An Army private suspected of giving classified material to WikiLeaks has chosen a civilian attorney to lead his defense team.

The Army says former military attorney David Coombs, of Providence, R.I., will represent Pfc. Bradley Manning against charges he leaked video of a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack that killed a Reuters news photographer and his driver. WikiLeaks posted the video on its website in April.

Investigators say the 22-year-old intelligence analyst also is a person of interest in the leak of nearly 77,000 Afghan war records WikiLeaks published online in July.

Coombs is best known for defending Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, charged in a deadly 2003 attack on fellow U.S. military members in Kuwait. Akbar is awaiting execution for murdering two officers.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

A gay rights group wants a federal court in Idaho to block the U.S. Air Force from discharging an aviator under the "don't ask, don't tell" law that bars openly gay and lesbian military members from service.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network filed its lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Boise, asking for a temporary restraining order to stop the Air Force from discharging Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach until a full hearing can be scheduled. It also wants the law declared unconstitutional.

Fehrenbach, a 19-year military member who has been decorated for his combat valor in Iraq, disclosed he was gay in 2008 as he defended himself against allegations investigated by the Boise Police Department that he raped another man. Fehrenbach said he had sex with the man, but it was consensual.

He was cleared of the rape allegations, including by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which found them to be without merit, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

A military defense lawyer said Monday that he has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the upcoming war crimes trial of the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay.

The trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 10 for Omar Khadr and it would be the first at the U.S. Navy base under President Barack Obama's administration.

Khadr, son of a slain al-Qaida financier, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and faces a maximum life sentence if convicted. The Toronto-born inmate was 15 when he was captured in 2002.

His attorney, Army Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, argues that the offshore system for prosecuting terror suspects is unconstitutional. Among other concerns, he said it is unfair because it is reserved only for non-U.S. citizens.

"The military commissions provide young Omar, a Canadian citizen, only second class justice. This kind of discrimination is something we cannot stand for as a country," Jackson said.

Jackson said he filed the emergency petition with the high court Monday because a federal appeals court in Washington had not acted on a request he filed four months ago.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

A U.S. Army officer who approved supplies contracts in Iraq pleaded guilty Wednesday to lying about contents of a package he sent to the United States containing more than $100,000.

Maj. Charles E. Sublett told a judge Wednesday he sent almost $108,000 in sequentially numbered $100 bills and more than 17 million Iraqi dinar, then worth about $11,600, from Balad, Iraq, to his wife in Killeen, Texas.

Sublett also acknowledged he failed to file a Currency or Money Instruments Transaction Report disclosing the money was in the package, which U.S. customs law requires when sending more than $10,000 into or out of the country.

Instead, he listed the contents on the Federal Express package invoice as books, papers, a jewelry box and clothes valued at $140.

Customs officials in Memphis intercepted the package in January 2005. Sublett, 46, was indicted this past January.

In return for his guilty plea, the government agreed to dismiss a bulk cash smuggling charge. Outside court, neither Sublett nor his attorney Michael Stengel would discuss the money's origins, but there was no charge that it was stolen.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

The alleged ringleader of detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is appealing to the military's highest court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington will hear arguments Monday from lawyers for Spc. Charles Graner and the government.

The Army reservist from Uniontown, Pa., is serving 10 years for stacking naked prisoners into a pyramid, knocking one of them out with a punch and ordering prisoners to perform sex acts while other soldiers took pictures in 2003.

The defense says it was wrongly denied access to then-classified documents showing that some of the detainee treatment reflected "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The government says any relevant information was already publicly available.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis, 51, is charged with premeditated murder in the May 1985 stabbing deaths of Kathryn Eastburn and two of her daughters — 5-year-old Kara Sue and 3-year-old Erin Nicole. Opening statements in the court-martial are set for Wednesday and the death penalty trial could last up to two months, featuring 100 or more witnesses.

Hennis couldn't be tried again in civilian court so he was charged by the military, which can pursue the case because its court system is a different jurisdiction. Hennis retired from the Army in 2004 but was recalled to active duty to face charges.

Hennis, who had adopted the Eastburns' dog several days before the killings, was arrested four days after the bodies were found when a witness who reported seeing someone in the Eastburns' driveway late at night picked him out of a photo lineup.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

The U.S. military's highest court says it will review the conviction of an Army reservist who prosecutors said was the ringleader of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr. was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison for his role in the scandal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington said Tuesday it will consider whether the trial judge erred by refusing to let jurors see memos approving "enhanced interrogation tactics" for detainees.

Graner, of Uniontown, Pa., was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly knocked out a prisoner with a punch to the head.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.