Bradley Manning acquitted of aiding the enemy

Nobel prize committee in OSLO receives petition of 100,000 names supporting Peace Prize for Wikileaks informant Bradley Manning.

.. not only lost its way but its respect and credibility too.

I agree the US has lost it's way and needs to find a new role in the world.

in 2007 itself, under the freedom of information to be told that no such video existed. It is obvious that the people or authorities he would need to report it to were already covering it up.

The USA is becoming the most feared nation on earth.Neurotic at best, warmongers at worst.They are the only country to use nuke on civilians of another country.

His only crime was embarrassing America. He is a hero to the masses.

He deserves a Noble Peace price.

http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/usa-war-on-terror/2600-why-bradley-manning-deserves-the-nobel-peace-prize

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/07/30/bradley-manning-institute-for-public-accuracy-editorials-debates/2601569/

The only changes there will be is that potential government employees are going to be screened more thoroughly and those who already work for the government will be under heavy surveillance. And that is it.

You want change? Then find and vote for a leader who will implement and execute change...legally.

Or do what the Egyptians did......enforce.

But exposing some papers? Pfffffttttt...that is nothing.

and furthermore...do you all really think "exposing' the wrongdoing of a government will do a darn thing?? Really??

See, the thing is, the only way things can change is if the government actually WANTS to change. And trust me, in these times, you can't make them. ALL governments do the same thing, the world over. And none of them want to change. NONE.

What he did was self serving, stupid and self destructive. He should have thought about better ways to expose wrong doing.

Snowden, the other guy...what was his name again, ah yes, Assange....and Manning are publicity hounds...nothing more , nothing less. If ANy of those 3 really wanted to do good, they would have...until now the only thing achieved is the death of people, people being in danger. Other than that? All continues as usual.

Useless gits.

Not everything a govt does is secret but if you are an intelligence analyst then by definition what you handle is secret!

He released all the diplomatic cables from around the world, how are it supposed to negotiate if the other sides know your position on certain topics when you don't know the same about them.

Come on RIP

If everything the government does is secret then what is the rational for your position??

If what you are telling is true, then the international sanctions are hypocritic and illogical.

Come on Joe, can you seriously defend someone who worked in a sensitive position position in the military who gave away not just one sensitive document but all he could find going back years. He was indiscriminate in what he leaked and put American lives in danger.

If he had just released the one video of the chopper pilots killing the civilians, I would have a lot more sympathy for him. He also released sensitive documents relating to Qatar when the PM of Qatar told the US Ambassador, they (Iran) lie to us and we lie to them. Tell me what that has to do with human rights and America?

Award-winning journalist and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman records a podcast in conjunction with her weekly column,

read more here https://soundcloud.com/democracynow/bradley-mannings-convictions

and to think that the americans are trying to bring human rights and democracy to the middle east when they are practicing something completely the opposite back home and abusing and locking up their own citizens who are trying to expose the dirty deeds of the American goverment

It's hard to know what was going on in his head. But when he clicked Send on a cache of diplomatic cables and other sensitive information, he should have been sure that he was making the right decision. If he'd only released the collateral damage video, for instance, I would have more sympathy for him. But releasing the entire wikileaks cable files was just foolish. That said, I do think his punishment is too harsh.

.. and the craziest and most hypocritic thing is none of the worlds so called democratic countries and world leaders have raised their voice to support this persons like Bradly Manning and Edward Snowden and stood up for them for exposing the dirty deeds, spying and dobule talk of the americans

Yes Fubar I agree with you. Do you think being an Employee of the US Government he was not aware of those better ways? Or do you think he was sure about the unproductive aftermaths?

LLR - the character limit in QL meant I actually didn't say even half of what I intended to. I'll try again.

In US law when you "leak" information, you have committed a crime. But when you leak information about wrongdoing, illegal behavior or misconduct, you are typically viewed, in the eyes of the law, as a "whistleblower". Specific laws are in place to try to protect whistleblowers. A large part of the moral judgment being made about Manning hinges on whether he is viewed as a leaker (a criminal, a traitor etc) or a whistleblower (a patriot, a hero). I do believe what he did was with the best intentions, but poorly handled. There were probably better ways to do what he did.

It is so sad that he has been in solitary confinement for over a year, that is a brutal form of torture and is illegal under the United Nations declaration of human rights as signed by the U.S government.

The documents were handed to an organisation which shared them with all. The US Newspaper would have been taken to court by the authorities anyway and made to disclose the source.

If he was concerned about what the US was doing, he could have handed over some documents to a US Newspaper for whistle blowing, when in fact he handed over years worth of documents to a foreign national. Some of those documents were tedious in the extreme, detailing boring diplomatic cables.

Hardly the action of someone occupying the moral high ground and trying to right a wrong.

One swears an oath of allegiance to a country, but what if he discovers that some of the people running his country are breaking their own rules?

Does he has to:

Respect their position and ignore what they are doing?

Resign in protest?

Expose them for breaking their oaths?

whistle-blower = truth blower

And Fubar, you think realistically for one nanosecond that his going to the authorities would have done any good? You don't understand the nature of the corporatist state if you think that he did have alternatives within the system.

