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Bradley Manning Sentenced To 35 Years
An anonymous reader writes with bad, but not unexpected news: "The U.S. soldier convicted of handing a trove of secret government documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks has been sentenced to 35 years in prison. Pte First Class Bradley Manning, 25, was convicted in July of 20 charges against him, including espionage. Last week, he apologized for hurting the U.S. and for 'the unexpected results' of his actions. He will receive credit for three and a half years, but be dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army."
Read this speech by Chomsky, it is very informative and depressing.
He wasn't a private. He is now after being demoted.
IIRC Wikileaks was initially releasing the documents a bit at a time, working with journalists to, among other things, redact anything that might put anyone in danger. It was only when the US government started attacking Wikileaks on every available front (forcing CC processor to stop taking donation, getting Assange extradited etc.) that the entire thing was made public.
I suspect that if the US government had accepted the leak as fait accompli and honestly tried to work with Wikileaks to redact information that could cause actual harm to informants etc. they could have significantly limited the damage. None of this would have prevented them from prosecuting Manning, btw.
But no, instead of trying to ensure that reporters of leaks (Wikileaks included) acted responsibly, the US government decided that those reporting on leaks were criminals themselves. That is complete nonsense and a dangerous attack on western democracy.
I'm unsure if Manning deserves to spend time in prison for his actions. I am sure that the US government has done things in response to Manning's actions that are way worse.
That has nothing to do with the situation. He grab an leaked 10,000 documents. Documents that undermined serious diplomatic negotiations.
And what crime against humanity did he expose? oh, right none.
He did exposed military intelligence mistakes.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The Pentagon has *repeatedly* said that the documents that have been disclosed by Wikileaks have *not* resulted in known, actual harm to US persons, or the informants & etc. that they rely on.
Put this "Wikileaks hurts people!!!111!!" rumor to bed.
Yes, bribery of foreign officials is an offence under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Bribery of American officials is not illegal.
Manning didn't release over 10,000 documents. He handed them over to established news organizations who then WORKED WITH THE GOVERNMENT TO DETERMINE WHICH DOCUMENTS SHOULD NOT BE RELEASED.
Convenient how people overlook that very important piece of information, isn't it?
Did you just start following this case? He worked in Information Systems; the only thing preventing him from accessing the documents was protocol. Since the case went public, they've added technical safeguards.
Actually he didn't work in 'Information Systems', he was an Intelligence Analyst.
At least in the DoD, an 'Information System' job would entail setting up and maintaining IS, keeping the network functioning, secure, patched, etc... Intelligence Analysts have wide ranging access to classified and non-classified information because their job is to put together numerous bits of information and build a more complete picture in order to make informed predictions. Basically a wide-ranging detective.
In the DoD, clearances are granted on the basis of background investigation. Access is based on clearance and 'need to know'. Bradley had a good background investigation* and 'need to know' for the documents he accessed due to his job. Or at least arguable 'need to know' in that one of the findings from 9/11 was that we weren't sharing information enough, so we relaxed a lot of access controls so that, at least theoretically, analysts would be able to put together A, B, and C in order to reach conclusion X, enabling us to respond in time to prevent or mitigate another attack.
Rank doesn't actually have much to do with it. Jr. Enlisted do most of the 'grunt work', even if it's in an office environment without much grunting. NCOs act as first line supervisors - train, assist, make low level policy calls. Senior NCOs manage workcenters, etc...
*Whether the investigation process needs to be reformed or not can be a separate topic.
I don't read AC A human right
FACT:
All US wars - within the last 40 years or so - are crimes, committed in violation of Constitutional war powers, and in violation of international treaty, signed with binding power of law.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
All of those - all of them - are things that you think should be illegal (and many would agree) but are not so
Read the 4th amendment again. Generalized surveillance is not legal. It is our government who wishes these things were legal, but they are not. The Constitution is the law of the land, and our government has repeatedly and flagrantly violated it. That makes them criminals.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!