[Nemo123]

Sorry, this thing is malfunctioning. I lost all my post in a stroke. I'll summarise it: America is held up to higher standards than all the barbarians in the world.

[GypsyGoth]

Originally Posted by Nemo123

You forget, Bradley Manning was a soldier, serving his country.

Nope, I think he forgot he was serving his country. That's why his country has punished him.

And I've no problem with american being the roman empire of today, I love americans and their movies and tv shows.

Anyhoo, I needs sleep, night Nemo

[Nemo123]

Originally Posted by GypsyGoth

Nope, I think he forgot he was serving his country. That's why his country has punished him.

And I've no problem with american being the roman empire of today, I love americans and their movies and tv shows.

Anyhoo, I needs sleep, night Nemo

You're not even American!!

Nice chatting to you.

Goodnight.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Nemo123

I'm delighted for a response.
Firstly, he didn't intend to get caught, he had the misfortune to place his trust in someone who wasn't trustworthy, Adrian Lamo.
More than that he should have led his defence with the Nuremburg defence. Plenty of Nazis met the hangman for saying they were only obeying orders, but after three years of incarceration, 11 months in solidarity, and stripped naked, his resolve was broken.
But most significant of all, his oath of alllegience, when he signed up, explicit ordered him to disobey orders which contravened the Geneva Convention. Indeed he was obligated by that oath to report breaches of the Geneva Convention.

Jails are full of people who didn't intend to get caught.

Nuremburg defence... dear me. This man put the lives of his comrades in jeopardy. Quite right he was jailed.

[Nemo123]

Bradley Manning was awarded the the International Peace Bureau award, set up to honour the Irish statesman Sean McBride:
"He was a winner of the Lenin Peace Prize, and also the Nobel Peace Prize (1974) – awarded for his wide-ranging work, which included roles such as co-founder of Amnesty International, Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists, and UN Commissioner for Namibia."
So far 100,000 people have signed a petition that he be honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize, including a recommendation from former winner Mairead Corrigan; "For this year's prize, I have chosen to nominate US Army Pfc Bradley Manning, for I can think of no one more deserving. His incredible disclosure of secret documents to Wikileaks helped end the Iraq War, and may have helped prevent further conflicts elsewhere."

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

omg i always thought your sig said bradley branning

you know the ginge from eastenders

[GypsyGoth]

[arista]

Bradley has been given a 35 years sentence.


On All News


http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...leaks-sentence

[Nemo123]

Originally Posted by arista

Bradley has been given a 35 years sentence.


On All News


http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...leaks-sentence

I was saddened and annoyed when I heard this. But every cloud has a silver lining, and a model prisoner which no doubt he will be, will be eligible for parole in 7 years.

I ordered my "Free Bradley Manning" t-shirt nearly 3 weeks ago, and still haven't got it!

Apparently he took the sentence with great stoicism, remaining calm while all his friends and lawyers could not contain their emotions.

I hope he's out in 7 years or less. Shame on America for taking the moral low ground!

[Nedusa]

I am utterly appalled at the US decision to jail Bradley Manning for 35 years !!!

This is absolute outrage to jail a man for 35 years because he alerted the American public to the misdeeds of the American Military. The American public need to stand up say NO this man is a hero and needs to be released immediately .

I literally hate the US and everything they stand for when I read stories like these...!!!

FREE BRADLEY MANNING....!!!!!!!

[Nemo123]

Nedusa, do you know what I find so insidious? It's the relative silence of the "mainstream media" on this story. As a media story it has everything; a court case with a huge moral issue, much more important than the OJ Simpson case, or the English nanny who was cleared of murdering her charge. The media don't need to twist the truth in order to corrupt it, they just have to ignore it, which is what they've done here.

[Roy Mars III]

35 years is too light, but glad he got something long

[Nemo123]

Originally Posted by Roy Mars III

35 years is too light, but glad he got something long

Very apt you have Henry Kissinger as your avatar. The fellow responsible for overthrowing and murdering the democratically elected govt of Salvadore Allende in Chile in 1972 and replacing him with the murderous war criminal General Pinochet. And God knows what else!

[DanaC]

Seems an overly harsh sentence to me. But, he may well be out in less, given he has shown remorse. If he continues to do so, there's a good chance he'll make parole in 10-15 years.

Hopefully, though, his sentence will be reduced on appeal.

I do think he was very silly to leak the information the way he did. I doubt he'd have been treated so harshly had he leaked one or two items to, say, an American news organisation.

That said, the lad was clearly in a mess at the time, psychologically. There was a failure on the part of his command structure for even allowing him to have that kind of access in that state.

[Nemo123]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Seems an overly harsh sentence to me. But, he may well be out in less, given he has shown remorse. If he continues to do so, there's a good chance he'll make parole in 10-15 years.