LLR - the point you make about the disconnect between revealing (alleged) wrongdoing and whether you are a 'hero' or not is key to the case.

The US ought to protect whistleblowers, but prosecute leakers. A whistleblower is supposed to be:

"An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. Typically, whistleblowers speak out to parties that can influence and rectify the situation."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/06/10/edward-snowden-leaker-source-or-whistleblower/

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/07/30/judge-issues-verdict-in-bradley-mannings-trial-live-updates/

My conclusion:

Bradley Manning is an example to follow.

Political subversion is only achievable with the willful submission of the populace.America has abandoned justice. It is now a dictatorship striving desperately to hide behind a facade of democracy, and placing itself above international law.

If you publish facts of wrongdoing by individual you are hailed as a responsible citizen.

If you publish facts of wrongdoing against a state, that the US has branded as "rogue", then you are a hero.

If you publish facts of wrongdoing against the US you are a traitor.

"Land of the free" is just an International disgrace.

Cuz US leads all of them directly or indirectly. Sometimes by his own force or sometime by invitation.

LLR, the list of crimes by many governments are long but why does the USA get held to higher standards than say Iran, Saudi or Russia?

Anyway what was he being held or tried for. Looks like the USA is not one of those democratic countries any more. They preach democracy to the rest of the world and then go about beating up and locking up the guys who expose their hypocrisy and wrong doings

Yes agree with you, mistakes will happen in the battle field, mistakes will happen abu ghraib, mistake will happen that they thought prisoners are animals, mistakes will happen to pose with naked prisoners.

Even if it is a mistake, they have to bring it to the court instead of just keeping it as data in PC just be showing that nothing has happened.

Lucky,

What is your way?

Ahimsa?

LLR...Manning could have chosen right means to fight rather than act like a pus*y and leak the documents. How could he be 'so' strong then? I don't want to be his type of 'so strong'. And if you feel he was right, why do you feel I am weak if I take on something my way just like he did his way. Or do you decide what is right and what is wrong?

RIP those pilots and the whole drone killing system claims that they are very accurate in judgement.

"May be" and "What-if" is making it more worse if you relate it to similar international issues.

Yes he released documents relating to dubious actions but who is he to be the judge? Maybe those pilots who shot the unarmed men believed they were a threat and that they were armed. Maybe they thought they were just about to massacre civilians round the corner. In the heat of battle it is easy to make mistakes and even easier for us to sit here and judge them.

Happy, if you are so strong as Manning, you would fight for what you think is right.. if you are weak then you have such problems in every day to day life. I have seen some brown skinned guys ( in my friend circle ) to talk with those security guys to get in without slapping them.

By the way, the verdict is considerable if he leaks documents threatening the internal security of his country. Being an American, he loves his country, he served his country. His sole is to bring justice to the war criminals, as simple as that.

"Aiding the Enemy" was another example of the authorities using semantics and coming up with their own legalities.

It is good that he has been acquitted of this charge. However, he has been found guilty of others and will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Hero to some, villain to others. we all have our own view.

Going by that logic "being a human being is more important than being a honest employ", I will bring the issue to our doors and say it is inhumane to allow a white skinned man and stop a brown skinned man in malls on Fridays in Qatar. Can I slap that security guy stopping the brown skinned cos I, in my opinion, think he is doing wrong or am I bounded by even larger law as per which hitting a person is not allowed and I may face repurcussions for violating the law even if I acted human.

As I said on another thread, this case is seen as alright by some and obviously not by others, depends whether you were a beneficiary of his actions or otherwise. I personally agree with the verdict.

It was really appreciable that he did realise being a human being is more important than being a honest employ.

I think the point is if you sign up for the military you cannot then unilaterally decide what is right or wrong. If you are a soldier you can say I won't fight that war because I don't agree with it.

He did release evidence of the US killing unarmed civilians in Iraq and the world should know about that because it is wrong but he was an intelligence analyst and confidentiality is the major part of his job!

He also released a lot of documents that embarrassed Qatar. Read them, they are funny especially the PM's quotes about Iran to the US Embassador.

He betrayed his country, didn't he?

I think betrayal is the worse crime ever.

Yes agree with you, exposing war crimes, sex scandals in military training and any kind of human trafficking is not illegal in US itself but they turned it upside down.

Well said and very true, TheLonius.

Well he knew what he was doing and he knew the punishment. Who appointed him as moral guardian of the world?

What is the difference between this and the man that filmed an Emirati giving an Indian a beating in Dubai? Many argued that arresting the man for filming without consent was right as he broke the law.

Yes in my opinion he should apply to the International War Crimes Tribunal to overrule the US court decisions. Clearly the only thing he has done is to expose War Crimes committed by the US military. Doing so is a heroic act and is not in any way a crime. For the US to attempt to oppress and criminalise those who would expose war crimes, should itself be a crime against humanity.

These actions amount to criminalising those who have helped to bring to justice ex nazi's also guilty of war crimes. Just because a crime was committed by a Government or state, makes it no less of a crime.

He is still facing a maximum sentence of 136 years for the 20 charges that were upheld.