Verdict reached in WikiLeaks case
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Pfc. Bradley Manning will learn this afternoon whether he will be convicted of aiding the enemy — punishable by life in prison without parole — for sending more than 700,000 government documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, a military judge said Monday.
Col. Denise Lind said on the third day of deliberations that she will announce her verdict at 1 p.m today in Manning’s court-martial.
The charge of aiding the enemy is the most serious of 21 counts Manning is contesting. He also is charged with eight federal Espionage Act violations, five federal theft counts, and two federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violations, each punishable by up to 10 years; and five military counts of violating a lawful general regulation, punishable by up to two years each.
Lind has tentatively scheduled a sentencing hearing beginning Wednesday. The sentencing phase could run for several weeks; each side has more than 20 potential witnesses.
Manning is being tried by a judge alone, which was his choice. The trial began June 3.
The 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 working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in early 2010. WikiLeaks published most of the material online.
The video included footage of a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed at least nine men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
Manning claims he sent the material to expose war crimes and deceitful diplomacy. In closing arguments last week, defense attorney David Coombs portrayed Manning as a naive whistleblower who never intended the material to be seen by the enemy. Manning claims he selected material that wouldn’t harm troops or national security.
Stocks decline as
busy week begins
NEW YORK (AP) — A blistering July rally on the stock market appears to be fading.
Stocks edged lower Monday as investors waited for a series of major economic reports due out this week. A string of big-name merger deals wasn’t enough to push indexes higher.
On Wednesday the government will report its first estimate of U.S. economic growth for the second quarter, and on Friday it will publish its monthly jobs survey.
Both reports will give investors a better idea about the strength of the economy and what’s next for the Federal Reserve’s stimulus program. Investors will hear from the Fed on Wednesday after the central bank winds up a two-day policy meeting. The Fed’s stimulus has been a major factor supporting a four-year rally in stocks.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 6.32 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,685.33.
Seven of the 10 sectors in the index fell. The declines were led by energy companies and banks.
The benchmark index is still up 4.9 percent in July, and the S&P 500 is on track to have its best month since January. The index jumped this month, climbing to an all-time high July 22, after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke assured investors that the Fed wouldn’t cut its stimulus before the economy was ready. The central bank is buying $85 billion a month to help keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing and hiring.
Stocks may struggle to add to their gains, given that expectations for the economy remain modest, said Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.
The U.S. economy is forecast to have grown just 0.5 percent in the second quarter, according to data provider FactSet. That would be slower than the 1.8 percent annual rate the economy expanded at in the first three months of the year.
Saks will be sold for $2.4 billion
NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t let the global economy fool you: Luxury is hardly dead.
Saks Inc. agreed to sell itself to Hudson’s Bay Co., the Canadian parent of upscale retailer Lord & Taylor, for about $2.4 billion in a deal that will bring luxury to more North American locales.
The acquisition combines three department-store brands — Hudson’s Bay, Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue— and creates a North American upscale retailing behemoth with 320 stores in some of the biggest and most populous cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Lord & Taylor and Hudson’s Bay, Canadian’s biggest department store chain, both cater to well-heeled shoppers who can afford $98 Free People blouses and $250 Coach handbags. Saks customers, on the other hand, are more affluent and can shell out $800 for Christian Louboutin heels or a couple of thousand dollars for Gucci handbags.
Killer’s son says verdict was right
CLEVELAND (AP) — The son of the Cleveland man who admitted kidnapping, raping and enslaving three women for about a decade said Monday his father belongs in prison for the rest of his life.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Anthony Castro also said he has nothing to say to his father, Ariel Castro, and will not visit him in prison.
Fifty-three-year-old Ariel Castro is expected to be sentenced Thursday to life in prison plus 1,000 years after pleading guilty last week to 937 counts in a deal that spared him the death penalty.
“I think it’s the best possible sentence,” Anthony Castro said. “I think if he really can’t control his impulses and he really doesn’t have any value for human life the way this case has shown, then behind bars is where he belongs for the rest of his life.”
Anthony Castro, 31, said his father was violent, and Anthony often cried himself to sleep because he had welts on his legs from beatings. Still, he said, he wasn’t prepared to hear the details of what his father did to the women.
“I was shocked because of the magnitude of such a crime,” Anthony Castro said. “I don’t think I could ever imagine anyone doing that that, let alone to find out it was my own flesh and blood, my father.”
Ariel Castro’s attorneys didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment Monday.
The three women disappeared between 2002 and 2004 when they were 16, 14 and 20 years old. They escaped in May when one of them kicked out part of a door and called to neighbors for help.
One of the victims, 27-year-old Amanda Berry, made her first public appearance on Saturday night when she was invited on stage by rapper Nelly during an outdoor concert in Cleveland.
Another victim, Gina DeJesus, spoke to a Cleveland television station briefly on Sunday, thanking volunteers who are building a 6-foot privacy fence around her house.
