Bradley Manning Acquitted of Aiding the Enemy but Guilty of Espionage Violations (+video)

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By Chelsea J. Carter, Ashley Fantz and Larry Shaughnessy. A military judge acquitted Army Pfc. Bradley Manning on Tuesday of aiding the enemy, but convicted him of violations of the Espionage Act for turning over a trove of classified data to the website WikiLeaks, in a case where the soldier has been portrayed variously as a traitor and as a whistle-blower.

The verdict by the judge, Col. Denise Lind, dismissed the prosecution’s argument that Manning released documents — in the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history — that he knew would end up in the hands of al Qaeda. The verdict also found Manning not guilty of unauthorized possession of information relating to national defense.

If he had been found guilty of aiding the enemy, he would have faced life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Manning still faces the prospect of years, if not decades, behind bars. He was found guilty on 20 counts. The sentencing phase of the court-martial begins Wednesday, and Manning faces up to a maximum 136 years in prison.

Among the charges, Manning was found guilty of the theft of more than 700 U.S. Southern Command records, the possession of records pertaining to Afghanistan; the theft of State Department cables and the possession of classified Army documents.

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Bradley Manning verdict: cleared of ‘aiding the enemy’ but guilty of other charges

By Ed Pilkington. Bradley Manning, the source of the massive WikiLeaks trove of secret disclosures, faces a possible maximum sentence of 136 years in military jail after he was convicted on Tuesday of most charges on which he stood trial.

Colonel Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the court martial of the US soldier, delivered her verdict in curt and pointed language. “Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty,” she repeated over and over, as the reality of a prolonged prison sentence for Manning – on top of the three years he has already spent in detention – dawned.

The one ray of light in an otherwise bleak outcome for Manning was that he was found not guilty of the single most serious charge against him – that he knowingly “aided the enemy”, in practice al-Qaida, by disclosing information to the WikiLeaks website that in turn made it accessible to all users including enemy groups.

Lind’s decision to avoid setting a precedent by applying the swingeing “aiding the enemy” charge to an official leaker will invoke a sigh of relief from news organisations and civil liberties groups who had feared a guilty verdict would send a chill across public interest journalism.

The judge also found Manning not guilty of having leaked an encrypted copy of a video of a US air strike in the Farah province of Aghanistan in which many civilians died. Manning’s defence team had argued vociferously that he was not the source of this video, though the soldier did admit to the later disclosure of an unencrypted version of the video and related documents. Read more from this story HERE.

Hawaii Sets Aside $100,000 to Offer its 17,000 Homeless People One-Way Airfare Back to Their Home States (+video)

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Photo Credit: hawaii news now“This is not a silver bullet, this does not solve everything” Representative John Mizuno is quick to point out the limitations of the “Return to Home” program, and he’s one of its staunchest supporters.

Mizuno helped get the program passed as part of Senate Bill 515.

“It’s fractional, it’s not for 5,000 homeless people. It’s going to be a handful of homeless people that we send home, again–home to their support unit” added Mizuno.

The program, which is set to launch this fiscal year, is a three-year pilot program in which $100,000 is appropriated each year to send homeless people in Hawaii back to their families on the mainland.

Representative Rida Cabanilla was also instrumental in getting it passed. She points to a dual purpose in the program: social empathy, combined with fiscal conservatism.

Hawaii News Now – KGMB and KHNL

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Pakistani Taliban Prison Attack Frees Hundreds of Inmates

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Photo Credit: Saood Rehman/EPAHundreds of prisoners have been freed by Islamists in Pakistan after a spectacular assault by extremists on a jail in the western city of Dera Ismail Khan.

The attack, at around 11.30pm on Monday, involved one large bomb – so loud it rattled windows miles away – to blow a hole in the jail’s walls, followed by a mortar bombardment.

Around 70 gunmen, many dressed in police uniforms, then rushed through the gaps, throwing grenades and firing rocket-propelled grenades, killing six policemen and opening cells to free around 250 prisoners. Authorities said these included 24 wanted terrorists.

The attack, which came on the eve of voting for a new president in the troubled south Asian state, underlines once again the weakness of the Pakistani state and the inability of the country’s law and order agencies to maintain security.

