Manning Faces Lifetime In Jail, While The Wrongdoers He Exposed Are Free

from the something's-not-right dept

Wed, Jul 31st 2013 10:26am — Mike Masnick

With Bradley Manning found guilty on numerous counts, some are pointing out that it seems odd that he exposed so much law breaking by representatives of the US... and none of those people are facing any jail time, whereas Manning is facing life in prison. Some have tried to argue that Manning's leaks didn't reveal any abuse, and thus he's not a whistleblower. This is false. Both Greg Mitchell and Peter Walker at the Guardian have published details of things that we learned via Manning's leaks, including some serious lawbreaking by the US. Just a snippet from the Guardian:

In October 2010 came a series of revelations about events in Iraq. Chief among these was that US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers. The reports of abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks.

Another Iraq-related revelation was that the US collated details of more than 100,000 people killed in Iraq following the invasion of the country, including more than 15,000 deaths that were previously unrecorded. The tally goes against previous protestations by the UK and US that there were any official statistics on the death toll connected to the war.

And another snippet from Mitchell's list

-Egyptian torturers trained by FBI—although allegedly to teach the human rights issues.

-State Dept memo: U.S.-backed 2009 coup in Honduras was 'illegal and unconstitutional.'”

-Cables on Tunisia appear to help spark revolt in that country. The country's ruling elite described as “The Family,” with Mafia-like skimming throughout the economy. The country's First Lady may have made massive profits off a private school.

Both lists are much longer with many more examples.

Yet, the people responsible for these things, and the other reprehensible behavior that came out entirely because of the Manning leaks, appear to have not been punished at all. Something doesn't seem at all right about that. The message is: break the law while representing the US government/military? No problem! But tell people about it? Why, you need to spend the rest of your life in jail.

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Filed Under: bradley manning, crime and punishment, whistleblowing

31 Comments

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bob, 31 Jul 2013 @ 10:50am

Pardon
I hope the next president pardons him.
sadly, I don't expect any actions against those actually breaking the laws, as long as they were part of the govt while doing so.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 10:52am

Justice, US style.

Wrongdoers go free, those exposing wrongdoing go to jail.
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DCX2, 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:02am

Re: Pardon
I hope the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces does the right thing and overturns Mr. Manning's convictions based on a violation of his rights.

After all, they freed a convicted murderer of an innocent, retired Iraqi police officer, because the murderer was held in solitary without a lawyer for seven days. http://nation.time.com/2013/07/19/military-court-denies-navy-appeal-in-iraq-war-case/
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:04am

Re: Pardon
We just have to elect a Constitutional lawyer with a platform that includes protection for whistleblowers!
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DCX2, 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:05am

As mentioned elsewhere...
Another line of attack on Mr. Manning, besides "he didn't reveal crimes", is that he indiscriminately dumped all the documents.

Except his document dump was anything but indiscriminate. Based on the leaked audio of Mr. Manning speaking at his trial, he made sure that nothing Top Secret was leaked (in contrast to Mr. Ellsberg, whose leak was far more serious because it was Top Secret). Mr. Manning intentionally selected only those cables already authorized for wide distribution within the government - those with the caption SIPDIS.
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average american, 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:12am

SO what
Bradley Manning, didnt he have something to do with Dont Ask Dont Tell, I dunno dont remember. Why arent you guys talking about the new royal baby, thats big news!
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Ninja (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:16am

Let's not forget that Greenspan, Bernanke and the likes (Goldman Sachs executives get a special mention along with the risk agencies) are roaming free with their criminally acquired money. At the expense of taxpayer money and a lot of suffering for those who could have used public money for their relief.

High Court, Low Court. That's the reason Manning is facing lifetime jail while other wrongdoers get at best a wrist slap. Unfortunately.
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McCrea (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:27am

who? what? where?
those sound like foreign crimes
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Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:33am

Re: Re: Pardon
Oh, wait...
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:40am

But there's a difference! Manning was RUDE to expose our law breaking. We must punish rudeness!

But it's totally NOT rude to do stuff like torture and cover up torture!
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:55am

this whole case has been horrendous! the guy may well not have done what he did in the correct way but had he have tried to follow whatever the protocol is, he would have been banged up anyway and no one would have learned of the disgraces the US armed forces committed or what happened to Manning either. it's exactly the same with Snowden. he has done the right thing by alerting the people, not just in America but in almost every country in the world as to what was going on, all led by the government that has frequently blamed other nations for spying on it, the USA. he is now branded as worse than any other traitor in the history of America. what an absolute numbskull is the 'man' who said this! there isn't a single person that is really safe in the USA now because every little innocuous thing that has been said or done is recorded, ready for use whenever someone gets a hard on for a particular person and chases them to death. what a wonderful place it has become. i doubt if people subdued under other regimes are queuing up to get into here now. at least where they are, they know the government is up to no good 24/7. in the USA your led to believe they are not until the reality hits home!!
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:56am

OMG! Prisoners of war are treated badly. How could it be. This must be the first time in history this has happened.

The FBI is training foreigners in some of their devious methods. Holy Shit! Never heard of such a thing.

The US backed a coup? Say it isn't so! I don't remember this ever happening before.

