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Soldier Facing Criminal Charges for Leaking to WikiLeaks (Update)

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Posted on Jul 6, 2010
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He’s been hailed as a hero for allegedly publicizing classified video of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed 12 civilians in Iraq, but now Pfc. Bradley E. Manning is catching heat from the military for the WikiLeaks exposé.  —KA

Update: BoingBoing reports that Manning could get 52 years in jail. As Glenn Greenwald tweeted, “Torture people => imperial immunity. Shoot at unarmed rescuers & their kids => nothing. Leak evidence of war crimes => 53 yrs in prison.”

The Guardian:

A US army intelligence analyst was today charged with leaking a highly classified video of American forces killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad and secret diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

Private Bradley Manning, who had a top-secret security clearance, has been held in military custody in Kuwait since his arrest in Iraq in May over the video, which caused great embarrassment to the US military establishment. It showed an air strike that killed a dozen people, including two Iraqis working for Reuters news agency. The air crew is heard falsely claiming to have encountered a firefight in Baghdad and then laughing at the dead. WikiLeaks gave the video the title Collateral Murder.

Manning, 22, was arrested after boasting in instant messages and emails to a high-profile former hacker, Adrian Lamo, that he passed the material to WikiLeaks along with thousands of pages of confidential American diplomatic cables.

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Peter Knopfler's avatar

By Peter Knopfler, July 7, 2010 at 5:15 pm Link to this comment

Kill them all and let G_d sort them out,
words from THE VATICAN 1000 years ago!
History in the baking.
Yes 54 years in prison for speaking the truth,
Right Mandela, Right Ghandi!
Obama could pardon him, probably not.
The American public is too pooped to participate, and break this brave soul out of solitary confinement.
Where is Justice to be Free!
Military.Homeland Security, Special Security Police, this entire system of population control reminds me of the Third Reich 1938, here we go again.

Report this

By Jim Yell, July 7, 2010 at 6:23 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I agree that most of the secrets, official secrets are created one to hide the truth from the voters and two to protect the elected and appointed officials from prosectution for their crimes.

Still I must say that for brief periods of time, which I think should be no more than 6 months, certain information should be secret, but not anything that is hiding illegality.

After 6 months all secrets should be removed from secret and can not be made secret again. The whole idea of secrets forever is making our government less honest, and more criminal than it is in the natural course of business.

Hurrah for the whistle blowers, it matters not if they are acting from “true” patriotic ferver or from personal gain.

Our elected and appointed officials should be conducting the countries business in full view of the public that elects them and pays their salaries.

And, while we are at it “why hasn’t Cheney been forced to reveal what he conspired with the energy corporations to do to the nation?” He did this on our dime, so how does he have the right to keep it quiet and for myself I believe what happened was most probably illegal and criminal—-but than it is Cheney we are talking about.

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By zaphodity, July 6, 2010 at 10:02 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Don’t see what all the fuss is about. There’s heaps of
war porn on the net. It’s like standing in a sewer full
of turds, picking one up and saying “I don’t like this
particular turd, it offends me”

Report this

By Geogre, July 6, 2010 at 9:58 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If this soldier gets locked up for doing his duty by exposing a corrupt and truly dangerous culture in our armed forces, then we have failed yet once more to protect and maintain our democracy.

Wake up, America.  Wake up!  There is no more time for the Snooze button.

Hold this soldier up as a shining example of what it takes to keep government (especially this one, largely run by its overbloated military) just a little bit afraid of We the People.

If you let them rip him apart with their legal attack dogs, who will blow the whistle when they decide to come with that Apache to your neighborhood?

Don’t think that could happen here?  America is too exceptional/special?  God is on our side?

Let me illuminate one guiding principal used by the Man Upstairs:  Mankind has a role to play as a Custodian (not CEO, emperor, pirate, thug or rapist) of this world.  In as far as we fulfill our role to the best of our abilities, God is on our side.  Anything else is tantamount to shitting where you lay and, just as that behavior is its own punishment, God’s hand will not protect us from our folly (unless that folly be very funny, which is a poor plan for long-term survival).

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By nader paul kucinich gravel mckinney, July 6, 2010 at 6:02 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

We cut ‘em in half with a machine gun and give ‘em a Band-Aid. 
It was a lie. 
And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies.

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By mike112769, July 6, 2010 at 2:15 pm Link to this comment

Typical of our “government” to imprison someone that makes them look as bad as they are.

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PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, July 6, 2010 at 1:29 pm Link to this comment

I think this young PFC may have a leg to stand on in a courts marshal.  There is a caveat in the handling of classified materials which allows a person to challange a security classification if he or she believes that the security classification is shielding a crime or improper conduct by its classifiers.

This is clearly the case here, although it was handled wrong.  I for one am glad he did it.

In my experience, most items which are classified are being hid from the American tax paying public and not our enemies.

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By CaptRon, July 6, 2010 at 1:20 pm Link to this comment

Immediately what came to mind was the Viet Nam War My Lai massacre where Lt. William Calley was prosecuted and laid blame for the order to his troops to kill over 500 civilians, most of who were surely innocent adults and children. What came to mind was the answer given to the soldiers who carried out those orders when they asked what they should have done other than carry out the orders of their commanding officer as trained. They were told that they should have resisted and used moral judgment.
In the case here, no doubt the soldier had the position to know what happened and probably used moral judgment. He did release “classified” materials in quantity which is suspect, but he also brought to light improper activity which could be hidden under the “classified” heading. I ask “what should he have done to make it proper”, and who says he didn’t try?

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By FRTothus, July 6, 2010 at 11:23 am Link to this comment

The crime is not that the US is a murderous empire, but someone who takes their responsibilities under international law seriously and exposes the murders and the murderers is prosecuted?  This country is disgusting, as corrupt an empire as has ever existed, and is a clear and present danger to the rest of the world.

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Peter Knopfler's avatar

By Peter Knopfler, July 6, 2010 at 11:17 am Link to this comment

WHY NOT
This is a Christian ARMY and sacrifice and cruci-
fiction is par for the coarse, walk the plank
soldier!
yes kill the mess-anger,
tax payers have no right to know where there money
goes,
Military or wall street,
water boarding will be administered to this brave
Young Man,
national Petition should, or could free him.
But Americans are fence sitters and this poor young
brave man will be tortured for years,
Yes America has become   KFC-chicken-sh-t,
Macdonald guts, and coca cola-colon brains.
So what does the public expect,
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!
america, stop paying for war, Ah never mind,
stay with hot dog eating, relish the mus-turd!

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