Manning defense pinpointing command failures

FORT MEADE, MD. — Lawyers for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning are pinpointing his supervisors’ failure to take actions that could have prevented him from disclosing classified information through WikiLeaks.

The witness lineup for the sentencing hearing Tuesday at Fort Meade includes at least two people who were disciplined after an investigation into leaks.

One is retired Sgt. 1st Class Paul Adkins, the noncommissioned officer in charge of enlisted soldiers in Manning’s brigade. Adkins was reduced from master sergeant for failing to properly address Manning’s emotional outbursts and other issues before they deployed for Iraq.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle Balonek was reprimanded for failing to supervise Manning while he downloaded hundreds of thousands of records from a classified government computer network while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010.