D-Day for Bradley Manning

 It's D-Day for Pfc. Bradley Manning -- the 25-year-old accused of releasing thousands of secret documents and held in prison since 2010. A judge in Fort Meade, Md., is scheduled to issue her decision this afternoon.

The verdict by judge Col. Denise Lind follows about two months of conflicting testimony and evidence. Manning, a 25-year-old native of Crescent, Okla., has admitted to sending more than 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables and other material, including several battlefield video clips, to WikiLeaks while in Iraq in early 2010. WikiLeaks published most of the material online.

Decision day for Manning.

Decision day for the rest of us.

I do not hold out much hope for the rest of us ... or Manning either.

Just imagine what things would be like if anyone could run around saying the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes.

PS. OK, it's over. He was spared the aiding-the-enemy allegation (which might have been inconvenient for reporters everywhere) but was found guilty of enough counts to put him in jail for over 125 years. The penalty phase of the trial begins Wednesday. Perhaps the judge will then factor in the observations made by "Bill Hubbard" elsewhere:

"Manning has been subject to cruel and inhumane treatment:
- Manning has been held incommunicado for three years.
- He was held in Kuwait for two months in a cage only big enough to hold a large bird.
- Manning spent ten months in solitary confinement in a six-by-eight foot cell and subject to sleep deprivation and forced nudity. He was released from solitary only because of the negative publicity that the government received.
- The trial has being conducted mostly in secret, the military has refused or delayed providing access to court documents, and the defense has been precluded from showing that Manning’s disclosures have not harmed anyone."