David Coombs, lawyer to Pfc Bradley Manning has filed a rebuttal to an Article 138 Complaint of Wrongs to downgrade him to a medium level detainee. Manning is accused of leaking evidence of US war crimes including the Collateral Murder video of an Apache helicopter firing on a group of Iraqi’s telling their grievances to two Reuters reporters. Nine people were killed and two children were critically wounded when a van stopped to try and help the wounded.

Manning is also accused of leaking the Iraq war logs that prove the official US estimate of civilian casualties in Iraq is severely understated. Also, the Afghan war logs as well as hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. The Pentagon has publicly admitted that despite claims from right wing media outlets, no operatives lives have been endangered or significant national intelligence secrets released.

The Pentagon says the documents leaked by the WikiLeaks website in July do not jeopardize any U.S. intelligence or sensitive military operations.

In an Aug. 16 letter released to NPR, Defense Secretary Robert Gates responded to questions about the WikiLeaks documents raised by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Gates said an initial Pentagon review showed the documents focused mostly on day-to-day military operations and did not reveal any significant national intelligence secrets.

Since he was taken into custody, Manning has been subjected to inhumane treatment and held on maximum security procedures that hold him in solitary confinement twenty three hours a day and deny him even the right to exercise in his cell. Since March 2, Manning has been ordered to remove all clothing for seven hours a day and to stand naked at roll call.

Despite outcry from humanitarian groups and members of Congress who have classified his treatment as torture and notice of clear violations of the US constitution as well as the UCMJ the Quantico Brig commander continues with these punishments.

Now, Anonymous, the internet collective of hackers and free speech activists have decided to intervene. “The hacker collective Anonymous is giving the U.S. military until Monday to improve its treatment of Bradley Manning, the U.S. army private accused of leaking classified information to Wikileaks.”

The threat is to post the personal information of the staff at the Quantico, Va., marine base where manning is being held, according to Barrett Brown, who describes himself as the group’s spokesperson. The reason for the attack is the inhumane treatment of Manning, Barrett says.

“To me, when you strip down a U.S. soldier — strip him naked – and force him to stand outside of his cell, you lose your status as a human being,” he said.

Barrett was referring to posts by Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, that said Manning was forced to stand naked outside his cell during an inspection. Coombs filed a formal complaint about Manning’s treatment.

Remember what Anonymous did to HBGary Federal? This could be very entertaining.

As I have written previously, I disapprove heartily of the conduct of the Quantico Brig commander in this matter.

In Shannon French’s book, The Code of the Warrior: Exploring Warrior Values Past and Present US Marines live by a warrior code that helps separate them from, define them from something other than just killers and occupiers. My son had certain injunctions drilled into him, Marines don’t shoot unarmed civilians. Marines don’t leave Marines behind. Marines don’t desecrate corpses. Marines don’t rape, plunder or pillage. As French says, these injunctions and many more make up a Marine Code.

What Marines internalize when they are indoctrinated into the culture of the Corps is an amalgam of specific regulations, general concepts (e.g., honor, courage, commitment, discipline, loyalty, teamwork), history and tradition that adds up to a coherent sense of what is is to be a Marine. To remain “Semper Fidelis,” or forever faithful to the code of the Marine Corps is never to behave in a way that cannot be reconciled with that image of what it is to be a Marine.

The Quantico brig commander defiled that image and desecrated the solemn sacrifice of those who are willing to stand alone on a wall between their country in defense of its constitution with conviction and say to its advancing enemies, ‘No, not on my watch’.

Quantico deserves whatever hell Anonymous unleashes.

UPDATED: Brian Manning father of Bradley Manning speaks about his son’s treatment by the US government

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