I Don’t Stand With Bradley Manning, But I Will Stand Up for Him
by: Craig Wiesner on February 1st, 2011 | 24 Comments »
As a very young person, the access that I was given to highly classified information was an awesome sign of trust and came with an awesome amount of responsibility. It also came with a lot of training, restrictions from accessing information unless I had a “need to know” and a lot of discussion about “what ifs.” It would have taken an unfathomable “what if” for me to even consider disclosing information to which I had access to the public, as PFC Bradley Manning is accused of having done.
If guilty, he will face severe punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Until he is tried, he deserves to be treated like any other prisoner facing trial, yet reports from his lawyer indicate that his treatment is anything but normal. I may not be able to stand with PFC Manning if he is, in fact, found guilty of leaking classified information, but I and others SHOULD stand up FOR him right now. Why? Read on!
Manning is currently being held in solitary confinement under “suicide watch” conditions. According to WikiPedia:
On July 29, he was moved to a military jail in Quantico, Virginia. According to Glenn Greenwald, Manning has been kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, has not been allowed to exercise in his cell, and has been regularly administered anti-depressants by the brig’s medical personnel. David House, a computer scientist and MIT researcher who visits Manning twice a month, told reporters in December 2010 that Manning’s mental and physical health were deteriorating, and that the blankets he was been issued were so heavy, he frequently woke up in the morning with carpet burns. House said Manning’s guards were required to check on him every five minutes, including at night, and that a light was kept on in his cell while he slept.
Manning is reported to have emotional / mental problems, but the treatment described above sounds like torture and those who have met with him report that his condition is worsening. The military and its civilian leaders need to honestly communicate with the American people about Manning’s detention. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines MUST be treated fairly, no matter what they are accused of and the American people need to have faith in our military justice system.
I have to admit that I was stunned to read that Manning had access to the type of information he apparently could tap into. Again, according to Wikipedia:
Manning was assigned to a support battalion with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, based at Contingency Operating Station Hammer, Iraq, which gave him access to SIPRNet – the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network – used by the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of State to transmit classified information.
While in Iraq, Manning was able to access SIPRNet from his workstation. He was also said to have had access to the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. JWICS (pronounced JAYwicks), is a system of interconnected computer networks used by the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of State to transmit classified information (up to Top Secret SCI).
While I can understand him having access to these systems, being able to read and capture content that he had no need to know about is stunning. More stunning is that he wasn’t caught by any military or State Department safeguards, but was arrested only after one of the most horrible videos of the Iraq war was leaked and caused worldwide revulsion. The “Collateral Murder” video shows the killing of a group of people on a street in Iraq, and the killing of people trying to remove one of the wounded from the initial attack. All of this is shown from the perspective of Americans doing the shooting from the sky, with their voices and those of their supervisors, authorizing the attacks. You can watch the video here (warning – what you will see includes horrific violence):
Talk about a big “What if?”
The video is damning. To me, it is obvious that American forces made a terrible mistake. While it may be true that they acted under the “rules of engagement” established by the Pentagon, it seems pretty obvious to me that they initially mistook a camera slung over one man’s arm as a weapon. They then mistook a long lens for a Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher. One of the men did look like he was carrying a rifle, but it should not have been unexpected for someone escorting a group of people anywhere in Iraq to have a rifle.
Should someone have leaked that video? That’s for courts, you, and history to decide. Should anyone have leaked tens of thousands of pages of classified documents from the military and State Department? Again, the courts, you, and history will decide.
Bradley Manning is NOT guilty until tried and found guilty. And, even if a court martial does find him guilty, history may have the last word. Today, Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked the Pentagon Papers), one of my personal heroes, is standing up for Bradley Manning and demanding that he be released pending trial. I doubt the Pentagon or White House will go for that, but, they do need to make sure that he is being treated humanely, is NOT being tortured, and that he gets a fair trial.
The Pentagon and White House also have a little explaining to do to Congress and people like me. How did ANYONE get access to all of that content without somebody in charge noticing? I know we had to pull a lot of walls down between agencies of the government after September 11th so that we could better coordinate investigations into potential terrorism, but why would an Army Specialist (one step above PFC and later demoted to PFC) have access to diplomatic cables? That simply makes no sense.
The government’s behavior with Bradley Manning makes me feel like they’re hiding something. They’re certainly keeping Manning under wraps. A group standing with Bradley Manning is calling on people to call the White House on February 3rd to demand that Manning’s human rights be respected. I’m not sure if I’m ready to stand with Manning right now, but I’ll stand up for him and call the White House on Thursday. How about you? Click here for more information.
First of al Manning will be tried and likely be found guilty. he leaked information that was classified. And if it cost the lives of members of our armed forces, it is all the worse, Manning volunteered for the armed forces and by doing so he agreed by the terms of that service. During WW 2 he might have been tried and shot.
Regarding collateral damage: As problematic as is, it is inevitable in times of war, Yes, i hate to coin the phrase the “fog of war” but that’s what it is. Decisions are made at lightening speed and terrible mistakes are made. When the allied navies shelled the coast of Normandy on D Day, The shells missed their mark and hit coastal villages. Do you call that “collateral murder”? When the incidents take place, the military has to review the in detail avoid a repeat. War is a terrible thing, especially when non combatants are harmed.
I haven’t seen evidence that Manning’s actions were the proximate cause of American lives. Do you have some?
When you release a pile of unfiltered documents that can be interpreted in any which way, it gives comfort to the very enemy we’re fighting. I for one think it is a moral war and fully understand that we are fighting a death cult with the intent of catching as many civilians as possible in the conflict
This was not a “moral” war. This was not a “just” war. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or maimed, a million Iraqis were turned into refugees, thousands of Americans have died, tens of thousands of Americans have been maimed physically and spiritually. A trillion dollars has been stolen from the American people and our children and grandchildren will suffer because of that waste.
We’re not fighting some “death cult” though some of those fighting against us (and against the current Iraqi regime) are willing to die in suicide attacks. We’re fighting a variety of insurgents who, under different circumstances, might have been called “patriots” given their willingness to die for their cause.
Most Iraqis, however, like most Americans, like most humans, thirst for life, freedom, and peace.
Craig,
I am talking about our actions in Afgahnistan. Iraq was a fools invasion, even though Saddam is as vile as any tyrant can get. And in death cult I meant the Taliban, just to clear things up
Yes, war is a dirty business at the best of times, however this particular war is an immoral war, entered into on a false premise for all the wrong reasons and has cost the USA dearly. And, yes, many horrendous errors are made in war, nevertheless the video above is one that makes me stand with Ryan Gallagher (see OpenDemocracy) who wrote a thought provoking article, “Truth is not Treason” .
This leak may seem questionable, even immoral in the light of the trust issues mentioned above, – yet if it serves to encourage a more rationale reassessment of the so-called rules of engagement and hopefully a greater sense of caution in combat and warfare overall, as well as initiate a long overdue revulsion of war that would halt a repeat performance of the debacle that this war has been, – then I would think that we need to view Manning’s conduct in a different manner.
I therefore not only support Bradley Manning’s moral choice to leak the info, – but stand with him as well.
I hardly see anything immoral about removing the barbaric Taliban, who offered support and shelter to the AQ. Somehow I suspect that manning was not motivated by revealing the truth. I also don’t think he had the intellectual capacity to weigh the legal risks to himself. He certainly did not cover his tracks very well.
Information is power. With the correct and truthful information we can make the right decisions. Why am I a pacifist? Do I press the button to kill God’s children? I would not!!! War is outmoded. Diplomacy with give and take is the answer. The United States of Mortal Sin is a taker and not a giver. Our nation has a ferocious appetite for mass murders and war crimes.
Gerald,
Be sure to thank a veteran of WW 2 before the greatest generation dies off. They landed on the shores of Normandy, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa and placed their lives at great risk to fight tyranny. Like many nations in this world, the US has done great good, along with their misdeeds. To describe the US as the ” United States of Mortal Sin ” is pretty shallow
Read Howard Zinn. There never has been a “good war.” my late Grandfather, a full bird colonel of that “greatest generation” said about WW2′ “we went to war because our leaders failed and behaved stupidly before Hitler and Imperial Japan became active. War is the evidence of failure. That’s nothing to celebrate. Those that do are shameful and have no honor.” he turned down MacArthur’s promotion offer to General and resigned his commission over Korea.
We went to war because leaders in France and the UK failed to stop Hitler as he was re-arming. Then we had that Chamberlain moment.
If we were all pacifists, Adolf Hitler would be supreme world leader and the rest of su would in teh main be lab rats if we were even born at all, especially every askenazai jew on this board.
It is very important that Bradley Manningis treated humanely and fairly in his detention,a s Craig has eloquently depicted. I do not stand with him and i most certainly do not stand for him. But the rules of the geneva convention ensure that we do not become lawless revengeful hatred mongering bullies adn beasts like the nazis became, and were programmed to become.
