On day two of the Pretrial Hearing, David Coombs asked Captain Steven Lim about a 2009 email “PFC Manning wrote to Master Sgt. Paul Adkins with a picture of himself dressed as a woman…and how his gender identity affects him…[h]ow it impacts his ability to think. Adkins did not share that e-mail with Lim until after Manning was arrested. In David Coombs’ closing remarks on the last day of the Pretrial Hearing, he read Manning’s email aloud in court:
“‘This is my problem. I’ve had signs of it for a very long time. I’ve been trying very, very hard to get rid of it. It is not going away. It is haunting me more and more as I get older. Now the consequences are getting harder. I am not sure what to do with it. It’s destroying my ties with family. It is preventing me from developing as a person. It’s the cause of my pain and confusion. It makes the most basic things in my life very difficult.’ He said the only help that seems available is severe punishment. ‘I have a fear of getting caught and have gone to great lengths to conceal my disorder. It is difficult to sleep and impossible to have conversations. It makes my entire life feel like a bad dream that won’t end. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what will happen to me. But at this point I feel like I am not here anymore.’
Signed, Bradley Manning.”
Adkins is a fucking cunt who should be rotting in jail instead of writing poetry.
Why?
David – Thank you for asking. Because if he had reported Manning’s email to his own superior, then Manning would have been discharged from the military and consequently would not have given document to anyone…..his mental condition should have been reported.
Well, that’s a cry for help if I’ve ever heard one.
Pity this creep didn’t listen and offer some assistance.
Or, if that was too hard for him, point him in the right direction to actually get some help.
As you say, it would have made all the difference.
Sad, sad situation.
Adkins is a good man. Manning had already been leaking information for four months when he sent the email about gender dysphoria. According to his testimony Adkins was protecting Manning from harassment by not giving it to his supervisor because he was concerned the photograph would be disseminated among other staff.
Timeline From Wikipedia:
On January 5, 2010, Manning downloaded the 400,000 documents that became known as the Iraq War logs.
She decided instead to pass it to WikiLeaks, and on February 3 sent them the Iraq and Afghan War logs via Tor.
On April 24, 2010, Manning sent an email to her supervisor, Master Sergeant Paul Adkins—with the subject line “My Problem”—saying she was suffering from gender identity disorder.