Thus spake Barack Obama:
On April 22, 2011, President Obama, Commander in Chief, declared Bradley Manning "Guilty." I guess, if one is Supreme Commander and Constitutional Law scholar, one has the credentials to believe one can make this kind of premature judgement. This will be a very short diary because, from my humble position in life and mediocre understanding of the law, this appears to me to be a very simple, open and shut case for invalidating the entire trial and the verdict.
See the reasons below the swizzle.
There are two points:
1) Innocent until proven guilty. Obama's 2011 declaration violated this principle.
2) The principle of a fair trial was violated. Being tried in a military court with
military personel as judges, witnesses and attorneys who are under the direct
command of Obama, even though a direct order was not given, it would appear
to be virtually impossible for any military personel to hold an imparital, fair trial,
knowing that they were going against the wishes and beliefs of the Commander in
Chief.
The trial should be declared invalid and the verdict thrown out do to these violations of our very simple, basic laws.
Please also see: 4) http://my.firedoglake.com/...
firedoglake">firedoglake,
and
CBS news