In the Matter of Bradley Manning

[pinboy3niner]

By Charles Pierce, Esquire
09 January 13

...


We do not have to be children here. Bradley Manning could have been confined in conventional imprisonment and brought to a simple trial. The only reason to drag this case out, and to engage in the conduct that Colonel Lind described, was to coerce him into implicating other people. Nothing else makes any possible sense. We are not required to disengage our brains in cases like this. We are repeatedly encouraged to do so, however.

We have lost control of our criminal justice system in cases like this. Due process has become so malleable as to lose its internal logic. Between the seemingly endless echoes of the 9/11 attacks through the law, and the improvisational gymnastics the government has undertaken to do what it wants to do anyway, the country's most fundamental principles have become lost. And yet, we keep trying to gussy up our authoritarian impulses in the robes of the law, to make marble tributes to our undying virtues out of our spontaneous terror that the rule of law is the source of our most dangerous weakness. This is not sustainable. We must be one or the other.

Bradley Manning is only one person caught in this dim, twilight democracy. Entire legal institutions are beginning to fade into it as well. The invaluable Charlie Savage of The New York Times explored the darkening terrain whereon government lawyers are beginning to discover that the illegitimacy of the prison at Guantanamo Bay may have made it impossible to conduct legitimate trials of some of the last people still held there.

...


http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/15474-in-the-matter-of-bradley-manning

[JDPriestly]

1. We used to criticize the Soviet Union for treating a prisoner the way we have treated Bradley

Manning. Yes, we said they did worse. They probably did. That does not make our treating prisoners like the Soviet Union did any more acceptable.

Apologies and a lot more time off his sentence are due to Bradley Manning.

[newfie11]

2. Agreed

We are becoming more like them in some aspects of our law enforcement.

[Riftaxe]

3. I don't remember the Oath of Service

having outs for being a lonely malcontent. Perhaps it is time to update it?

[Coyote_Tan]

5. Yup, you missed it...

A few years ago they added the line "unless I'm having a bad day and don't feel like it."

[pinboy3niner]

6. I don't remember the part...

...where it says that you have to abide by the rules, but the brass doesn't.

WikiLeaks: Bradley Manning was illegally imprisoned, judge rules
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9789457/WikiLeaks-Bradley-Manning-was-illegally-imprisoned-judge-rules.html


Occupy L.A. Free Bradley Manning March & Rally 12/17/11 (with 4 DUers participating--FireWalkWithMe, U4ikLefty, Zhade and pinboy3niner):

[DeSwiss]

4. K&R

''As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.'' ~Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

[xchrom]

7. du rec. nt

[randome]

8. Right. Because being a violent loon and suicidal means that everything will be done flawlessly.

The judge ruled. The trial and his oncoming conviction are still there. The facts are there, too. The military was not trying to coerce him into anything but they didn't handle his incarceration flawlessly, either.

Move on.

[pinboy3niner]

9. Right. Manning caught in illegalities, court-martial him. Authorities get caught, "Move on"

Can you say, "double standard"?

[randome]

11. I'm referring to his father throwing him out of the house because he threatened his mother.

Or stepmother or whatever it was. And his punching his commanding officer. And his ongoing gender identity disorder.

I'm saying the guy is clearly a basket full of emotional turmoil. I'm not sure I'd do everything perfectly around him, either.

[pinboy3niner]

12. He didn't "do everything perfectly," and they want to imprison him for life

But you'll give a pass to the authorities who acted illegally? Because of "his ongoing gender identity disorder"?

I don't know about him, but many others have valid gender identity issues that are not a "disorder."

And whatever personal issues he may have are not an excuse to not do things properly and legally "around him."

[randome]

13. Life imprisonment is the penalty for releasing classified information.

If he didn't know that when he went into this, he was more naive than we thought.

Manning is said to be suffering from gender identity disorder. I don't recall if that was an actual diagnosis but it pretty much captures his confusion on the issue.

You're right, gender identity issues are not, by themselves, a concern, but something that needs to be worked out with the proper therapy and/or surgery.

But Manning was not exactly thinking rationally on the issue. So I think his 'issue' does equate to a 'disorder'.

And I agree, no excuses for not treating him perfectly correctly. That's what the judge ruled. Now it's on to the sentencing and/or plea bargaining phase of this.

[progressoid]

14. Exactly. He should spend the rest of his life in jail just like Daniel Ellsberg.

Oh.

Never mind.

[randome]

15. I don't believe he should get life imprisonment.

His superiors are as much to blame, IMO. He was clearly emotionally unstable yet they gave him access to classified information. They were warned not to deploy him to Iraq yet they did.

He should serve some time but be given leniency. Even a pardon, IMO.

And if the information he released was so clearly that of 'war crimes', why hasn't anyone done anything about it? It's because in war, things are never as clear cut as we think.

[bemildred]

10. Yes, "Justice" my ass. nt

[Recursion]

16. I dunno. I think nobody wanted to take responsibility for making a decision about him

From what I've seen it's more a case of everybody ducking when the time to make a call came. We put people in solitary not to punish them but so we don't have to look at them.

[Gregorian]

17. But the military is different. They can pollute, kill, torture, assume guilt.

Fuck our military. I don't respect anyone who participates in it either.

[Erose999]

18. That, and to discourage others from coming forward with leaks. The national security state is not

tolerating any peeking at the man behind the curtain!!