Manning pleads guilty, hoped leaks would "cause society to reconsider" war on terror

Rick

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During his military trial at Ft. Meade, Bradley Manning, age 25, plead guilty yesterday to 10 of 22 charges stemming from the submission of classified information to Wikileaks in 2010. Manning has claimed responsibility for obtaining and sharing hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. State Department documents and other materials like a controversial 2007 helicopter strike which resulted in U.S. civilian casualties. 

The Army Private First Class said he had hoped to "spark a debate" over military and foreign policy and help persuade "society to reconsider" American anti-terrorism efforts.

According to Manning, he first approached the Washington Journal and the New York Times with the confidential information -- the former was not interested and the latter didn't return his voicemail. As a result, he chose Wikileaks as the method for publicizing the information.

One thing Manning made clear during the trial was that he is a man of conscience. He felt he had done the right thing. "I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience," said Manning, speaking for nearly an hour. "This was the type of information... should become public," he said.

Amongst Manning's indictments are unauthorized possession of and willful communication of classified information to Wikileaks -- particularly the "Combined Information Data Network Exchange" tables for both Iraq and Afghanistan. The young Army Intelligence officer believes these files are, "two of most significant documents of our time."

The charges Manning has confessed to could net him about 20 years in prison. However, the 25-year old Army Private plead not guilty to "aiding the enemy" -- an offense which, at its most extreme, may be punishable by life in prison.

Earlier, a judge had promised to trim 121 days from Manning's final sentence as a result of unusually harsh treatment during his detention. So far, Manning has been detained in a Virginia-based Marine installation for about three years. 

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The files were not current but some years old but it did highlight what was being done in Americas name. The reason why the government wanted to keep it quiet was not to protect Americans but hide the falsehood that America is attacked for no reason. Was he right to do it? Absolutely ...as to being a coward, it took more guts than many of those who knew of these abuses against civilians but kept quiet.
 
It's not really a surprise that the modern world is built upon cover-ups and deceit. Manning's case at least is public enough but are we really to assume that the US 'shadow men' haven't got their hands on other leakers?

The bitter truth is that no-one likes a whistleblower. "Spark a debate"? Yeah, sure.
 
Right or wrong it doesn't matter. These were classified documents he was leaking and that is tantamount to treason. If this happened during a time of war he would've faced the firing squad no questions asked. Being a trained soldier, he would've know the repercussions of his actions. Most likely he'll get off with an easier sentence.
 
"The Army Private First Class said he had hoped to "spark a debate" over military and foreign policy and help persuade "society to reconsider" American anti-terrorism efforts."

There's a right way to do that and a wrong way. He obviously picked the wrong way and appears he'll have about 20 years of jail time to consider that.
 
"The Army Private First Class said he had hoped to "spark a debate" over military and foreign policy and help persuade "society to reconsider" American anti-terrorism efforts."

There's a right way to do that and a wrong way. He obviously picked the wrong way and appears he'll have about 20 years of jail time to consider that.
As I said, He's likely to get off easy.
 
Well veterans are now considered terrorists now anyway so it doesn't matter, vets are getting letters to turn in all guns or else even if they have no condemning medical history. These documents don't matter, if he wants to help then he must wake people up. Guess what you guys things WILL get worse
 
This guy was acting on the same principals as one of the terrorists we're fighting. Sure, he 'thought it was the right thing to do.' Well... so does the suicide bomber who blows up a market place full of infidels who let women out without a male escort.

Spark a debate?!!! yeah, like the Newtown shooting sparked a debate about gun control? You want to start a debate, write a blog. Don't put people's lives in danger, no matter how 'right' you think are.
 
This guy was acting on the same principals as one of the terrorists we're fighting. Sure, he 'thought it was the right thing to do.' Well... so does the suicide bomber who blows up a market place full of infidels who let women out without a male escort.

Spark a debate?!!! yeah, like the Newtown shooting sparked a debate about gun control? You want to start a debate, write a blog. Don't put people's lives in danger, no matter how 'right' you think are.

Who's lives did he put in danger?

Why do you think his plea is "not guilty" for "aiding the enemy" The leaks contained no strategic information or any kind of "secrets". The leaks that were made public all had to do with coverups of war crimes and other scandals and lies.

What is the "right way" to challenge your own government and laws when those very institutes thats supposed to be the the law is corrupt/lying to its citizens?
 
War on terror had everyone's vote to begin with but when you have soldiers returning home talking about how they were the terror and questioning what they were doing then you know something has gone wrong.
 
War on terror had everyone's vote to begin with but when you have soldiers returning home talking about how they were the terror and questioning what they were doing then you know something has gone wrong.

Very small fraction actually voted to intervene middle east... This War on Terror was the biggest bullshit in recent history.
 
"Very small fraction actually voted to intervene middle east... This War on Terror was the biggest bullshit in recent history."

WRONG. After 9/11, everyone and their sister couldn't invade Afghanistan soon enough - the approval rating for that (especially in the U.S.) was well over 90%. And as far as Iraq? All of the western intelligence agencies were reporting the same thing - Saddam had WMD. It wasn't just the U.S. claiming that. Great Britain, Germany, France and even the Soviet Union were saying it. They just differed on how to address it. Most European nations wanted to do more sanctions and negotiations, Great Britain and the U.S. wanted to invade. Again, popular opinion in both of those nations said, "go for it."

Go do a little research......
 
Who's lives did he put in danger?

Why do you think his plea is "not guilty" for "aiding the enemy" The leaks contained no strategic information or any kind of "secrets". The leaks that were made public all had to do with coverups of war crimes and other scandals and lies.

What is the "right way" to challenge your own government and laws when those very institutes thats supposed to be the the law is corrupt/lying to its citizens?

