Manning Faces Lifetime In Jail, While The Wrongdoers He Exposed Are Free
from the something's-not-right dept
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:And another snippet from Mitchell's listIn 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.
-Egyptian torturers trained by FBI—although allegedly to teach the human rights issues.Both lists are much longer with many more examples.
-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.
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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: bradley manning, crime and punishment, whistleblowing
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Pardon
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pardon
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/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pardon
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pardon
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pardon
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pardon
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wrongdoers go free, those exposing wrongdoing go to jail.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As mentioned elsewhere...
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: As mentioned elsewhere...
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: As mentioned elsewhere...
Or are you just making up details to excuse the illegal actions of your government?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: As mentioned elsewhere...
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
SO what
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
High Court, Low Court. That's the reason Manning is facing lifetime jail while other wrongdoers get at best a wrist slap. Unfortunately.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
who? what? where?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
But it's totally NOT rude to do stuff like torture and cover up torture!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Uh, no. He wasn't.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
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".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WE the People are Bradley Manning
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I am...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Great example of "whatever works"
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?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Of course they're free
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]