On Dec. 21st, 2011, NPR reported on the on-going hearings for Bradley Manning. According to the article, Manning's defense team called two witnesses on Wednesday. One witness was a captain whom Manning served under and the other witness was sergeant who saw "one of Manning's fits of rage." Again, the defense strategy is to paint Manning as an emotionally troubled young man who shouldn't have had access to the classified information in the first place. Closing arguments are set for tomorrow.
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On Dec. 21st, 2011, the Guardian also covered the on-going hearings for Manning. According to one legal expert interviewed by the Guardian, the restrictions on reporting for the Manning trial "are stricter than those of upcoming Guantanamo Bay inmate Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who allegedly masterminded the 2000 attack on the USS Cole."
The nature of the hearing also convinced the same legal expert that the US is planning on pursuing Julian Assange and possibly extraditing him to the US. For what it's worth, this legal expert gave Assange legal advice, so she may be a bit biased as to US intentions.
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