Lawyers tangle at Manning hearing

THE young soldier accused of leaking national security secrets to WikiLeaks, sat quietly at the opening of his pretrial hearing yesterday, as lawyers tangled over whether the presiding officer could be impartial.

Bradley Manning’s civilian defence lawyer argued the presiding officer, Paul Almanza, an army reserve lieutenant colonel, is biased and should step aside, but Almanza refused. Almanza also denied a move by Manning’s defence to suspend the hearing while seeking to appeal Almanza’s decision to continue on the case.

The hearing is to determine whether Manning will face a court-martial on charges that he aided the enemy by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.

Almanza is a Justice Department prosecutor in civilian life, and Manning’s lawyer said that was reason enough to step aside. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

After Almanza denied the request that he step aside, Manning’s lawyers said they would seek to appeal that decision to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. It was unclear when the court would decide whether to hear the appeal.

A US military legal expert told reporters before the proceedings began Almanza was likely to make his recommendation on whether to court-martial Manning within eight days after the hearing ends. The hearing is expected to last through the weekend and possibly well into next week.

The materials Manning is accused of leaking include Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and a classified military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq.