Bradley Manning Sentenced To 35 Years:

[MikeK]

Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years -- as if he hasn't been punished enough for categorical whistleblowing (it has not been established that anything he revealed is or has been harmful to U.S. security or military integrity). I am among those Americans who believe what Manning and Snowden have done is wholly justifiable in that their actions have enlightened the American People to a substantial amount of unConstitutional and criminal conduct on the part of our increasingly oppressive and authoritarian government.

This 35 year sentence is a goddam shame and occurs as a brazen example of despotic power, particularly in view of the relatively minor sentence imposed on Irving ("Scooter") Libby, a real traitor, who deliberately outed an undercover CIA operative and compromised an ongoing international operation, jeopardizing many lives. He was sentenced to only thirty months -- and that sentence was commuted by George W. Bush! So Libby walked free while Manning is going to suffer for thirty-five long years.

I certainly don't expect Manning's sentence to be commuted by the two-faced, lying, self-serving, treacherous, corporatist puppet, Obama.

 

[Amelia]

America is so over Manning that before I bumped this there wasn't even a Manning story on the front page of posts here.

This surprises me.

 

[deltex1]

Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years -- as if he hasn't been punished enough for categorical whistleblowing (it has not been established that anything he revealed is or has been harmful to U.S. security or military integrity). I am among those Americans who believe what Manning and Snowden have done is wholly justifiable in that their actions have enlightened the American People to a substantial amount of unConstitutional and criminal conduct on the part of our increasingly oppressive and authoritarian government.

This 35 year sentence is a goddam shame and occurs as a brazen example of despotic power, particularly in view of the relatively minor sentence imposed on Irving ("Scooter") Libby, a real traitor, who deliberately outed an undercover CIA operative and compromised an ongoing international operation, jeopardizing many lives. He was sentenced to only thirty months -- and that sentence was commuted by George W. Bush! So Libby walked free while Manning is going to suffer for thirty-five long years.

I certainly don't expect Manning's sentence to be commuted by the two-faced, lying, self-serving, treacherous, corporatist puppet, Obama.

Manning/Libby ...........................dat bes a strrreetttchhhh.

 

[OriginalShroom]

He got off light.

IMHO, he should have been given Life, with the condition of if ever given parole, he would be stripped of his citizenship.

 

[deltex1]

America is so over Manning that before I bumped this there wasn't even a Manning story on the front page of posts here.

This surprises me.

Had Manning been allowed to shower with the girls....

 

[daveman]

I've been curious about something. Some people claim Manning had a duty to bring to light what he saw as abuses by the military -- and he did indeed have that duty.

What these same people are unable to explain is why giving his information to a non-state intelligence-gathering and -disseminating organization was part of that duty, as opposed to going through well-established channels.

Anyone like to give that a shot?

 

[hjmick]

One thing's for sure...

People are going to think twice before "blowing the whistle..."

I'm guessing the administration wants it that way...



Would this be considered an "accomplishment?"

 

[bitterlyclingin]

Eclipsed by Eddie Snowden, Trayvon Martin. Most people can hold seven bits of discrete info, plus or minus, in their short term memories at any one time, this country's uninformed voters, considerably less.

Dissapointed the judge didn't order Manning to be hung. Air dancing is good exercise. Definitely takes the pounds off. Woulda sent a definite message to all those wanting to pal around with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, but "bradass87" was a tad gender confused and Obama & Co wouldn't want anything that untoward and nasty happening to one of their kindred souls. Only to conservatives. Kinda like the judge in the Nadal Hassan trial disallowing admission into evidence of Hasan's e-mail communications with al Qaeda. After Comrade Barack declared al Qaeda dead and gone, as extinct as Emperor Hirohito thought the Japanese people were going to be if they continued to resist post August ninth, 1945, it wouldn't do for evidence to become public that a man who murdered thirteen fellow soldiers was openly and brazenly communicating with the supposedly dead al Qaeda organization when the Commander In Chief said flat out, not even their squeal was left. But that's the way it is in this age of the Omniscient Obama, Light walker, Chicago Jesus, where you have at least the 400 members of the journolist, plus some, walking along behind Comrade Barack with pooper scoopers and shovels busily scurrying around picking up every little faux pas he makes or covering over with a healthy layer of dirt every false move or diplomatic wrong turn he makes. They probably also have a little spray bottle of cologne, or maybe it really is perfume with Comrade Barack, hanging out of their back pockets to cover over the odor of any of the really big faux pas he emits.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I've been curious about something. Some people claim Manning had a duty to bring to light what he saw as abuses by the military -- and he did indeed have that duty.