I think he pled not guilty to the subjective charge of 'aiding the enemy' so we won't spend the rest of his life in prison. You can't break a law because you disagree with it. And breaking a law is not the way to draw attention to your cause.

You assume the govt is all involved in some big cover-up and they're lying to us. The truth is the govt is full of people who disagree with each other, and it's full of big egos trying to claw their way up the political ladder. One of the best ways to do that is throw someone under the bus and campaign about how you are 'standing up for the little guy'. One of a politicians most favorite things to do is point the finger and blame each other to make yourself look good.

If Manning was right to release this stuff and if it was just info about cover-ups and lies, then there would be plenty of do-gooder politicians trying to point the finger at whoever could absorb some blame. This happens all the time.

But that's not what happened here. What happened is everyone in the govt agrees that this guy was in the wrong. So don't say this guy was doing the right thing, because none of the evidence and actions of the people involved supports that theory. And there's no cover-up big enough to include everyone. When you start talking about cover-ups that include everyone in law enforcement it makes you sound like the wacko.
 
"Very small fraction actually voted to intervene middle east... This War on Terror was the biggest bullshit in recent history."

WRONG. After 9/11, everyone and their sister couldn't invade Afghanistan soon enough - the approval rating for that (especially in the U.S.) was well over 90%. And as far as Iraq? All of the western intelligence agencies were reporting the same thing - Saddam had WMD. It wasn't just the U.S. claiming that. Great Britain, Germany, France and even the Soviet Union were saying it. They just differed on how to address it. Most European nations wanted to do more sanctions and negotiations, Great Britain and the U.S. wanted to invade. Again, popular opinion in both of those nations said, "go for it."

Go do a little research......

This is completely true.

They also have the town of [FONT=arial]Halabja [/FONT]in northern Iraq full of people with strange mutations that can't be treated from the chemical weapons Saddam used there. Remember this in 2016. One of the backers for invading Iraq was Hillary Clinton. Remember those bumper stickers 'Bush lied, people died', it would be hilarious irony if republicans run commercials against Hillary because she agreed with Bush.
 
No govt on the face of the planet is above board. Every single govt out there has "shady" dealings. US UK Brazil ect. EVERY govt has secrets. Its the fact that those secrets REMAIN secrets that we as a world continue to go on. Did any of the information that Manning released have any relevance? Nope, not really. At that point he was just a little boy tattling on what HE percieved was wrong. Obviously the govt felt that this information was to remain classified. He didnt have either the clearence or right as a soldier to release information that his superiors deemed to stay classified.
He should be worried that he will get the death sentence. If even one American citizen has died because of his actions he should be put to death. If no one died from this breach of cofidentuality then he should consider himself lucky if he only gets 20 years. His biggest mistake was going through Wikileaks. He would have had better luck and better protection had he actually released this information through regular media channels.
 
He could have remained anonymous. Unlike a suicide bomber, he chose to remain in this world and deal with the consequences of his actions. I really do not know everything he released, so it is hard to say if what he did what right or wrong.

Since 911 this has been the first set of wars that did not allow none military press to cover the wars. Likely to avoid protests. I read over the linked helicopter article it looks like it is just saying some civilians died in a attack and the pentagon didn't report it? Vietnam war footage was part of the 6 oclock news back in the day. This "leak" seems like a normal journalism day pre 911.

I really don't know why they would even attempt to cover up collateral damage or why this guy thought it was so important to report it. There are more civilian casualties in afgan and Iraq then soldier causalities on both sides combined.
 
He should be worried that he will get the death sentence. If even one American citizen has died because of his actions he should be put to death. If no one died from this breach of cofidentuality then he should consider himself lucky if he only gets 20 years. His biggest mistake was going through Wikileaks. He would have had better luck and better protection had he actually released this information through regular media channels.

I am sorry but I have to disagree with you on this one .. regular media channels have turned him down when he went to them so he did what he thought it would be the best in order to achieve his goal.
It is a shame that a young life will be ruined because he thought people want to know the truth .. Americans don't want to know the truth about the wars their military are fighting, they don`t want to see the economic interest behind all these wars. Someone out there is making a fortune from these wars as both sides get weapons, someone gets contracts to rebuild infrastructure that gets blown to pieces and rebuilt again.
The aussies made a movie about Julian Assange and how he started the whole Wikileaks .. I will never forget how he broke into the US Army servers and got all the troop movement data as well as the logistics just before Desert Storm and he tried to tell people that there will be an invasion. And how he watched on the news how a bomb shelter was hit and scores of women and children died in an "accidental bombing" - moments later he hacked into the server again and pulled up a photo with targets specifics proving it was an intentional bombing.
I can`t rant anymore .. as ex-military I question a lot of things .. I question why you and I die on front lines when politicians drink $5000 a bottle whiskey .. why people die because of a leader's ambitions
 
He has been in custody longer than American law states is legal.

More lies and bullshit from a government full of war criminals and thieves.
 
Krimi
First,we as Americans already KNOW our govt is crooked. We have known this since VietNam. Second, he only went to one news agency. Im 100% sure that if he had hit foxnews or cnn he would have had protection. Third, you can not put any stock into anything about Assange that has been made into a movie. Its called Dramatization. It wouldnt be much of a movie if the truth was actually told. You as ex military know the rules of conduct for military personel. What Bradley did does amount to treason. Reguardless of his intentions, he went about this the wrong way. Maybe it was because of his age. Maybe it was because he just wasnt as savvy as he thought. Either way, the secrets that he released was not his to release. He had neither the authority nor clearence to do as he did. Im sorry, but as a American citizen he had a right and duty to protect the interests of his country.
 
It is hardly treason to leak the truth the his own country about killing their own civilians. The army's job is to defend the country not take out its citizens also send to prison those who stand up for our civilians. This is disgraceful to our country.
 
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