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Bradley Manning, truthteller or traitor? Awaiting the
sentence.
By mickielynn on 2013-08-20 19:39:13
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good; oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood...
("Don't let me be misunderstood", by B.Benjamin/S.Marcus/C.Cadwell, made famous by Nina Simone during the civil
rights movement.] [caption id="attachment_4804" align="aligncenter" width="460"]
Bradley Manning to face sentencing this week for
espionage, theft, and computer fraud. Photo by Patrick Semansky/AP[/caption] Last Friday the prosecution and defense
rested their case in the sentencing portion of this long trial. The trial Judge, Col. Denise Lind has been considering the
sentencing of Bradley Manning since Monday morning. Tomorrow morning at 10 am she is scheduled to announce his
sentence. The prosecution, in the person of Government lawyer Captain Joe Morrow, asked the Judge to give Manning a 60
year sentence and a $100,000 fine while the lead defense attorney, David Coombs didn't specify a length of sentence but
pleaded with the military judge to give Manning a sentence that “allows him to have a life,” Those who see Bradley
Manning as a hero and truthteller who has done a public service want to see him released with "time served." More on this
later. When Private First Class, Bradley Manning released a trove of videos, war logs and diplomatic cables to the
journalism publication house WikiLeaks in the spring of 2010 he was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq working as an intelligence
analyst. He said ina statement that wasn't covered by most of the main stream media that he did it for the best of reasons.
He was very disturbed by the level of suffering and excessive violence that he observed in Iraq and Afghanistan and wanted
to show the American public "the true costs of war." He hoped that the materials would spark debate and lead to reforms
regarding U.S. foreign policy, specifically the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The collateral damage video
from 2007 that shows the US aerial unit in Iraq killing nine civilians including two Reuters journalists was a case in point.
As he described it during his statement in February Manning was disturbed by the “seemingly delightful bloodlust” his
fellow soldiers displayed when gunning down unarmed civilians and journalists. Although the prosecution has tried to claim
that the release of the information to WikiLeaks and its subsequent publication did harm to the interests of the United States
and placed some people in danger, and although they had many sessions of "secret evidence" that the defense couldn't access
there has been no proof that any actual harm was done or will be done over time. In fact, on July 18, 2012 Judge Lind ruled
in favor of a government motion to block any reference to "lack of harm" caused by information published by WikiLeaks.
Before the court martial actually began on June 3, 2013 the convening authority, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan ruled that
Bradley would be tried on all 22 charges, including the most serious one of "aiding the enemy" even though he had admitted
to 10 lesser charges and entered an innocent plea to the 12 most serious charges. If you were following the case at all then
you know that at the end of the trial the judge found him guilty of all of the charges except the "aiding the enemy" charge.
Here's _a link to a timeline of the case from 2010 to the start of the court martial. By June 3, 2013 when his court martial
actually began, Bradley Manning now 25 years old had been imprisoned without trial for more than three years. The time
that he spent in Quantico in naked solitary confinement for more than 9 months has actually been called torture by the UN
officials and civil rights attorneys who studied the case. Even the judge in the case has ruled in a pretrial hearing in January
of 2013 that Bradley was subjected to unlawful pretrial punishment for 112 days in the Quantico marine brig. His conditions
of confinement improved when he was moved to Leavenworth KY for the remainder of his imprisonment without trial. To
get some idea of what was done to Bradley Manning at Quantico, Graham Nash and James Raymond wrote a song for him
in 2011 called "Almost Gone: The Ballad of Bradley Manning"
It's probably clear to you that I'm one of the people who thinks that Bradley Manning did a real public service at great risk to
his life and his future and that he has already suffered more than three years in prison and treatment tantamount to torture for
at least the first 10 months of his confinement. But I'm not alone in my opinions. Bradley Manning has been nominated for
the Nobel Peace Prize for three years in a row. On August 12th Nobel Prize committee officials confirmed that they had
received a petition with 100,000 signatures supporting giving Bradley Manning the Nobel Peace Prize. Activist Norman
Solomon hand delivered the petition to Oslo after Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire officially nominated Manning in June.
On July 29, 2013 17 members of the European Parliament wrote a letter calling on U.S. President Barack Obama and
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to free WikiLeaks whistle-blower Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. The MEPs praised Bradley
Manning for exposing “evidence of human rights abuses and apparent war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan” in accordance
with international law. So if there is no actual evidence of harm to any persons and no lasting damage but indeed great good
in terms of revelation of conditions that need to be corrected then why is the government throwing the book at Bradley and
trying to imprison him for what amounts to a life sentence? The answer has been given in the words of the prosecutor
himself. “Theres value in deterrence,” he said. “This court must send a message to any soldier contemplating
compromising national security information.” In other words the government wants to make an example of Manning,
hoping to instill fear in those who would expose abuses as he did thus continuing the very aggressive treatment of
whistleblowers by this administration and the previous one. The prosecution is not treating Bradley Manning as a real and
concerned human being but as a symbol to be held up to deter others. It will be very important to the future of truth telling in
the United States to see how sentencing proceeds tomorrow. Whatever happens, the next step will be an appeal to the
convening authority, Major General Buchanan for clemency. And there is always the chance that President Obama could
pardon Bradley Manning although his behavior in saying that he broke the law, in 2011, before a trial does not bode well for
that outcome. Finally I'd like to leave you with a great short video by the Flobots.
