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Bradley Manning Says He's Sorry
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Washington Post reports that Pfc. Bradley Manning told a military judge during his sentencing hearing that he is sorry he hurt the United States by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and he asked for leniency as he spoke for less than five minutes, often in a quavering voice "I'm sorry I hurt people. I'm sorry that I hurt the United States," said Manning, who was convicted last month of multiple crimes, including violations of the Espionage Act, for turning over the classified material. "I'm apologizing for the unintended consequences of my actions. I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people." Speaking publicly for only the third time since he was arrested in Iraq in June 2010, Manning said he had been naive. "I look back at my decisions and wonder, 'How on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better over the decisions of those with the proper authority?'""
I'd be sorry if you locked me in a box for years.
What would YOU say if you'd been through what he has? Who can say if he's sincere? This is just another part of the dog and pony show. Keep fighting.
He is clearly just trying to show remorse and get a lighter sentence now. In any measurable way his actions have made the world a better place, no not resulted in any demonstrable harm (except what the US deserves for its actions).
Can't blame him when he could be facing the rest of his life in jail, but I don't believe him for a second.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
that he fell victim to the 5 dollar wrench.
He apologized for the result of his action, not his action.
"I look back at my decisions and wonder, 'How on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better over the decisions of those with the proper authority?'"
Because those with the authority weren't going to do anything for the betterment of the world.
Wrong and illegal are not always one and the same.
After a few months in the basement of the ministry of truth he had finally learned to love Big Brother...
So they "enhanced interrogation" and/or solitary'd him until he broke and said anything they want to make the pain stop, and we're totally supposed to think that his epiphany was due to suddenly remembering just how free we are and people-loving is our government?
Riiiiiiight.
*Fun fact my captcha there was "kneecap". How appropriate.
Except, you know, a jury.
It sucks that you're locked up buddy, but you did the right thing.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
No, wrong and illegal are different sets. Hopefully, they have considerable overlap, but all things that are wrong certainly shouldn't be illegal, and there are things that are reasonably illegal that are not wrong. Now, whether or not what Manning did was wrong is a matter of opinion, but whether wrong and illegal are the same thing or not is not up for reasonable debate.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Torture has come so far in the last 200 years that when the defendant gets dragged into the court room, there isn't even visible evidence of Iron Maiden puncture marks, the flopping limbs that come from the rack, the rapid flinching from water boarding, or the glossy eyed stare from being subjected to countless hours of network TV.
Manning is a hero. The disclosures of the illegal activities of the illegal U.S.A. Government will reverberate for decades. It had to be done.
Any action is going to have positive and negative consequences. The question is: does the good outweigh the bad?
It's probably too early to tell if your actions served the greater good.
On the other hand, what you did was important for your country: the United States is a representative democracy. In order for your government to work as intended, both the representatives and electorat must have information regarding both policies and how those policies are implemented. Without that information, decisions are ill informed (at best) and possibly even manipulated to serve the interests of the government, a particular branch of the government, or a small group of individuals (at worse).
If there was something that the US was doing that bothered him, why didn't he just leak what was relevant to that instead of just dumping everything? There were a lot of embarrassing revelations that came out of his wikileaks dump, and whatever he was trying to accomplish, those stupid but insignificant tid-bits overshadowed it.
So it's not wrong for your wife to lie to and cheat on you, since it's not illegal?
Bad analogy.
Better analogy: You're cheating on your wife. I tell your wife that you're cheating on her. Am I wrong?
Analogy +1: In this case, you're the government and the wife is the American people. As it happens, you've made a law that no one is allowed to disclose if you cheat on your wife.
Analogy +2: Our marriage contract says that you don't have the power to make that law.
So: You've broken our marriage contract by making a law stating that no one can tell anyone if you cheated on your wife. Then you cheated on your wife, breaking the covenant of marriage. Then you locked up the guy who tattled that you cheated on your wife.
Who's in the wrong here?
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
I don't think you know what illegal means.
In that case I'd really like to hear your views on slavery, segragation, and voting rights. I'd also like to know how you define things as right and wrong that are illegal in one state or nation but not another.
Have you ever heard of the crime "structuring"? If you haven't let me give you a little summary.
See, a long time ago, for a variety of reasons, some probably legitimate, many probably not, the government made the sale and possession of drugs illegal (including alcohol, at first). In order to maintain illegal businesses, a number of various types of organized crime arose. In response to this, the IRS was given sweeping powers to strike at individuals regarding their assets and income. A set of laws was put in place to give them this power and now, lying to the government about the source and value of your personal income was illegal.
