General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What is the reason the GLBT Community doesn't support Bradley Manning? [View all]AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)powerful that no one will go against us, but we cannot stop Assange and Wikileaks? Are you fucking serious?
So we are blackmailing the UN to keep George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld out of jail? Again are you fucking serious?
And a touch of Godwin's law. You did bring up the Nazis first, so you know you automatically lose the argument, right?
So let me help you Sabrina. I will act like you have posted a rational cogent argument, even though we all know you haven't. You have done nothing but bleat "it's all war crimes" like a broken record without providing one fact at all today. All you have said is that anyone who disagrees does not understand the case. I understand this case very well. At the heart of the matter is the very nature of what it means to be an Intelligence Analyst and what it means to be trusted with access to Classified data. I was a 96B/35F for twenty years, that is the same MOS or job category as Bradley Manning. I know exactly what Bradley Manning was taught and on what day he received his Infosec brief because I was an instructor at the school house while Bradley Manning was a student there. I did not teach him, nor will I ever claim to even remember him. However, I did teach many of his peers and I know they received the same Infosec briefing he did. The Infosec class for those who do not know is a class that outlines how information is classified, why it is classified, the proper ways to declassify it and why doing it wrongly can impact national security and how it can get people killed if done incorrectly. Every 35F at Fort Huachuca gets this class. It is mandatory to pass a test on this class to graduate the course. The steps for being a proper whistle blower are identified and the steps are discussed to contact Congress if you feel that you are witnessing crimes. What is not covered is leaking classified data that you have not read to a non state actor for no reason other than you wanted to. What is not covered is lying and transporting classified material out of a SCIF to your room and then using the regular Internet to contact others on how to disseminate this information. What is not covered is betraying the oath you took to protect and safeguard any and all classified material from wrongful exploitation or incorrect dissemination, what is not covered is lying to every person in your chain of command about your activities while you have this sacred trust bestowed upon you. Personally I and many people in the Intelligence Community consider Bradley Manning a traitor, he witnessed no war crimes, yet claimed he did. He released classified material after he swore upon his own good name not to do so. And finally, he betrayed every soldier he worked with by giving information that was classified to a non state actor who admittedly edited that information to embarrass the United States. Here is the problem Sabrina, there have been over 50,000 Intelligence Analysts that have served in the Army since 9/11. Why is Bradley Manning the only one that even attempted this? The war had lasted over 9 years before he was caught, and yet no one else had even attempted to claim war crimes in the same way that Bradley Manning did. Abu Ghraib was exposed because it was in fact a war crime, it was exposed by pictures that other analysts took and posted and it was exposed after that fact. If 50,000 analysts have had access to the SIPRNET and knew they could expose "war crimes" through disseminating that information why didn't they? Are you telling me that a mediocre student and terrible Intelligence Analyst (because Bradley Manning was both, I have seen his Intelligence school house academic records)is the only one to have come up with this plan? Even though thousands of soldiers were burning files from the SIPRNET and transferring them for legal dissemination daily for over 8 years, no one else thought this up? The logical conclusion and the one that you will never address is that Bradley Manning released no war crimes in his data dump. He incriminated himself and earned himself a long stint in prison because he felt that he was above the system. He was not, and now he will pay. So please feel free to answer this with facts.....You are not big on facts I can see, but I am asking politely. Demonstrate a war crime that Manning exposed, or demonstrate how the war was illegal according to U.S. law, or even international law. I await your response. As for the previous poster who said you wait until your opponents get bored and then you declare victory? On this topic I will never become bored, this is a very personal story to me. This is a little shitbag that decided he knew more than everyone that has ever worn the Military Intelligence Corps crest on their uniform. This is the story of a not very bright young man that decided he was the ultimate declassifying authority for Intelligence, nevermind that there are hundreds of regulations to declassify said material. Finally this is the story of a young man that threw his life away for nothing, he is not a hero, he will never be in the same realm as Daniel Ellsberg (a real hero), instead he will rot most of his life away in a jail cell having accomplished nothing except ruining his life. He witnessed and released data on zero war crimes, other than your opinion without factual backing, prove to me that he did so please. Thank you.