The leaders and authorities of Iraq committed crimes against their own people and the US didn't investigate. Wait, Suddam Hussien tortured and murdered millions of his own people and you all said we shouldn't have interfered. Now their police torture a few and you are all up in arms because the US didn't investigate??

Bottom line is that Manning has been found guilty by a jury of his peers and he must now pay for his crimes. Move on, nothing new to see here.
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Brandt Hardin, 31 Jul 2013 @ 12:06pm

WE the People are Bradley Manning
I am Bradley Manning and YOU are Bradley Manning whether you know it or not. http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2013/06/we-people-are-bradley-manning.html
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The dude, 31 Jul 2013 @ 12:07pm

Re:
Not sure if trolling, being sarcastic, being a shill, or being stupid to the politician point.
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Dirkmaster (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 12:09pm

Re: Re: Pardon
Sarcasm for the win!
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Mike Masnick (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 12:27pm

Re:
Bottom line is that Manning has been found guilty by a jury of his peers

Uh, no. He wasn't.
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Bradley Manning, 31 Jul 2013 @ 12:47pm

I am...
Bradley Manning and am being held against my will in the backwater that is the good ole US of A!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 1:50pm

Re: Re: Pardon
I see what you did there. That was good.
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John Fenderson (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 1:52pm

Re:
So you're saying that because similar wrongdoing has been done before, we should ignore it now? You, sir, are without a moral compass.

Wait, Suddam Hussien tortured and murdered millions of his own people and you all said we shouldn't have interfered.

I don't know anyone who ever said that we should do nothing. Don't confuse "we shouldn't attack countries who don't attack us" with "we shouldn't interfere".
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 1:52pm

Re:
No the rich go free. Those who do things the rich don't like (like exposing their hypocrisy and corruption) go to jail.
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wec, 31 Jul 2013 @ 2:01pm

Re:
Saddam Hussein's treatment of his people was not our responsibity. So remember AC, when you break something you own it and are then responsible for it. We broke Iraq, so it became our reponsiblity to monitor/investigate any questionable act by the people in the country. If we were not ready to accept this responsibility then we should not have started the military action (not war, because Congress did not declare war on Iraq).
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ioconnor (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 2:16pm

I find it interesting that tech sites predominantly think Manning as a heroic whistle-blower whereas sites catering to people who can't think straight see him as a traitor...
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Bob Pro, 31 Jul 2013 @ 2:18pm

Great example of "whatever works"
It's all in there.

Grab what you need to make your point.

Ignore the dereliction of duty...

...there's this thing they say about 'snitches' in the hood.

Oh you ain't down wit dat?
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Ray, 31 Jul 2013 @ 3:58pm

An honest government is a secure government and this zionist controlled government is living on borrowed time.

When it goes down, Manning will be freed and will probably be elected president. That is how many great leaders come to power. They have proven their love of country and been willing to risk it all for others.

Then... he will go into payback mode and justice will prevail. It is like a broken record that gets played over and over because of banks and fake currency.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 4:58pm

Re: Re:
Correct. Manning was tried by a judge alone, which was per Manning's specific request, and is his legal right.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 5:20pm

Re: As mentioned elsewhere...
I have been looking all over the place with respect to the level of classification of documents that Manning provided to Wikileaks. Okay, Manning claims that no Top Secret documents were released. That's wonderful. What about Secret and Confidential documents, which are also classified, though at a lower level? The vast majority of classified documents are confidential or secret, with relatively few being classified as Top Secret.

SIPDIS can be used to carry classified information, and "wide distribution" is a relative term. In the context of SIPDIS, "wide distribution" means any government agency that is permitted to receive the level of classification transmitted via SIPDIS. Note that one of the highest level of classification permitted by SIPDIS is NOFORN, which is no foreign distribution, which is a higher level of classification at a specific level. For example, SECRET - NOFORN is a higher classification level than merely SECRET. Based on the types of documents that Manning leaked, I suspect many of them were marked NOFORN.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 5:35pm

Re: Re:
Well, it was our responsibility until the 28th of June, 2004, when sovereignty of Iraq was returned to the Iraqi government. Our ability to interfere in internal Iraqi affairs decreased from that point.
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allengarvin (profile), 31 Jul 2013 @ 6:17pm

Of course they're free
Words spoken four centuries ago: "Treason doth never prosper: what�s the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2013 @ 11:32pm

Re: Re: As mentioned elsewhere...
Got a link to prove that they were marked NOFORN?

Or are you just making up details to excuse the illegal actions of your government?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2013 @ 5:40am

Re: Re: Re: As mentioned elsewhere...
When some of the documents were about the actions of foreign leaders, would you like to bet that they were NOT marked NOFORN?

However, that was not my point. My point was that just because Manning did not release anything marked "TOP SECRET," he still had to have released documents marked SECRET or CONFIDENTIAL because he was convicted of releasing classified documents, and those are the three classifications that exist. There is a fourth, lower level classification, but that one will not get you sent to prison for 127 years.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2013 @ 5:47pm

i am a viet nam vet and i am proud of manning, they lied to us and had us kill 100 000 s.e. asians and they are still lying to everyone all the time and having todays young folks kill iraqui, afghans, and everybody else. is there no righteous god anywhere???? LOL
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