As a result, organized crime businesses needed to find means of distributing cash without records, hence "money laundering". Often using a business, such as a laundromat to direct money elsewhere, criminals could distribute their cash. As a result, a series of new laws were created to prevent the distribution of cash to businesses, including sweeping NEW laws enabling the government to snoop in private company's records.
Moving on, the crime bosses began to launder money internationally. This usually involved briefcases full of cash. As a result, some western countries enacted regulations on the amount of cash one could carry over the border. Today, anything over $10,000 in cash must be declared and will usually be subject to investigation as to the source.
But deciding this wasn't sufficient, in the 1980s, a new law was created, called "structuring". This law essentially prevents you from carrying the sum of $10,000 over the border over the course of multiple trips. This law simply states that you may not circumvent arbitrary controls, such as currency limits, by conducting your activities in such a way as to avoid them.
As the result of a law to prohibit the structuring of activities to avoid the law to prevent the carrying of cash, which itself is to avoid the law of domestic money laundering, which itself is to avoid the law of revenue auditability, which itself is set up to prevent those who started a business based on that which is of questionable ethics (selling prohibited substances).
Illegal does not always equal wrong.
Did I miss something? Have we got actual examples of people who were hurt by this?
That's a matter of personal opinion. In general wrong and illegal are the same thing, because no one will be able to decide what is wrong unless it's defined that way.
No, it's a matter of fundamental morals. If you'd lived in nazi Germany, would you have ratted on a neighbour hiding Jews? Not doing so was illegal, but also the only right thing to do.
Equating illegal with wrong means you're uncritically accepting your government as the ultimate judge in ethical matters.
However, the man still deserves the death penalty for his treason.
However, it's still not treason. He may have broken his oath, but he upheld his responsibility to the American people. And you and all the other people calling him a traitor are doing the work of those who would oppress you, and me too.
It's true that he's just digging at them in that sentence, which is a truly brilliant piece of work. We all know that "proper authority" is code for "all the power". And you are kissing their assholes bigtime.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Thing is, in international conflicts, lives are on the line every day. It's just whose lives are endangered that one side takes issue with.
Lives are also daily at stake in the more or less secret drone wars the US are waging around the world today. Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Jemen are some examples. Civilians get killed by US drone pilots fromthe other side of the planet.
I for one am happy the world is starting to get a look into US dealings in foreign affairs. Like hiw Norwegian wx-coos have been recruited by the US embassy in Oslo to spy on Norwegian citizens for the US.
No, the world clearly needs more Mannings' and Snowden's.
A little postscript: This time around it was the US that got busted, I'm hoping for similar leaks in the whole world. We need more transparancy.
That's a matter of personal opinion.
No, it's not.
I think Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best:
"Always remember - everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
No, that's not a Godwin, because I'm not calling you a Nazi.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Manning has apologized for his actions, but all he did was expose the questionable actions of those in power. Where is the apology from them? It will never come, because the ruling class is not subjected to the rules, only guys at the bottom like Manning.
"I'm sorry I hurt people. I'm sorry that I hurt the United States," said Manning
Is this sonofabitch calling the Pentagon a liar? How dare he! The Pentagon investigated and clearly reported that the Wikileaks leak did not pose a threat.
DoD Says Wikileaks Not a Threat
The Pentagon is telling NBCâ(TM)s Michael Isikoff that a special assessment team looking over the WikiLeaks Afghanistan war logs has found nothing that could damage national security.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
I'm sure I can find more, but just off the top of my head with no research, the US did apologize to the Japanese Americans who they put into camps during World War 2. So yes, the US has apologized (although I am not sure if they admitted that they made a mistake.)
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
He should have shouted:
There!
are!
four!
lights!
the last Castle did that movie go to far?
what is Ft. Leavenworth really like?
Wow, so much bullshit could have been cut by murdering some teetotalers.
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Sorry, man. I think you a great service to the United States and the world. One person's "Enemy of the State" is another person's Patriot. To me, he's a patriot--and I say that as a war veteran.