One strike last week targeted an office of the main spy agency, the ISI, while another killed more than 50 Shia Muslims. Six Shia Muslim prisoners – the vast majority of Pakistanis are Sunni – were killed in Monday night’s assault.

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San Antonio Proposal Could Bar Christians From City Council

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Churches across San Antonio are expressing outrage over a proposed anti-discrimination law that would protect LGBT workers but would not provide a religious exemption and would effectively prohibit anyone who opposes homosexuality from holding public office or getting a city contract.

The proposed change would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the city’s discrimination ordinance. It would protect gays, lesbians, transgender, and veterans – a move that had critics accusing the council of playing politics with the military.

“No person shall be appointed to a position if the city council finds that such person has, prior to such proposed appointment, engaged in discrimination or demonstrated a bias, by word or deed, against any person, group or organization on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, age or disability,” the ordinance reads.

Critics argue that the ordinance could ban Christians who believe homosexuality is a sin from serving on the city council.

They also believe the ordinance would also ban the city from doing business with anyone who fails to espouse politically correct views and businesses run by people of faith would be subject to criminal penalties if they refused to provide services that conflict with their religious beliefs related to homosexuality.

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How to Know if You’re About to be Struck by Lightning: Amazing Picture of Brothers with Hair on End Minutes Before they Were Hit

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By Daily Mail Reporter. This frightening picture of two brothers with their hair on end was snapped just minutes before they were struck by lightning at Moro Rock, California, leaving the younger boy with third-degree burns and another man dead.

Electrical charges in the atmosphere just before a strike can lift hair into the air, providing nature’s last warning of a bolt from the blue…

The story behind the classic 1975 picture has come to light on the blog of Michael McQuilken, the teenager on the right who had no idea that they were in terrible danger…

McQuilken wrote on his blog that when he raised his right arm in the air ‘the ring I had on began to buzz so loudly that everyone could hear it’…


McQuilken, who is now a drummer and software designer, described the lightning hit as being engulfed ‘in the brightest light I have ever seen,’ similar in intensity to an arc welding light. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APAmerican Men Almost 6x More Likely Than Women to Be Killed by Lightning

By Terence P. Jeffrey. Lightning strikes in the United States are almost six times more likely to kill a man than a woman, according to recently released data from the federal Centers for Disease Control.

The CDC did not explain why males are so much more likely than females to be killed by lightning.

The CDC looked at deaths by lightning in the 43 years from 1968 through 2010. It found that during that period the annual number of Americans killed by lightning was on a downward trend, with the annual number of men being killed declining 78.6 percent and the annual number of women being killed declining 70.6 percent.

However, over the 1968-2010 period, 85 percent of the Americans killed by lightning were male and 15 percent were female. That means American males were 5.66 times more likely to be killed by lightning than American females.

Photo Credit: CDC

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First Open Source Airplane Could Cost Just $15,000

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Photo Credit: WiredThere’s an open source airplane being developed in Canada, and now its designers are looking to double down on the digital trends, turning to crowdsourced funding to finish the project. The goal of Maker Plane is to develop a small, two-seat airplane that qualifies as a light sport aircraft and is affordable, safe, and easy to fly. But unlike other home-built aircraft, where companies or individuals charge for their plans or kits, Maker Plane will give its design away for free.

The group behind the project consists of pilots and engineers who are designing the airplane, allowing it to be built using the kind of personal manufacturing equipment somebody in the maker community might already have at home or can easily purchase. The idea of a home-built airplane is nothing new. It dates back to the earliest days of flight, after Orville and Wilbur made and flew their own airplanes (and engine), the homemade plane movement — literally — took off…

In the spirit of the open source and maker movements, the Maker Plane group is including components from many designers and builders outside their circle. As they focus on the design of the airplane (fuselage, wings, etc.), the Maker Plane team helps connect those interested in building their own with other open source components such as an air data computer and radios. They even show you where you can get plans to build your own traffic and collision avoidance system.

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Ted Cruz: D.C. Republicans ‘Scared’

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Photo Credit: APSen. Ted Cruz believes Republicans can defund “Obamacare” if they stand together, but he said “scared” Republicans are standing in the way.

“What I can tell you is there are a lot of Republicans in Washington who are scared. They’re scared of being beaten up politically,” Cruz (R-Texas) told Glenn Beck on TheBlaze radio show Monday.