What these same people are unable to explain is why giving his information to a non-state intelligence-gathering and -disseminating organization was part of that duty, as opposed to going through well-established channels.

Anyone like to give that a shot?

I agree with you: needed to bring it to light but gave it to the wrong folks.

He will be eligible for parole in seven years.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

I'm sure through the "proper channels", we citizens would have heard all about it and so much accountability would have been exacted. I mean, just look at all the accountability being exacted now?

 

[MikeK]

Manning/Libby ...........................dat bes a strrreetttchhhh.

What does that mean?

Libby knowingly and deliberately exposed an undercover CIA agent, the principal operative in an extremely valuable and important CIA front corporation (Brewster/Jennings), which was based in Iran and gathering critical intelligence. Although the CIA has not revealed the extent of the damage this act of brazen treason has caused, or if any peripheral operatives lives were jeopardized, a number of Middle East experts have suggested the cost is considerable and ongoing and it is likely that several Iranian contact operatives have been arrested and probably will be executed.

Libby was sentenced to only 30 months, which was commuted by Bush. So he walked away smiling.

It has not been established that Manning's revelations have harmed anyone or anything -- other than the NSA's abusive, surreptitiously invasive use of its power. But Manning was sentenced to 35 years.

 

[MikeK]

I'm sure through the "proper channels", we citizens would have heard all about it and so much accountability would have been exacted. I mean, just look at all the accountability being exacted now?

Amazing, isn't it?

When we could have statesmen like Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich in the White House we end up with George W. Bush and Barack Obama. And the reason for it is often plainly demonstrated right in this forum.

What once made me angry now makes me sad.

 

[Pete7469]

Manning is not a "whistle blower". He's a bed wetting pillow biter who was pissed off he couldn't marry another queer and still be a "soldier".

He distributed information to a leftist hack for no other reason than to embarrass the country. He did so wantonly, without regard for whomever might be harmed or how it would effect our country. His motivation was out of malice, not to protect the privacy of the citizenry.

I have no respect for such self centered fucks. It sickens me knowing he won't die in prison or under a bridge. The left will enrich him later on in life for being a traitor.

 

[jon_berzerk]

Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years -- as if he hasn't been punished enough for categorical whistleblowing (it has not been established that anything he revealed is or has been harmful to U.S. security or military integrity). I am among those Americans who believe what Manning and Snowden have done is wholly justifiable in that their actions have enlightened the American People to a substantial amount of unConstitutional and criminal conduct on the part of our increasingly oppressive and authoritarian government.

This 35 year sentence is a goddam shame and occurs as a brazen example of despotic power, particularly in view of the relatively minor sentence imposed on Irving ("Scooter") Libby, a real traitor, who deliberately outed an undercover CIA operative and compromised an ongoing international operation, jeopardizing many lives. He was sentenced to only thirty months -- and that sentence was commuted by George W. Bush! So Libby walked free while Manning is going to suffer for thirty-five long years.

I certainly don't expect Manning's sentence to be commuted by the two-faced, lying, self-serving, treacherous, corporatist puppet, Obama.

he is lucky to have his life

he could have been taken outside offered smoke then shot

 

[birddog]

Manning/Libby ...........................dat bes a strrreetttchhhh.

What does that mean?

Libby knowingly and deliberately exposed an undercover CIA agent, the principal operative in an extremely valuable and important CIA front corporation (Brewster/Jennings), which was based in Iran and gathering critical intelligence. Although the CIA has not revealed the extent of the damage this act of brazen treason has caused, or if any peripheral operatives lives were jeopardized, a number of Middle East experts have suggested the cost is considerable and ongoing and it is likely that several Iranian contact operatives have been arrested and probably will be executed.

Libby was sentenced to only 30 months, which was commuted by Bush. So he walked away smiling.

It has not been established that Manning's revelations have harmed anyone or anything -- other than the NSA's abusive, surreptitiously invasive use of its power. But Manning was sentenced to 35 years.

Libby should not have been convicted. Bush should have given him a full pardon since he was.

