WikiLeaks' Assange condemns Manning verdict, Obama
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE BRADLEY MANNING CASE
During America’s illegal invasion of Iraq (over WMDs that were never found) American forces were routinely handing Iraqi citizens over to Iraqi forces who routinely tortured them.
In the days leading up to the war, of course, the United States frequently cited the Saddam Hussein regime’s practice of torture as a NEW reason for invading. Now America was engaging in widespread torture.
Faced with this knowledge, Private Manning felt “helpless,” he said “That was a point where I was…actively involved in something that I was completely against.”
In sum, Manning found himself in the classic, excruciating dilemma of the decent person enmeshed in an abhorrent system, not as a victim but as a perpetrator. By following the rules, he would be an accomplice of torture. Only by breaking the rules could he do the right thing. He reported it — to the boss of the American government: the American people.
And so the government tortured Manning for it – keeping him for over 9 months naked in a 6×8 ft cell for 23 to 24 hours a day where he faced abusive conditions in military detention while waiting for trial for over 1,000 days.
After torturing Manning for exposing the truth about US government war crimes the government did not investigate their crimes, they prosecuted Manning. A judge found him guilty of multiple acts of espionage — which absurdly only makes sense if you consider Manning an American citizen spying on his government on our behalf.
The American people accepted the US governments actions in torturing Manning, prosecuting and sentencing him. And many American citizens, confused and blinded by their warmongering masters called Manning a traitor. And kept paying their salaries through their ever dwindling pay check taxes.
But I guess like Bob Dylan says — it’s all good.
The next thing you see this fella do is go in the streets yelling at top of his longs all the stolen secrets from both Manning and Snowden to the world ! And then they will not be secrets anymore , First in England and then right here in the States ! The world is listening Assange !Get out of there and fight for your hero friends ! Do you have it in you ? I didn’t think so !
Who says what these people are doing is whistle-blowing. That implies that the government is wrong in every case, and that’s simply not necessarily true. Call these people suppliers not whistle-blowers. In some cases there is nothing to whistle-blow on which means they are supplying top-secret information, which they should not be doing in some cases, but they are not necessarily whistle-blowing.
Assange knows best.
So you think muzzling future whistle blowers — the guys who expose government wrongdoing — is going to stop leaks. Well think again. It actually means worse trouble than anybody in government or its security agencies could normally dream of.
Rather than take collective information/data and give it to legitimate media agencies to warn the public, insiders who want to stop the rot now have no choice but to leave assorted little doors open to hackers to crack open, and even leave subtle little hints as to how. That means more and more enemies of the state, so to speak, will also be sneaking around looking for these little doors — doors that are always there no matter how tight security is but in this case, thanks to whistle blower laws, may comparatively seem like freeways and highways.
This muzzling will backfire like nobody ever dreamed: Nobody except people with conscience who will risk a lot to save a lot of us. And it’s largely the vicious Obama administration’s fault because they value secrecy over American peoples’ rights and freedoms; government and NSA busterds no matter what party is in power: Busterds.
In this the Land of the Free ..my advice is KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. and keep your head down. You are being watched.
“Manning’s conviction on five espionage and 14 other charges poses a potential problem for Assange since the severity of the judgment, which carries a jail sentence of up to 136 years, might deter would-be whistleblowers, the lifeblood of Assange’s organization.”
The lifeblood of journalism in general, Reuters!
What is the most frustrating is seeing the headlines as though the not guilty on the one charge negated the GUILTY on all of the other charges. This equates to a total attack on free speech when telling the truth to the press is espionage.
Assange is a rapist. His opinion is worth it’s weight in dirt to me.
Laws of life are this: you don’t get to threaten the safety of your entire nation and call it freedom of speech. That’s ridiculous. And, anybody on here who thinks they’re important enough for the government to actually look at them in any way, shape, or form, is spending too much time in their mothers basement playing video games. You don’t matter that much.
Manning’s entire story hasn’t been told yet. However, if it turns out that he overwhelmingly illustrated & documented American War Crimes; he’s going to be far more of a global inspiration – and a hero to a large number of people.
More and more countries are up in arms over the “Snowden Revelations.” The PR effect will probably bleed over to Manning & vice versa.
Why did Snowden bolt for China & Russia – hey, look at what Manning endured! Getting ‘mysteriously’ murdered at the hands of the U.S. ‘government’ is a rather common occurrence.
The odds that Manning will mysteriously get “suicided” are high.
All I ask is that, should it come my time, that I have the courage that Assange, Manning, and Snowden have shown.
You’re next Julian!
In today’s wishy-washy journalistic internet world….. Wikileaks is ‘Press.’ No?
What is press any more? Any given Reuters article has 5 different versions (updates) out there at the same time. Never know which one is the actual article. Can’t tell articles from blogs anyway. Or blogs from tweets. Or tweets from posts. There is no discipline, no ‘going to print’ any more. So couldn’t anyone with a cell phone and a twitter account now just call themselves ‘press’ and seek journalistic protections?
Not a fan of Manning, Assange, or Snowden.
Those deifying Manning and Snowden other than what they are should be prepared to book your monthly visits (for the next 50+ years)to Ft. Leavenworth to demonstrate your enduring and selfless support. But your commitment to support them is merely filler on this website; and in a month or two you will move on to your next “cause” while they sit in a 6X8 cell trying to figure out where they screwed up.
You overlook the fact that both Manning and Snowden could have easily raised these issues by contacting any one of the dozens of anti-war/ anti-military members in the Senate or House. However, stealing documents and then sending them to Wikileaks for publication crosses the line. is an outright breach of the confidentiality agreement they signed. That’s the difference you seem to overlook.
They stepped over the line and now they will endure the consequences of their decision. In the meantime, you will continue to post on this website feeling all the better about “supporting” them.


