Bradley Manning

[Cynical Ninja]

Like jimbone said there is a mechanism in place if Manning wanted to be a genuine whistleblower.

He chose to ignore this mechanism and sold his ass to wikileaks instead.

Also some of the stuff he leaked detailed secret tactical procedures of US military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. Information that would have had Iraqi insurgents and Afghan Taliban high fiving each other as they planned their next attack knowing this leaked information.

He is technically a traitor and does deserve jail.

[Duchess]

I want to reiterate that I don't know anything about that & my comments only pertain to the soldiers who opened fire on the Iraqis.

[crash]

I'd like to know how much faith anyone would put in the said 'whistleblower mechanism' at that level. If your government (even if it's via a military vehicle) is out there giving permission for civilians, including children, to be blown away, are they really going to make it easy for someone to get that message out to the general public?

My ten bucks says that guy has an accident...

[Duchess]

I wouldn't trust going to the military to make complaints about the military. Hahaha! Hells bells, these are the same people that tried to cover up Pat Tillman's death...that's just an example.

[Cynical Ninja]

There is a way to do things that does not include selling your ass to Julian Assange.

Like this guy....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomas_Young

[crash]

What? Wait until the very end and then have some five minute old media outlet 'throw your big punch' just before you've all but checked yourself out?

Sure, Body of war was at the very least, scathing, but it wasn't one man coming out with a full assault on happenings that the US military definitely didn't want to be public knowledge. Love or hate Assange (personally I'm not a fan), he was the possessor of the best vehicle in town for Manning to oust the knowledge he percieved he couldn't live with anymore, at the time.

[Cynical Ninja]

He put the lives of his fellow soldiers at risk with some of the information he leaked that makes him a traitor in my book.

Young was able to get his point across effectively without risking his colleagues lives in the field.

[username]

If he'd been more selective in what he leaked and was actually attempting to blow the whistle, I'd be more sympathetic but he handed over tons of data willy-nilly. Hardly a hero.

I would have been content with the 20 year sentence he already received though.

[Cynical Ninja]

If he'd been more selective in what he leaked and was actually attempting to blow the whistle, I'd be more sympathetic but he handed over tons of data willy-nilly. Hardly a hero.

Three quarters of a million documents in all he couldn't possibly have read all of them before leaking them. The leaking of relevant documents chroniciling wrongdoing by US forces abroad you can perhaps understand even though there were other ways to expose this information. But the secret tactical and strategic stuff that could have endangered soldiers lives? That's at best grossly irresponsible and worst completely treacherous.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

If he'd been more selective in what he leaked and was actually attempting to blow the whistle, I'd be more sympathetic but he handed over tons of data willy-nilly. Hardly a hero.

Three quarters of a million documents in all he couldn't possibly have read all of them before leaking them. The leaking of relevant documents chroniciling wrongdoing by US forces abroad you can perhaps understand even though there were other ways to expose this information. But the secret tactical and strategic stuff that could have endangered soldiers lives? That's at best grossly irresponsible and worst completely treacherous.

Holy shit, you said something non liberal and I agree with. How the hell did that happen?

[Cynical Ninja]

I always go by the old proverb “if in doubt say nowt”.

[Duchess]

I googled this guy yesterday because I didn't know who he was & while I only read very briefly it sounded to me like he had some mental health issues. I couldn't help but wonder what he was doing in a position to have access to the stuff he did.

[aussiefriend]

What if history looks back on Bradley Manning as a pivotal person who exposed murderers and suffered as a consequence of exposing evil? Not only did the original killing of unarmed civilians take place, but then when others came to rescue and help them, they were shot and killed too. It was evil.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
Burke's saying is still relevant even if the person has heavy artillery, uniform and a flag. Murder is still murder no matter how you dress it up. This was not combat.

As for Assange, he is paying a price for leaking, he is very afraid.

We all want freedom, but you can never achieve freedom when you commit such atrocities and then participate in covering it up.

[Cynical Ninja]

Assange has been hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the last year they gave him asylum. He is wanted in Sweden for two counts of rape that he of course denies.

Manning was irresponsible no doubt about that because he did put his fellow soldiers lives at risk with some of the info he leaked.

[Duchess]

Bradley Manning has been acquitted on the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.

Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who laid bare America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by covertly transmitting a massive trove of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, has been convicted on 19 of 21 charges, including 5 counts of espionage. He was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, the most serious and controversial charge laid against him.

After warning a courtroom packed with 30 spectators, almost all of them Manning supporters, that she would accept no disruptions, the judge overseeing his military court martial, Col. Denise Lind, rapidly delivered her verdict in a crisp voice.

For journalists watching the proceedings from a remote media room, there was no time to gauge Manning's reaction before the military cut off a live feed from the courtroom.

Source

[Cynical Ninja]

When is he sentenced?

[Duchess]

The sentencing phase of the court marshal is expected to begin Wednesday.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, I guess Bradley Manning -- who was sentenced to 35 years -- will be completing his transition to womanhood as Chelsea Elizabeth Manning with taxpayer-funded hormone therapy behind bars.

I have no idea if Manning will eventually be transferred to a women's prison or what, and I'm not really sure why the DOD agreed to the funding unless they determined it to be life-saving medical care because he said he'd commit suicide without it. There are not many details on the legal process, not that I've come across.



Defense Department officials say hormone treatment for gender reassignment has been approved for Chelsea Manning, the former intelligence analyst convicted of espionage for sending classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.

The officials say the hormone therapy was approved February 5 by the commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning is serving a 35 year sentence.

The treatment would enable the Army private formerly known as Bradley Manning to make the transition to a woman.

A lawsuit filed in September claimed Manning was at a high risk of suicide unless she received more focused treatment for the sense of being a woman in a man's body, or vice versa.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12...74392.html

[Duchess]

Chelsea Manning's sentence has been commuted. She'll be released in May.

Civilian court and military court are two wildly different things. Had she been sentenced for the exact same crime in a civilian court she would have already been released.

[Maggot]

And probably still been a man. Wait...............was he castrated yet?