 

[Political Junky]

Manning has been sentenced to more time than Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who murdered and mutilated Afghan and Iraqi soldiers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...vilians-for-sport-linked-to-Iraqi-deaths.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/leader-thrill-kill-soldiers-found-guilty/story?id=14924863

 

[whitehall]

Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years -- as if he hasn't been punished enough for categorical whistleblowing (it has not been established that anything he revealed is or has been harmful to U.S. security or military integrity). I am among those Americans who believe what Manning and Snowden have done is wholly justifiable in that their actions have enlightened the American People to a substantial amount of unConstitutional and criminal conduct on the part of our increasingly oppressive and authoritarian government.

This 35 year sentence is a goddam shame and occurs as a brazen example of despotic power, particularly in view of the relatively minor sentence imposed on Irving ("Scooter") Libby, a real traitor, who deliberately outed an undercover CIA operative and compromised an ongoing international operation, jeopardizing many lives. He was sentenced to only thirty months -- and that sentence was commuted by George W. Bush! So Libby walked free while Manning is going to suffer for thirty-five long years.

I certainly don't expect Manning's sentence to be commuted by the two-faced, lying, self-serving, treacherous, corporatist puppet, Obama.

You almost gotta laugh at the desperate way the left clings to fiction just because they harbor crazy hatred. Surely the information has filtered down to the average hate filled liberal that the legendary "outing" of Ms. Plame came from columnist Robert Novak now deceased. Valerie Plame was the darling of the Washington social network. Her husband introduced her at cocktail parties as a CIA agent long before Scooter Libby ever heard of her. Comparing the alleged "outing" of the socialite to the tons of secrets that Manning released is ludicrous.

 

[Political Junky]

Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years -- as if he hasn't been punished enough for categorical whistleblowing (it has not been established that anything he revealed is or has been harmful to U.S. security or military integrity). I am among those Americans who believe what Manning and Snowden have done is wholly justifiable in that their actions have enlightened the American People to a substantial amount of unConstitutional and criminal conduct on the part of our increasingly oppressive and authoritarian government.

This 35 year sentence is a goddam shame and occurs as a brazen example of despotic power, particularly in view of the relatively minor sentence imposed on Irving ("Scooter") Libby, a real traitor, who deliberately outed an undercover CIA operative and compromised an ongoing international operation, jeopardizing many lives. He was sentenced to only thirty months -- and that sentence was commuted by George W. Bush! So Libby walked free while Manning is going to suffer for thirty-five long years.

I certainly don't expect Manning's sentence to be commuted by the two-faced, lying, self-serving, treacherous, corporatist puppet, Obama.

You almost gotta laugh at the desperate way the left clings to fiction just because they harbor crazy hatred. Surely the information has filtered down to the average hate filled liberal that the legendary "outing" of Ms. Plame came from columnist Robert Novak now deceased. Valerie Plame was the darling of the Washington social network. Her husband introduced her at cocktail parties as a CIA agent long before Scooter Libby ever heard of her. Comparing the alleged "outing" of the socialite to the tons of secrets that Manning released is ludicrous.

That's is projection if I ever saw it.

 

[clevergirl]

Manning/Libby ...........................dat bes a strrreetttchhhh.

What does that mean?

Libby knowingly and deliberately exposed an undercover CIA agent, the principal operative in an extremely valuable and important CIA front corporation (Brewster/Jennings), which was based in Iran and gathering critical intelligence. Although the CIA has not revealed the extent of the damage this act of brazen treason has caused, or if any peripheral operatives lives were jeopardized, a number of Middle East experts have suggested the cost is considerable and ongoing and it is likely that several Iranian contact operatives have been arrested and probably will be executed.

Libby was sentenced to only 30 months, which was commuted by Bush. So he walked away smiling.

It has not been established that Manning's revelations have harmed anyone or anything -- other than the NSA's abusive, surreptitiously invasive use of its power. But Manning was sentenced to 35 years.

Get your facts straight dude.

Libby did no such thing it was Armitage...and the fucking special prosecutor KNEW it was Armitage from the beginning!

CNN.com - Armitage admits*leaking*Plame's identity - Sep 8, 2006

 

[clevergirl]

The Truth About the Valerie Plame Case Finally Emerges (Scooter Libby Innocent)
New American ^ | Sam Blumenfeld

Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2011 4:39:47 PM by Mount Athos

Now that memoirs by the late Bob Novak, former Vice-President Dick Cheney, and former President George Bush have all been published, we now know much more about the Valerie Plame case than we did before these individuals put what happened to paper. (Plame, if you'll remember, was a CIA agent whose identity was leaked to the press during a newsman's investigation into George W. Bush's explanation for going to war against Iraq.) Yet, the one book that still needs to be written is a memoir by Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the VP’s assistant, the only individual indicted by the Special Prosecutor looking into the leak and found guilty in this highly controversial case.

