Bradley Manning to face court-martial over Wikileaks disclosures

Afghanistan Sun (ANI) Saturday 4th February, 2012

A full court-martial has been ordered for Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of sharing classified documents with Wikileaks.

The decision clears the way to set a date for Manning to face a host of charges, including that he aided the enemy and wrongfully caused intelligence to be openly published on the Internet.

"A military judge will be detailed by the US Army Trial Judiciary and that military judge will set the date for Manning's arraignment, motion hearings and trial," an army statement said.

Last month, a US investigating officer concluded that Manning, 24, should be court-martialed because 'reasonable grounds exist to believe that the accused committed the offenses alleged.'

According to The Telegraph, Manning is also accused of stealing public property or records, transmitting defense information and of committing computer fraud.

If convicted, Manning could be sentenced to life in prison for what authorities have described as one of the most serious intelligence breaches in US history.

He is accused of giving WikiLeaks a massive trove of US military reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, 260,000 classified State Department cables, Guantanamo detainee assessments and videos of US air strikes. (ANI)