by Arun Rath

Bradley Manning’s court-martial was already in weekend recess as of midday Tuesday, marking the third consecutive week the court has finished far ahead of schedule. Since the court-martial began, the court’s week has never gone later than Wednesday afternoon.

One ongoing reason for the unexpected speed of the trial has been the defense’s agreement to stipulate written testimony for a number of prosecution witnesses, eliminating the need for live, in-person testimony.

However, this is not an indication things are going well for the prosecution; they have had continued difficulty establishing that Manning was following directions from WikiLeaks, which could be key in establishing the charge of “aiding the enemy,” which carries the greatest potential punishment: life in a military prison.

The World’s Arun Rath discussed these issues with Marco Werman last week:

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