Vice President Cheney had hoped that George Bush would issue a pardon of Libby, since he considered Libby to have been unjustly punished for something he did not do. But Bush decided not to pardon Libby, and this has left a deep sense of disappointment in Cheney’s otherwise good relations with the former President.

How did this whole controversy start? Bush writes in his memoir: “In my 2003 State of the Union address, I had cited a British intelligence report that Iraq sought to buy uranium [yellowcake] from Niger. That single sentence in my five-thousand-word speech was not a major point in the case against Saddam. The British stood by that intelligence.... In July 2003, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote a New York Times column alleging that the administration had ignored his skeptical findings when he traveled to Africa to investigate the Iraq-Niger connection.”

Wilson’s column in the Times resulted in the President being called a liar, which caused people in the administration to wonder why Joseph Wilson, a Democrat critic of Bush, was sent to Niger by the CIA for this mission. Washington journalist Bob Novak wanted to write a column on the affair and managed to get an interview on July 8, 2003, with Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage.. He writes in his memoir, The Prince of Darkness:

Armitage was giving me high-level insider gossip, unusual in a first meeting. About halfway through our session, I brought up Bush’s sixteen words.... I then asked Armitage a question that had been puzzling me but, for the sake of my future peace of mind, would better have been left unasked. Why would the CIA send Joseph Wilson, not an expert in nuclear proliferation and with no intelligence experience, on the mission to Niger? “Well,” Armitage replied, “you know his wife works at the CIA, and she suggested that he be sent to Niger.” “His wife works at the CIA?” I asked. “Yeah, in counterproliferation.”

He mentioned her first name, Valerie.... The exchange about Wilson’s wife lasted no more than sixty seconds. Armitage offered no interpretation of Wilson’s conduct and said nothing negative about him or his wife. I am sure it was not a planned leak but came out as an offhand observation.... Shortly thereafter, he secretly revealed his role to federal authorities investigating the leak of Mrs. Wilson’s name but did not inform White House officials, apparently including the President.

Novak got Valerie’s last name from Wilson’s bio in Who’s Who. But after he used it in his column, the name Valerie Plame became big news in the media and caused quite a storm. On October 1, 2003, after reading a second column by Novak on the case, Armitage, alarmed by the clamor in the press for the name of the leaker who had outed a covert CIA agent, revealed his role to his boss Secretary of State Colin Powell. They took up the matter with State Department lawyer William H. Taft IV, who then spoke with White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, who allegedly told Taft that he did not want to know. But why didn't Taft or Powell go directly to the President with this important information?

In January 2004, the Justice Department chose prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald to investigate the leak of Valerie Plame's identity. From the outset, he was made fully aware that the leaker was Armitage, who resigned from the State Department in November 2004 but remained a subject of the inquiry until February 2006 when Fitzgerald told him in a letter that he would not be charged. The New York Times reported on Sept. 2, 2006:

Mr. Armitage cooperated voluntarily in the case, never hired a lawyer and testified several times to the grand jury, according to people who are familiar with his role and actions in the case. He turned over his calendars, datebooks and even his wife's computer in the course of the inquiry, those associates said. But Mr. Armitage kept his actions secret, not even telling President Bush because the prosecutor asked him not to divulge it, the people said.

Why would the prosecutor keep this vital information from the President who had expressed concern over the outing of a CIA operative? Meanwhile, the liberal press hysterically speculated that it was Karl Rove and/or Vice President Cheney who most likely leaked Plame's identity to Novak. Dick Cheney writes in his memoir, In My Time:

Among the many things that should give a thinking person pause about this whole sad story is that Patrick Fitzgerald knew from the outset who had leaked the information about Wilson’s wife to Bob Novak. It had been Deputy Secretary of State Rich Armitage, who told the Justice Department that he had leaked the information to Novak, but kept what he had done from the White House. Armitage would later admit that he had even earlier told journalist Bob Woodward about Wilson’s wife’s employment. Indeed, on Bob Woodward’s tape of the June 13, 2003, conversation, Armitage can be heard leaking the fact that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA four separate times.