Cruz said there are too many members of the GOP that want to vote against Obamacare symbolically, but don’t actually want to follow throw.

“I’ve been astonished by how many Republicans in Washington want a fig leaf … but they don’t actually want to succeed,” Cruz told Beck.

As long as Republicans don’t cave, Cruz said, they can win the fight, a theme he reiterated in other media appearances Monday.

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105 Children Lured into Prostitution are Rescued by FBI in Biggest Ever Bust of its Type in U.S. History – 150 Pimps in 76 Cities Who ‘Tortured’ Girls as Young as 13 are Arrested (+video)

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Photo Credit: FBI.govThe FBI rescued 105 teenagers over the weekend who were forced into prostitution in the largest child sex trafficking sting in U.S. history, which encompassed 76 cities, the agency said Monday.

The youngest child rescued was 13 years old, the FBI said.

The raids resulted in the arrests of 150 ‘pimps’ involved in the sexual exploitation of both adults and children, said Ronald Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s criminal investigative division.

The FBI said 60 percent of the children rescued were in foster care or group homes when they ran away.

‘With no way to survive on their own they are lured into a life of being trafficked for sex,’ Hosko said.

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Limbaugh Responds to ‘Stations Dumping Him’ (+audio)

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Photo Credit: APRush Limbaugh wasted no time Monday responding to a published report that he is soon to be dropped by Cumulus Media, the second-largest broadcaster in the U.S.

“Someday I am looking forrward to being able to detail all of this for you, but suffice to say, nothing is going to happen that you will notice. Nothing is going to change,” Limbaugh told listeners.

“You are going to be able to get this radio program on as many, if not more, radio stations down the road than it’s on now.”

He said he would love to spill the beans on what’s really going on behind the scenes, but must “use proper business restraint” in addressing what he referred to as a “public business negotiation.”

“What you’re being treated to is just a public business negotiation,” Limbaugh explained. “Negotiations have been taken public by one side of this, when I thought it was done. I thought it was overwith.”

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Are Republicans Too Divided to Have a Civil War?

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Photo Credit: APA nasty fight is brewing among Republicans over a proposal to defund Obamacare. Another intra-party fight is flaring over national security and the war on terror. And yet another is well under way over immigration reform. In each, some Republicans seem more fired up to go after each other than to take on President Obama and the Democrats. The conflicts could be signs that the party is headed toward all-out civil war. Or they could be part of an unhappy but temporary stretch for a party that still hasn’t gotten over its rejection by the voters in 2012.

It’s more likely that this is just a rocky time for a rejected and confused party. The conflicts inside the GOP today just don’t line up in the configuration of a classic civil war. There are multiple issues involved, and the lawmakers on various sides of various issues don’t lean the same way on each issue. Republicans who are opponents on one issue are allies on another. Looking at the Senate, for example, it’s unlikely that there will be a total civil war between Senate Faction A and Senate Faction B when some members of the opposing factions are united in Faction C, or Faction D, or so on. In other words, it may be that the Republican Party is too divided to have a real civil war. Perhaps chaos would be a better description. We’ll know more later.

What we know now is that GOP lawmakers are remarkably tense over the issue of defunding Obamacare. When I asked Sen. Tom Coburn about it Friday, he went off on the issue, calling the proposal “dishonest” and “hype,” not to mention “impossible.” It can’t be done, given the Republicans’ 46-vote minority in the Senate, Coburn argued, and the government shutdown that could result from such a maneuver would be disastrous for the GOP.

Coburn questioned the motives of the GOP senators — among them Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul — who are behind the effort, calling the move “a denial of reality mixed with a whole bunch of hype to promote groups and individuals.” And then: “The worst thing is being dishonest with your base about what you can accomplish, ginning everybody up and then creating disappointment.” Later, when I mentioned Lee specifically, Coburn responded, “Lee’s answer [to critics] is, ‘Give me a different strategy.’ Well, there isn’t one, because we lost the [election]. I’m getting phone calls from Oklahoma saying, ‘Support Mike Lee,’ and I’m ramming right back: Support him in destroying the Republican Party?”

Those are pretty strong words from a senior Republican about his fellow senators. And some other GOP senators echoed those sentiments. “I agree with my friend Dr. Coburn,” tweeted Sen. John McCain. And Richard Burr called the defunding ultimatum “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”

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