Global Hero, Local Criminal, Exposes War Crimes

Here below is a comment about Bradley Manning. I took it in its entirety from the comment stream of a posting on the Democratic Underground blog, here.

To the United States, of course, Bradley Manning is an anathema. He disclosed 250,000 diplomatic cables. He represents the loss of secrecy that is inevitable in this digital age where a person can fit a gigabyte under a fingernail. The message of his existence is that the Emperor wears no clothes. So we are trying to kill him. He is not being brought to trial. His obvious defense is that his responsibility is to the Constitution first, his commanding officers second. His trial would expose our perfidy. So he is getting the "slow torture" method that over a couple of years turned Jose Padilla into a vegetable, unable to stand trial.

There is a market for scuttlebutt. The world loves scandal. By invading Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States, exemplar of the finest ideals known to man, has gone rogue. We have done what Hitler did. Are we going to get away with it?

The world is round. There are many messengers. There are many Bradley Mannings.

PFC Bradley Manning, American Patriot:

Edited on Sun Dec-26-10 01:13 PM by Better Believe It December 22, 2010 Why Manning was Within His Rights to Give Secrets to Wikileaks PFC Bradley Manning, Patriot By SHERWOOD ROSS Under ordinary circumstances, the release of information labeled "secret" violates U.S. law, as intelligence specialist Manning undoubtedly knew. But if the U.S. is an aggressor state, as Germany was when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, doesn't that change everything? America under President George W. Bush attacked two small nations that posed no threat to it. Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told BBC the US-led invasion of Iraq was "illegal." He said it contravened the UN Charter as the attack lacked Security Council approval. MIT Professor Noam Chomsky in his book "Imperial Ambitions," (Metropolitan), called the U.S. invasion of Iraq as "open an act of aggression as there has been in modern history, a major war crime." By ratifying the UN Charter the U.S. agreed to refrain "from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state..." And international law authority Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois, Champaign, called the invasion of Afghanistan "an illegal armed aggression that has created a humanitarian catastrophe" for its 22 millions. (Destroying World Order, Clarity Press.) And as these invasions are criminal, why shouldn't pertinent information about them not be brought to light? Whenever has it been wrong to expose a criminal enterprise? Public-spirited citizens go to the police and FBI every day to report crimes. "Under international law," says Boyle, professor of that subject, "citizens have a basic human right to resist the commission of international crimes by their own government, especially aggression..." And this is what PFC Manning did. He resisted aggression by informing Americans of how their government breaks laws. The Associated Press reports Manning told an associate, "I want people to see the truth...because without information you cannot make informed decisions as a public." America's Founders believed that, too, and made a free press a cornerstone of the new nation. Ann Medlock, Founder of the Giraffe Heroes Project, says, "In a perfect world, institutions would listen to their staffers when they point out errors, lapses of ethics, and outright chicanery within the organization. Then those holding power would correct those flaws. But...that hasn't been the reality. Again and again authorities just blast away at the truthsayers rather than addressing the problems." Read the full article at: http://www.counterpunch.org/ross12222010.html The writer didn't cover in his article another vital fact in defense of Pfc. Manning releasing government documents, and that is the improper classification of government documents. Most government classifications have absolutely nothing to do with protecting the United States from terrorists or other real "enemies" determined to do us harm. The government routinely classifies millions of documents every year, not because they reveal vital secrets that threaten our security if they are published, but because those documents expose illegal government activities, lies and gross incompetence. These big government "national security secrets" must not see the light of day, so they remain hidden from the people under the false claim of "national security" .... The economic and political security of government officials that is. And many of these "highly sensitive" documents are being rubber stamped "secret" or "confidential" in clear violation of the Freedom of Information Act! So Pfc. Manning has done absolutely nothing that in any way threatens you or me. The idea that he has somehow hurt us and that he is engaged in espionage or some other terrible criminal activity damaging to this nation and its general population is total bull shit. All progressives should understand that by now! Pfc.Manning is an American hero. He's not a spy. He's not a terrorist. He's not trying to overthrow the government violently nor any other way for that matter. He's just a courageous American whistle blower, a soldier trying to get out the truth about government policies to the people. And for that the government will try to punish him for the rest of his life, as a warning to other potential whistle blowers. If anything, Manning deserves a Presidential Medal of Freedom for especially meritorious contribution to the national interests of the people of the United States, not solitary confinement! BBI