[Updated at 11:54 a.m. ET] The Army private accused of leaking millions of government files has offered to plead guilty to some of the charges against him, his attorney announced Thursday.
Pfc. Bradley Manning has been jailed for more than two years on allegations that he downloaded hundreds of thousands of pages of documents while serving as a military intelligence analyst in Iraq and handed that trove to website WikiLeaks. The offer was made in a hearing held on Wednesday, his attorney, David Coombs, wrote on his firm's website.
"To clarify, PFC Manning is not pleading guilty to the specifications as charged by the government. Rather, PFC Manning is attempting to accept responsibility for offenses that are encapsulated within, or are a subset of, the charged offenses," the lawyer's website posting said. "The court will consider whether this is a permissible plea."
WikiLeaks has never confirmed that Manning was the source of the documents, which the site began publishing in 2010. He has been accused of wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, knowing that it was accessible to the enemy and multiple counts of theft of public records.
Check out this CNN Security Clearance post on why Manning might make this type of plea offer.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Why is there a picture of this man in an american uniform. he is guilty of treason. remove that uniform.
You have to give the American people more credit that to fulfill a preferred, media-naive passivity the Pentagon might wish for. Manning is a fairly textbook tool for recrimination every gone-to-seed military dictatorship starts looking for in a hurry to scare away inquiry. He did nothing with classified material, it was all declassified garbage amounting to nothing. The only story was the pretense itself and the invention of the Assange 'rock-star'.
All the material was declassfied, largely of no use or of only disinformational value, therefore it's expedited sensation. He's the Pentagon's latest Jane Fonda maneuver. Him and Assange 'leak' in the shower.
He should be DEPORTED .... live in one of those countries he must love for some reason should be his only home country in future. He betrayed his country, his fellow servicemen, his command structure, etc. ... DEPORT him. Let him live somewhere he THINKS is better than America – HA, then he'll really learn!
IDK, maybe when you build a time machine and stop Bush from going all cowboy on Iraq? Bush broke it, so the Iraq war will ALWAYS be bush's fault.
All you armchair warriors who are screaming for this kids head are clueless ... the DOD & B-ush has killed and contaminated 1,000's of our OWN soldiers with RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR WASTE IN DEPLETED URANIUM weapons (EVERYTHING 30 CAL AND UP HAS IT)
That should read "their country". Sorry, carry on.
See, I don't care why he did it. I'm ok with gay people unless they shriek while I'm busy, and I'm as idealistic as anyone, but he gave away our secrets. Kill him to keep the next guy from doing the same.
Gosh, with such wisdom and compassion, you must be Christian...
You are pretty sick.
Yeah – he should not have leaked pictures of US choppers shooting innocent civilians. Such bad taste – the military must keep that quit.
You're a Republican, right? Related to MittWitt?
Achro what you dont realize is that the dudes a much larger patriot than you blind GOP/Military establishment following rats. You never will either and thats why the GOP will become less and less relevant. Theres more than one way to think about anything.
I totally agree with you. Bradley Manning must pay with his sorry life.
I voted, I am not a republican...but I agree this guy needs to get life in prison, or the firing squad.
NO PLEA DEALS.
Charge him with treason during a time of armed conflict and send him to the gallows.
While we're prosecuting military personnel, let's charge Bush and Obama for all their war crimes. OK?
Televise him twitching at the end of a rope. Now THAT's a reality show!
You are getting them confused with your sister again.
Hangin's too good for him.
The GOP and its supporters continue to try to re-write history and ignore facts. I watched Fox News this afternoon for about one hour and saw Karl Rove and several others try to still say that Romney came close to winning the election. They are in total denial, just like they are about trickle down economics not working for decades and that Roe v Wade is here to stay. As long as they keep trying to take us back to a "Leave it to Beaver" fictional society, they will continue to lose all national elections. Demographics show that the dominance of the white, Anglo, protestant portion of the USA is history and will not come back, ever again. Same goes for the super-rich trying to squeeze everyone else..... slowly, but surely they will find out that you cannot continue to put 99% of the population down, no matter how much money you have.
You don't consider a 3% margin of votes close? Learn some math before you start your next rant.
What does this have to do with leaking military and political secrets? Reading comprehension of a 2nd grader.
Cando must be referring to the popular vote, based on input from the "Bubba" states, mostly rural, undereducated and out of touch with mainstream society. The vote from modern society, the large metro centers, was overwhelmingly in favor of reelection, giving the President a 60% share of the electorate. He, like many other Republicans, needs to leave 1980 and join the rest of the world.
oh yes they will. the rich wil always be on top. they are too smart to let some snivling dead beat like you take their money.
"modern society, the large metro centers" - In other words, the ghetto.
I think he's a hero, but I know I'm in the minority in this regard.
Hero? No, traitor is the correct description.
Traitor is the word that you were looking for.
I think those of you who support this clown are confused. A patriot would have ensured that the truth be told to us, the citizens of this country so we would know what is going on with our military. This guy handed over our secrets to nut job, who is not an american citizen, to be published on a webstie to be viewed by anyone in the world.
There is a difference.
What else could he do? the election of Obama ended the domestic anti-war movement. Apparently, my fellow activists are ok with the bombing of innocent women and children as long as Obama gives the order and not Bush. Exposing this to an international audience is probably the best way to build up pressure on our government to stop its war crimes. Manning is indeed a hero.
Guilty of being a Puxxy for sure.
F Manning. Put him in the deepest darkest hole we can find and forget he ever existed. He knew what he was doing could endanger countless people. It was not up to him to decide what should or should not be made public knowledge. He maybe be a hero to the leftest but he will most likely spend most if not the rest of his life in a military prison. Ask him in 40 years or so if it was worth it.
I do not believe he committed treason, however he broke his non-disclosure agreements and that is subject to punishment. I do not agree that he has been held for 2 years in solitary...it's absurd to do that to another human being.
If his actions casused people to be harmed or killed what should we do, look the other way? I think not...He is guilty of releasing information he should not have....hang him high
If he had done this during WWII he would have already been executed.
People keep in mind that we went to war because people like Bush and Powell lied in the first place, so lets start blaming people that planted the root of the problem,to me this this guy has balls to stand for what is right. isn't that what we used to fight for?
Bush & Powell lied about 911? what are you smoking? You do realize Manning released information about Afghanistan too? Please, put down the bong.
Treason! Hang him!