect lives and the working of the government and making something classified to cover up illegal activities.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Because if you do, I have a continent to sell you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
There is evidence that, when reported by Manning to his superior officers, he was not permitted to act on the knowledge. Knowledge that military laws were being ignored by some personnel.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Do you have any cite for the notion that he tried to report things but was thwarted?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
u r an idjit and a propaganda victim, it really is useless to 'argue' with an authoritarian who is incapable of thinking for themselves, and capitulates TOTALLY to big brother...
YOU -and your like- are one of the major reasons why we sliding down the fascist rabbit hole, but you are not self-aware enough -or able to believe in your own -albeit limited- powers of reasoning, and give Big Daddy total authority...
you are a tool and a fool, and while i wouldn't generally care that much, you are FAR too representative of the type of NON thinking that authoritarians engage in...
why do you hate freedom ? ? ?
(more to the point: why are you afraid of freedom ?)
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
art guerrilla at windstream dot net
(i -or virtually any techdirt regular- *could* educate you, but the story of teaching a pig how to sing comes to mind...)
eof
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Sheesh.
Or should I say, "Nonsense. There are protocols for discussing suspected abuses of power. And those protocols don't include becoming a criminal yourself and betraying your nation by releasing hundreds of thousands of tea bags. I hope they make an example of them." Wow, that worked almost perfectly.
Like I said, good thing you weren't around then. Or heck, good thing you weren't around in the early 1960s during the free rights movement. Peacefully marching in the streets?! How dare they! Someone take a fire hose to them! Don't they know there are protocols to follow to get others to recognize that the color of your skin has no bearing on what rights may or may not be granted to you?! Rawr!
And might I add, don't trot out the "I know people in the military who'd never do this and would follow orders... blah blah blah". That's a horrible thing to say. I mean "just follow orders" works when convenient, right? But when it was used at Nuremburg, no sirree bob. That just won't do.
Do you read what you write? You sound like a fanatical extremist. And that's not even close to okay.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Look, I just think that punks who violate their oath to this country should pay for their crimes. You apparently OK with a free for all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
fascists
Only Families who were billionaires Pre-1850 may Rule
Freedom is what you can afford , and you cant afford shxt
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm just one of the trees (i.e., pls. don't taz me bro)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm just one of the trees (i.e., pls. don't taz me bro)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hopefully...
I don't mean it as an insult to techdirt authors, or suggestion to find another word, just an observation of the trend - often there's not much else that can be said on the discussed topic.
Well... Hopefully, in the future we won't have to say "hopefully" so often! ;-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
what ever happened
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A Comparison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_von_Stauffenberg
average_joe would disapprove of Stauffenberg, of course. At any rate, by comparison, Bradley Manning seems a model of restraint.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A Comparison.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: A Comparison.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: A Comparison.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: A Comparison.
It's always easier to think of the other country as the bad guys, and to be wise after the fact. What "average joes" did in this country, the United States, during the Second World War was to round up the Japanese-Americans, and steal their belongings in the process. In short, they behaved pretty much like average Germans. So why would you have been any different? Even after the war, even after the exploits of the (mostly Hawaiian) Japanese-American 442nd regiment in Italy and France, there was still racism. I was reading Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's _Back to Manzanar_ (1972). She was about seven when she was put in a camp, and later, in the late 1940's, the Girl Scouts rejected her for being Japanese-American.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Wakatsuki_Houston
Come to that, there was a massive race-riot in Detroit in 1943, between Polish-Americans and African-Americans, fighting over jobs among other things, and the Army had to be sent in to restore order. Then there were the "Zoot Suit" riots in San Diego (Whites, mostly naval personel, on Hispanic).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: A Comparison.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]