This mess with Bradley Manning raises an issue of whether our Federal government has retained sovereign powers, as against ceding those powers to its own national security managers. Manning is charged under Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice —Aiding the enemy.
Civilian equivalence exists. Civilians have been arrested for this crime by military authorities and tried.
But why not the obvious?
-- The whole chain of command and Intel advisors and contractors who spawned Abu Ghraib
-- The Pentagon consultants who put together the lies that go America into the Iraq War in the first place
-- The crew who invented the "yellowcake" nukes-from-a-French-mine fantasy.
-- All who fit the facs to the ad biz story for invading Iraq
-- Even the FAA committee that decided not to implement ICAO's counterterrorism protection for airliners after the attempted Air France suicide-hijacking in 1994
Compared to any of that, Manning was caught jaywalking. What else?