Actually, it seems he wanted to help America. The same as Snowden. If there was harm done, it was towards the American government. Harming the government is often the best thing you can do for the country.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
...that sounds suspiciously like the self-accusations during the Moscow Trials.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It is not surprising that courts want people to say certain things, to re-establish their sense of moral correctness and order, or that they get the people in front of them to say these things. It is (always) surprising that anyone not on the bench gives these words any weight at all. Coerced testimony is, after all, no true testimony at all.
As for Manning, I think that Geek Empire nails it
He broke his word, he broke whatever trust and faith and responsibilities that his chain of command entrusted in him.
What about the trust and faith he placed in his chain of command, which was broken by covering up illegal and immoral actions condoned by that chain of command? That's far worse than anything Manning did.
He messed up in the biggest way possible for someone of his job.
The only way Manning messed up was confiding in Adrian Lamo.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I think the more disturbing part of the GP is "no one will be able to decide what is wrong unless it's defined that way".
In other words people are incapable of making their own decisions. The Mayor of San Diego gets a pass for harassing women because he didn't get the appropriate training. No one told me it was wrong, so I assumed I could do it. It is the final and complete rejection of any kind of personal responsibility. It is not YOUR fault. You were just doing what you were told/trained to do and therefor the fault lies with whoever told/trained you.
One lousy night of extra-judicial service by a half dozen L.A. County Sheriff's Deputies, and I caved. A rather craven, boot-licking moment that I am not too proud of. I didn't get the Rodney King-style beatdown that was scheduled for that morning's lull in business, but I was convinced to plead guilty to a crime that did not occur, so as to avoid the guaranteed five-year sentence in the State Penitentiary.
I'd suggest shuffling, shackled, down a mile of cement corridor, in paper slippers, before criticizing this guy.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
If prostitution were legalised, I expect demand for those sex slaves would go down to the point it was no longer a commercially viable criminal enterprise. Trafficking covertly and maintaining security around the slave doesn't come cheap.
I'd say that if he was a whistleblower, he'd have taken more care of what he did release, and tried to keep it "on-topic" for some abuses that he could validate were serious and needed to be focused on. He'd also have taken some interest in how they were presented. Presenting the video in question as "Collateral Murder" was frankly incendiary and not conducive to debate, and while he was not responsible for that presentation, Manning selected the outlet and controlled the flow of the data.
I think it would be safe to say that in any organization, there are individuals in there who have bad days, or who are catty or assholes. We're all that way sometimes. By simply dumping hundreds of cables out there, he didn't just expose possible illegal scenarios, he held the conduct of the State Department (for instance) up to a level of scrutiny that no individual would tolerate, and certainly could be detrimental to a department that is charged to work with groups or governments that individuals might find objectionable, but who those Foreign Service Officers have a duty to their elected leaders to try and do the best job they can do, and provide the most candid advice they can.
but if prostitution where legal, the amount of sex slaves would go down, and the government would be able to ensure protections for prostitutes, and make their living conditions better.
The reason they can be treated like sex slaves, is because they can't go to the cops to complain.
My personal experience dealing with psychotics is that this is surprisingly effective. Take the words right out of their mouth, and the delusional motherfuckers take it at face value, like I finally saw the light.
It can't hurt.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Read Adrian Lamo's story. Thats a little fucked up too. That man was broken by the system as well.
If there ever was a reason to hate institutionalized psychiatry its Adrian Lamo.(he got arrested once, after he reported a crime against his property, because they cop though he talked like a mental patient, so he was forcibly institutionalized, also social stigmitation made him an outcast wandering the streets for about a decade. Men like him are damn easy to coerce into doing whatever. I suspect some form of stockholm syndrome from a decade of abuse from the system.)
Perhaps the classified sentencing testimony had a strong emotional impact on PFC Manning. Maybe he realized that he really did, quite unnecessarily, hurt a lot of people. He's an emotionally damaged kid.
He deserves real prison time, but not something that's going to take most of his life away.
Part of that oath made by the third partywas however to uphold and defend the marriage contract above all other concerns, even your own life.
"'How on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better over the decisions of those with the proper authority?"
Whenever I begin a sentance with how on earth followed immediately by possibly nonsensical belligerance is sure to follow ... who knows if this was sincere or not but It does remind me of another "confession"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pueblo_(AGER-2)#Aftermath
The end.
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Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
I believe McCain is a dolt, but at least he was a brave dolt. He was captured and tortured in Viet Nam. While under torture, he signed confessions and accusations against the United States. But yet he was elected as a senator. There are many other examples, as others have pointed out.
Manning is in good company.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number