Pfc Bradley Manning Must Be Pilloried to Maintain the USofA’s Authoritarian Rule

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

11. How would you know? Did you know him before he was put in solitary?

The honest answer is that you don't know him or his motivations, and are just spouting talking points (per usual) but I will take him at his word...

“ I believe that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information contained within [some of the documents], this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general … as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said, according to a transcript of his testimony earlier this year.

“I also believed the detailed analysis of the data over a long period of time by different sectors of society might cause society to reevaluate the need or even the desire to engage in counter-terrorism and counterinsurgency operations that ignore the complex dynamics of the people living in the affected environment everyday,” he said.

...

“I hoped that the public would be as alarmed as me about the conduct of the aerial weapons team crew members,” he said.

“I wanted the American public to know that not everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan was a target that needed to be engaged and neutralized, but rather people who were struggling to live in the pressure cooker environment of what we call asymmetric warfare. After the release I was encouraged by the response in the media and general public, who observed the aerial weapons team video. As I hoped, others were just as troubled – if not more troubled that me by what they saw.”

As for the diplomatic cables, Manning said that the more he read them, the more he came to the conclusion that the cables should be made public. He said he didn’t believe that it would damage the United States, but that it might be embarrassing, “since they represented very honest opinions and statements behind the backs of other nations and organizations.”

more...
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/88402-why-bradley-manning-leaked-classified-documents-to-wikileaks/

also...

He said the incident that had affected him the most was when 15 detainees had been arrested by the Iraqi Federal Police for printing anti-Iraqi literature. He was asked by the army to find out who the "bad guys" were, and discovered that the detainees had followed what Manning said was a corruption trail within the Iraqi cabinet. He reported this to his commanding officer, but said "he didn't want to hear any of it"; he said the officer told him to help the Iraqi police find more detainees. Manning said it made him realize, "i was actively involved in something that i was completely against ..." He explained that "i cant separate myself from others ... i feel connected to everybody ... like they were distant family," and cited Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, and Elie Wiesel. He said he hoped the material would lead to "hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms. if not ... than [sic] we're doomed as a species." He said he had downloaded the material onto music CD-RWs, erased the music and replaced it with a compressed split file. Part of the reason no one noticed, he said, was that staff were working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and "people stopped caring after 3 weeks.&quot 48)

more...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning

sounds like his motivations were that of a traditional whistle-blower, and an American patriot who believed that the public deserved to know the truth about what was really going on with our foreign policy, that is, IF they were more informed, they would not support these crimes, and demand a change in course.

He sounds like a stand up guy to me, as someone who was only looking at this from the outside, came to the very same conclusions as he did.