Bradley Manning judge warns military prosecutors in WikiLeaks case

iStandWithBrad · 26 days

Coombs argument is not that Manning's free speech rights have been violated, but that a conviction would set a precedent that would hurt the constitutional rights of others.

reddit4 · 1 month

Going from lower middle class black kid to being a millionaire and president shows that yes everybody can succeed

It's my understanding that Obama spent a lot of time being taken care of by his relatively well-off white grandparents. They helped pay for his college as well.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Well, I personally am bothered to learn that the U.S. State Department worked against a Haiti's peoples movement in order to keep their minimum wage from being raised. Also, that the Obama Administration influenced Spanish courts not to prosecute Bush Administration officials for allowing torture.

I think all this stuff is pretty significant: http://www.bradleymanning.org/learn-more/what-did-wikileaks-reveal

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Most of the stuff Brad allegedly released should not have been classified to begin with according to this law:

“In no case shall information be classified… in order to: conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency… or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.” —Executive Order 13526, Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations

We've basically reached a period in history in which so many millions of documents are classified per year, that only one or two people ever look at any given document. How are you supposed to run an honest, transparent government under that set of circumstances? Many people have called Bradley's actions radical, and I don't disagree, but they took place within the context of a system that is IMO very fundamentally flawed.

Classifying something that doesn't meet official classification standards is not a crime under U.S. law, and I think that's a rather large problem.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

"gives iStandWithBrad interesting water cooler conversation"

In this case Bradley's alleged actions went far beyond that.

And if you don't consider the stuff in this article to be important, just because it didn't happen in the U.S., then I think you're what's wrong with this country.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Not every page of the Pentagon Papers described wrongdoing either.

As a whole, the documents released by Manning have given a comprehensive look into how the U.S. conducts wars and foreign policy, the likes of which the U.S. people have never had. And they've led to thousands of articles in the mainstream press about individual scandals.

I for one would rather know than not know, but ultimately we'll each have our own opinions on that issue. I look at it sort of like Plato's Cave.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Any reasonable person reading that would believe that Kiriakou was punished pursuant to his waterboarding reveal, but that is not the case. He was charged for revealing the identities of undercover agents

Find me some act of government whistle-blowing that doesn't involve activities that would be illegal under some interpretations of the law. If a whistle-blower would be congratulated by their employer, they would not be a whistle-blower. Government agencies always look for those issues upon which they can charge an undesirable person, and overcharge those to their full advantage. Just read the history of Co-Intel Pro or government leakers for the past hundred years.

If Kiriakou had not been charged for revealing the identities of undercover agents, the people endangered by his revelation would have made sure another way to charge him was found...

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

He didn't leak indiscriminately, as Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg will always point out. Bradley Manning released a fraction of the documents he had access to, and nothing at the "Top Secret" level (which he DID have access to).

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Assange isn't a whistle-blower. He runs a website to help whistle-blowers. Manning is the whistle-blower in that case. Drake, it so happens, is a major supporter of Manning's.

There was plenty of evidence of wrongdoing in the materials Manning released. There is also plenty of evidence that Manning was acting only because he felt driven by his conscience, not just to "leak whatever the hell classified information" he could. He only released a small fraction of what he had access to. You can read Manning's words on his actions here: http://wiseupforbradleymanning.wordpress.com/bradley-manning-in-his-own-words/

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

a world where 18 year old children who smoke pot at work and talk shit about their boss and in general give a shit about nothing have the same status and job as them.

Sounds like those soldiers weren't able to attain very high-level positions based on what they learned in the military, then... which was what I was getting at. I personally don't have to deal with any of that in my job.

it is the idiots that don't ask questions that are looked down on.

Really? Because I have heard numerous veterans say they were told by their commanders that they weren't supposed to be asking questions. But maybe the issue is that you're defining questions within a very narrow range... I'm talking about people asking questions about the big picture.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

The military is about the only work environment where people are expected not to show their differences, is what I'm trying to explain to you. People are encouraged to be tough in general and tough to one another. People are rewarded for following orders and not thinking or asking too many questions. People are rewarded for all sorts of patterns of behaviors that will only limit success in the real world. That's why a lot of "good soldiers" have trouble adapting to the real world when they get out.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Because those coworkers will never succeed in today's diverse professional environments, i.e. almost any work environment OUTSIDE of the military. They will be used to being the ones doing it "correctly" and then realize they're failures outside of that narrow world because they don't know how to deal with people different than themselves, or work through conflicts in a professional matter, etc.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Bradley may have been unfit for military life, but I'd say those coworkers are definitely unfit for /real/ life.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

No, you have no idea how the military works.

A lot of the people advocating for Bradley Manning are veterans themselves. I understand that soldiers are expected to conform (whether or not I think that's sensible is another matter).

However, Bradley was beat on until he was injured multiple times. If you think having a wand on his desk means that coworkers who beat him up weren't mentally unstable, then I question your sanity too... That mentality might mean you can get by in the military, but good luck being considered professional while harassing coworkers in any other work setting.

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

A bunch of people who worked with him beat him up repeatedly because he was gay. A lot of people he worked with were clearly crazy themselves...

iStandWithBrad · 1 month

Exactly, you can't get a good idea of a person by just reading some propaganda, that is why all his supporters are full of shit.

I have talked to friends and family members of his. I guarantee you I have read more about this case than you have, based on the fact you didn't know that those chat logs were used as evidence in court. Please, go find someone more gullible to argue with.

youtoyourself · 1 month

We've learned so much interesting stuff from WikiLeaks, and yet according to the U.S. gov (and that of most of its allies) WikiLeaks is just an enemy of the U.S., as are people who donate information to it.

I mean, Bradley Manning is still facing life in prison, despite the fact that lots of media outlets have started complaining about lack of public access to his court documents, and the military prosecution has failed to present evidence when its requested by the defense.

I know its now popular to hate on KONY2012 on reddit, but I hope redditors will also remember that the man who allegedly revealed this information is in serious trouble on American soil. You can read more about his next court appearance here.

iStandWithBrad

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