So why did Patrick Fitzgerald spend more than two years conducting “a lengthy and wasteful investigation,” as the Washington Post called it? Members of the White House staff were interviewed by the FBI and dragged before a grand jury at great cost to them in attorney’s fees. Bob Novak wrote:

After Patrick Fitzgerald ... indicated to me he knew Armitage was my source, I cooperated fully with him. At the special prosecutor’s request and on my lawyers’ advice, I kept silent about this — a silence that subjected me to much abuse. I was urged by several friends, including some journalists, to give up my source’s name. But I felt bound by the journalist’s code to protect his identity.

Despite the fact that Fitzgerald knew the source of the leak, he decided to go after reporters who refused to name their sources. Thus, Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for refusing to reveal her sources to the prosecutor. She was finally released when she agreed to testify before a grand jury.

So, why did Fitzgerald go after Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney's top aide? Apparently, Armitage had read a memorandum Libby had commissioned as part of an effort to rebut criticism of the White House by Joe Wilson. Who wrote the memorandum, and did it mention Valerie Plame? That information may have been revealed during Libby’s trial but has not been made public. Was it the source of any leaks to the press? Apparently not, for it was Armitage who supposedly read the report and made the leak, not Libby.

Nevertheless, it was Libby whom Fitzgerald decided to indict. The jury found Libby guilty, not of revealing Valerie Plame’s name to the press, but of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements. What did he lie about? Libby said that he thought he had gotten the information about Valerie Plame from a conversation with Tim Russert, the news analyst. But Russert denied that he had given such information to Libby. As for obstruction of justice, what was Libby refusing to tell the prosecutor? Could it be that Libby was trying to protect his boss, the Vice President, who may have retrieved the information from his contacts at the CIA? And is that the reason why Cheney tried so hard to get Bush to pardon Libby?

Otherwise, there seems to be no reason why Libby would have lied about where he got the information about Plame, and no reason why he would have refused to answer questions that the prosecutor posed. Apparently, neither Cheney nor Libby knew that it was Armitage who had leaked Valerie Plame’s identity to Novak. Cheney himself had been interviewed twice by the Special Prosecutor in May and August 2004. Even the President himself was questioned by Fitzgerald.

In any case, since Libby was not the person who made Valerie Plame’s name public, he should not have been the subject of a prosecutor, whose aim seems have been to justify his more than two years of investigation in the nation’s capital, with all of its perks, good restaurants, and plush accommodations. Even a prosecutor from Illinois needed a respite from the local grind. So he got a conviction of sorts and was thus able to return to Chicago fully vindicated.

The Vice President knew that all of this could have been avoided had Secretary Colin Powell done his duty and told the President that he knew who had leaked Plame’s identity to Novak. But he preferred to remain silent, and thus opened the door to two years of a needless and wasteful investigation which distracted the administration, forced innocent staff members to undergo a costly inquisition, and led to the conviction of a loyal and highly competent public servant. Cheney made sure that the public would know the truth and took a parting shot at Colin Powell. He wrote:

For the latter part of 2003, all of 2004, and a good part of 2005, members of the White House staff produced box after box of documents, were interviewed by the FBI, hauled before a grand jury, and repeatedly questioned about these events.

Meanwhile, over at the State Department, Armitage sat silent. And, it pains me to note, so did his boss, Colin Powell, whom Armitage told he was Novak’s source on October 1, 2003. Less than a week later, on October 7, 2003, there was a cabinet meeting. At the end of it, the press came in for a photo opportunity, and there were questions about who had leaked the information that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA. The President said he didn’t know, but wanted the truth. Thinking back, I realize that one of the few people in the world who could have told him the truth, Colin Powell, was sitting right next to him.

So, who was actually guilty of obstruction of justice? Was it Scooter Libby or Colin Powell? Or was it prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who told Armitage to keep his mouth shut or face prosecution, [and] did not tell the President who the leaker was and spent the taxpayers' money in a costly prosecution against an innocent man.

Is it not a crime for a U.S. government official to deliberately withhold vital information from the President of the United States? Is it not a crime for a federal prosecutor to threaten a suspect with prosecution if he dared to tell the President that he was responsible for the leak? Had Powell told the President the truth, there would have been no need for a special prosecutor or grand inquisition.

When is the government going to indict Patrick J. Fitzgerald or Colin Powell for obstruction of justice? Of course, never. Meanwhile, Scooter Libby’s life has been ruined. But we await his own memoirs.