Hopefully, though, his sentence will be reduced on appeal.

I do think he was very silly to leak the information the way he did. I doubt he'd have been treated so harshly had he leaked one or two items to, say, an American news organisation.

I have heard the argument that he should have approached a senator with what he got, but others had tried that before him, and they were given short shrift, demoted and ostracised. As far as I understand, he was betrayed by someone he confided in, not by Wikileaks.

[Roy Mars III]

Originally Posted by Nemo123

Very apt you have Henry Kissinger as your avatar. The fellow responsible for overthrowing and murdering the democratically elected govt of Salvadore Allende in Chile in 1972 and replacing him with the murderous war criminal General Pinochet. And God knows what else!

you have been reading too much Christopher Hitchens

[Nemo123]

Originally Posted by Roy Mars III

you have been reading too much Christopher Hitchens

I've seen Hitchens, but I can't decide what he stands for. If memory serves, and it may not, but I think he's done a complete about flip on his principles.

[Roy Mars III]

Originally Posted by Nemo123

I've seen Hitchens, but I can't decide what he stands for. If memory serves, and it may not, but I think he's done a complete about flip on his principles.

well he is dead now, but yea

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Nemo123

I have heard the argument that he should have approached a senator with what he got, but others had tried that before him, and they were given short shrift, demoted and ostracised. As far as I understand, he was betrayed by someone he confided in, not by Wikileaks.

Oh I wouldn't necessarily suggest trying to take it to a senator. But leaking to a respected American news organisation would have brought less fire I think. Would have been seen as less of an act of treachery and more of an act of whistleblowing.

Also, the sheer amount of information he leaked was ill advised. he should have cherry picked a few of the worst examples of what he was seeking to make public knowledge.

He absolutely should not have relied on the notion that he would be able to remain anonymous. The person he trusted broke that trust, but he should never have trusted them in the first place.

Then again, he was very young when he did it, and maybe had not had much experience with that kind of thing.

Bringing attention to what was going on was, imo, the right thing to do. But he went about it in a way that opened him up to the worst kinds of charges for a soldier.

[Nemo123]

"But leaking to a respected American news organisation....."
Who are they? The American News media is universally known as the corporate media, bought and paid for. Not to be trusted.

[hijaxers]

Originally Posted by Nemo123

Sorry, this thing is malfunctioning. I lost all my post in a stroke. I'll summarise it: America is held up to higher standards than all the barbarians in the world.

Exactly ! Bloody shame they don't keep their own standards - but America never does when it suits em - Our government is as bad - why don't everyone wake up and see whats going on here ?
Its George Orwell and 1984 but the GBP are too thick to see whats happening everywhere ! Its time we stopped being the poodle being led by whatever secret department running things in the US. For sure i think American every day folk are as mis led as the British public regarding this case and many others in the current news !! Expect these stories to get buried also

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by hijaxers

Exactly ! Bloody shame they don't keep their own standards - but America never does when it suits em - Our government is as bad - why don't everyone wake up and see whats going on here ?
Its George Orwell and 1984 but the GBP are too thick to see whats happening everywhere ! Its time we stopped being the poodle being led by whatever secret department running things in the US. For sure i think American every day folk are as mis led as the British public regarding this case and many others in the current news !! Expect these stories to get buried also

So the GBP are 'too thick' to see what's going on...but you yourself are a member of said GBP, right? And you see what's going on.

[Nemo123]

Originally Posted by hijaxers

Exactly ! Bloody shame they don't keep their own standards - but America never does when it suits em - Our government is as bad - why don't everyone wake up and see whats going on here ?
Its George Orwell and 1984 but the GBP are too thick to see whats happening everywhere ! Its time we stopped being the poodle being led by whatever secret department running things in the US. For sure i think American every day folk are as mis led as the British public regarding this case and many others in the current news !! Expect these stories to get buried also

The thing that is frightening is that all the technology already exists that George Orwell imagined, and more. I'm very suspicious of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and the rest. Millions of traffic cameras, and the ability to store and more importantly collate all your private movement, to allow the authorities to profile you, and maybe a malignant authority.

[Nemo123]

Right now on the BBC News, I'm watching Syrians attacked by chemical weapons. It's highly manipulative and can not of itself be trusted. I've seen jihadists backed by the West behead people with knives, and set people alight.
I CAN'T TRUST ANY OF IT!
They're trading atrocities to win a war of propaganda. I cannot trust anymore the BBC. The BBC lost my trust long ago. An institution I believed in.

[hijaxers]

Originally Posted by DanaC

So the GBP are 'too thick' to see what's going on...but you yourself are a member of said GBP, right? And you see what's going on.

Yes - and... ?