By combustionchamber on Flickr <\/p>\n
It's been known for some time that Bradley Manning was so psychologically unstable that his psychologists suggested not allowing him access to weapons, or if he was given them, to have the bolt removed so they would not fire.<\/p>\n
Why his access to classified material continued is unclear, and with his court appearance Friday that question rings more loudly than ever.<\/p>\n
Raf Sanchez of The Telegraph reports that Manning's Fort Mead hearing included testimony that the Private sent pictures of himself dressed up as a woman to his superiors as proof of how emotionally unstable he really was, and nothing was done about it.<\/p>\n
With the cross-dressing pictures sent to his immediate supervisor Master Sergeant Paul Watkins, Bradley confessed he was suffering from a gender identity issue. That plea for help never went any further up the chain of command.<\/p>\n
Watkins only mentioned the incident after Manning sent thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n
The officer in command of Bradley's unit confessed his group was so undisciplined that the intelligence analysts played music and watched movies on the same computers they used to view classified intelligence.<\/p>\n
It was the lax regulations that allowed Manning and his fellow soldiers to bring in CDs with music, games, and computer programs to their Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility. It was on one of those CDs that Manning downloaded the classified files.<\/p>\n
About 15 US soldiers have so far been disciplined over Manning's actions.<\/p>\n
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