Bradley Manning-American Hero
By Michelle Peterson at Dec 16, 2010 |
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Bradley Manning-American Hero
Today on Democracy Now, in an interview with Glenn Greenwald, I was enlightened about the plight of Bradley Manning. He is imprisoned and living in solitary confinement, only allowed out of his cell for an hour in a 24 hour period. He is charged, as Greenwald states, of "transmitting classified information without authorization". This could evolve into a 72-80 year prison sentence. There are other charges pending that could even bring about a death sentence. Here is the link to the segment on Democracy Now I have been referring to:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/16/alleged_wikileaks_whistleblower_bradley_manning_imprisoned
It was Adrian Lamo, a hacker himeself, who outed Manning in June, 2010, to government officials. He stated that Manning had confided in him that he had released classified government documents and video footage to WikiLeaks. I don't know how Lamo can live with himself, knowing the potential consequences Manning would face. I believe that solitary confinement is torture, both physically and mentally. Now our justice department is desperately trying to find ways to prosecute Julan Assange in connection with Manning. I have heard from several sources that he could be considered a co-conspirator. That he and Manning were working together, simultaneously, to release the information.
I can't see into the future. Will Assange be prosecuted by the U.S.? Is Manning going to be further tortured and face death? All I know is that Manning has suffered the most. A young man doing the right thing no matter what the consequences. In the words of Daniel Ellsberg, Manning is a "hero".



I'm impressed too!
By Small, Brian at Dec 17, 2010 02:23 AM
"...Manning said, quote, “Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available in searchable format to the public. Everywhere there’s a U.S. post, there’s a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed. It’s open diplomacy. World-wide anarchy in CSV format. It’s Climategate with a global scope, and breathtaking depth. It’s beautiful, and horrifying." Those are the words of Bradley Manning, 22 years old, low level, in Iraq, coming in with his Lady Gaga CD, saying it was Lady Gaga, and downloading all this information. Is this possible? Dan Ellsberg, I want to put that question to you. You’ve been raising money for his defense...."
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