When President Obama welcomed all American troops from Iraq home the other day one should not forget that the reason for the withdrawal is that the Iraqi Government would not grant immunity for remaining troops. Taking the known and yet unknown war crimes of the Americans in this basically illegal war into account, it would have been too risky to stay there. What this decision means for the Iraqis, well, future will tell.

Yesterday, Private Bradley Manning has been heard for the first time since his detention in May 2010 in military court, at Fort Meade in Maryland. He is the alleged whistleblower who provided WikiLeaks with the infamous Collateral Murder video of July 2007 showing the killing of a dozen civilians including two Reuters employees, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldin. He is also alleged of having leaked what became the Iraqi and Afghanistan War Logs and, last year, more than 250,000 U.S. Embassy Diplomatic Cables, WikiLeaks’ Cablegate.

If convicted, 24-year-old Manning, person of the year for many, faces up to 50 years in jail and, at least theoretically, even the death sentence.

Last update December 17, 2011.