It is my belief that Bradley manning should be tried and hung if guilty, adn teh sdame for Julian Assange. Those who take personal risks to abide by their conscnience do so to change a system and also for duty and honor. those who like Assange leak for personal profit and celebrity and monetary gain sre despicable traitors who not only do not change the system for the better, they make things incalcuably worse and in his case are so insulated by wealth and privilege, that they will not have to have been courageous as the Berrigans were , to suffer consequences for moral cause (as did John Brown, right or wrong) but are in it for the hubristic touch of fame and back patting.
It is disgusting that we reward traitors. It is a shame of our nation that we ever went into iraq for neo-colonizationa dn to bankroll Bush’s cronies and stoke a new Crusades…but we belonged in Afghanistan limiting the hideous fasist misogynist Taliban whose power base and arms we ourselves created when we first fough the Soviets in Afghanistan, and backed them instead of the Kurds…and had we ended al Quiada and the Taliban’s cachet of David adn Golaiath type strikes in 2002, immediately, we would not have garnered a world wide hatred and fear of Islam and the growth of theocratic nationalism desiguised as religious fanaticism.
I understand that you feel that Bradley Manning should be executed, if he’s found guilty of whatever it is he ends up being charged with. You then say that Assange should be subjected to the same capital punishment, and the ease and enthusiasm with which you advocate his execution is profoundly disturbing.
First of all, Julian Assange is an Australian national, meaning that it’s impossible for him to be a “traitor” or for his actions to be “treasonous.” By definition, only Americans can be traitors to America. This logical inconsistency was one of the most unintentionally hilarious aspects of authoritarians like Palin and Huckabee accusing Assange of being “Un-American.”
Secondly, you’re impugning the motives of Assange as though his personal motivation somehow has an impact on the work that WikiLeaks is accomplishing. No one here is Assange, so it should go without saying that no one here has any standing to be attributing ulterior motives to him. Assange himself has described his motivation as a desire to achieve transparency and reform- indeed, WikiLeaks has done this in a tremendously effective way. An Op-Ed on CNN.com just last week was titled “How WikiLeaks helped fuel Tunisian revolution.” How is all that WikiLeaks has accomplished been made “incalculably worse” by the fact that Assange might be an imperious jerk personally?
Most importantly, on what grounds do you support executing Assange? You describe hanging as the appropriate punishment, but for what? Again, treason isn’t a crime he could be charged with, because he’s not American. From context, it seems you’re advocating the death penalty based on the part he played in leaking classified information. Something that was rarely articulated in the mainstream media’s WikiLeaks coverage is that leaking classified information is not a crime. Receipt and dissemination of classified information is a component of investigative journalism, which is why it’s protected by our courts. Dana Priest of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for her reporting on CIA “black sites,” and Eric Lichtblau and James Risen were awarded the Pulitzer based on their work exposing Bush’s illegal NSA wiretapping program. What these reporters in particular did is no different legally than what Assange and WikiLeaks are doing- do you believe that these reporters, rather than the Pulitzer, should’ve received the noose?
The latter point has a great deal to do with the cruel and unusual treatment being inflicted on PFC Manning. The only hope that the government has to charge and convict Assange with anything is to implicate him in something illegal (since, again, disseminating classified information is not a crime). If the government “breaks” Manning, it can use him to testify that Assange has engaged in some sort of criminal conspiracy. Solitary confinement is an incredibly effective way to go about “breaking” a person- as Dr. Atul Gawande said, “All human beings experience isolation as torture.”
(http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande)
Lorenzo,
Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response. As author of the original post, I wanted to jump in and say that I don’t support the death penalty under any circumstances and I also find it strange to hear people referring to Assange as a “traitor.”
I contacted the White House today, hopefully with countless others, to demand that PFC Manning be treated humanely.
He should be treated humanely, but he should stand trial for his alleged crimes. We are a civilized, law abiding society.
It is honorable and in the spirit of bushido to subvert immoral and dishonorable actions, especiallyl if the immoral actions are fomented by one’s superior,” from The Hakagure
Manning is a hero. When a policy or direct order is immoral, a soldier need not obey it.
True, but… a jury and history will decide if in this case, Manning made a good or bad decision. He’s neither hero nor villain yet.
I am surprised and disappointed with the right-wing rhetoric that has infiltrated this web site lately. You know who you are.
We went into WW 2, like we go into almost all wars, as much for profit and power as to, in this case, stop Hitler. Yes, Hitler was a terrible tyrant. Stopping him was heroic. But we knew in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor and did not stop it, because the powers-that-be wanted us in the war. Same with the Lusitania in WW 1. Same with the Maine in the Spanish-Americas War, same with the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, same with the “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, same with the hype about the Taliban. We are in Afghanistan for one reason only: to allow Unocal to build the oil pipeline and so they, rather than the Russians or someone else, can make the profits from the oil. Same basic reason for Iraq. All the business about threats to our security are lies to trick us into war. The Nazis did this same thing with their people, lying to get the people to believe Germany was under threat.
Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are heroes for attempting to bring the lies and manipulation to light. Since we no longer have much in the way of free media in the US, their efforts are more important than ever. If their efforts result in some loss of US (“Coalition”) soldiers, that is a shame, but there is no reliable evidence of this. And if their efforts save the lives of others in Iraq and Afghanistan, or elsewhere, then they are world heroes. US soldiers’ lives are no more important than citizens of other countries. As JustJack, gerald, and L. Krawitz have said, these wars are immoral, our country is acting immorally, and it is time to end war and start diplomacy. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, said it succinctly: “You say that negotiating for peace is difficult, but is it more difficult than war?”
Don:
“I am surprised and disappointed with the right-wing rhetoric that has infiltrated this web site lately. You know who you are.”
I am hardly right wing, more moderate left. I just get the impression that opposing views should be unwelcome here. So much for keeping an open mind. Patting each other on the backin no way strengthens your opinions
“We went into WW 2, like we go into almost all wars, as much for profit and power as to, in this case, stop Hitler. Yes, Hitler was a terrible tyrant. Stopping him was heroic. But we knew in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor and did not stop it, because the powers-that-be wanted us in the war.”
We knew in advance that war was inevitable after the Japanese walked out of negotiations. We also knew that the US involvement was inevitable to prevent the total collapse of Europe. I somehow get this impression that you think it was wrong to fight the Nazis and Japanese in the name of civilization. It was a moral cause of the highest calling. Calling it war for profit sickens me. I suggest you do a little background research before you make your claims. I think some of this revisionist history is getting to your head.
We knew about the upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor, not just about war in general.
Many major US companies supplied war and materials to the Nazi regime, including one involving Prescott Bush (W’s grandfather). They were involved long after we knew what was going on with the death camps.
If our wars are about humanity, why do we ignore places like Tibet and Burma, where the killing is just as atrocious, but where there is no oil?
It is not revisionist history (at least not in a negative sense) to look at the truth behind the propaganda.
I already said that it was a heroic thing to stop Hitler. But that does not mean that the war was fought only for moral reasons.
Name dropping Prescott Bush is an old revisionist trick . I have seen that many times over. Mind you, I am not a fan of the Bushes, loathed W, but prefer facts to back a claim up. What military equipment did Prescott Bush sell to the Nazis as manager of the US Rubber Company, tires? Do you know when the existence of the death camps was discovered? It was well into the war. I am sorry, you will have to produce for me some shred of evidence linking Prescott Bush or any American to the sale of American weapons to Nazi Germany during the war. I want to see a link to the source. That is my challenge to you. I can only guess the link will have some 911 conspiracy theory as well
I thought so. Don has left the building
David House and his anecdotal fairytale is now being completely debunked. You may want to read Miami Herald’s Joy-Add Reid, today.
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/02/the-war-over-bradley-manning/
The press has been just ridiculously sloppy about this whole issue, and Firedoglake has been reckless in the extreme. Blowing up false or flawed narratives for publicity, based on dubious expert testimony, isn’t helping real victims of torture, nor moving this country forward.
It is revolting to me to see Assange revered as a hero and cast in the same mold as the people of consxcience who actuallky ahve to make personal sacrifices to do the right thing , and let us use Nelson Mandela as an example on the large scale.
Assange is exactly the kind of uber rich self-glorifying wannabe famous celebrity as Paris Hilton. He just happens to have been a whore in terms of selling himself out for the cheapness of profiting from the war by leaking information that could and has led to compromising international security and diplomacy, and in particular confidential, privileged and classified information that in this case was obtained by enabling a traitor to the USA. As his fan base and a could deal of his derivative income is in fct from USA , and as he profited by colluding with a traitor to the governemnt of the USA, he is if not technically a traitor, certainly an enemy agent and provocateur.
I am also so tired of the super hegemonic elitists who are not suffering from the terrible social injustices that the working class and poor have had to bear in this nation, since its precipitous decline into plutocracy since the 1980s baby boomer socially darwinistic money-grubbing free for all , which has killed and destroyed more people than any war in our history, crying crocodile tears over the legitimate expression of an assertive approach to dealing with an individual who is proven guilty of betraying his or her nation.
I am not enthusiatic about killing either of these beknighted souls, hailed, ludicrously as heroes for atrocious, self-serving wannabe- celebrity, anarchic behavior that is striking yet another death blow to participatory democracy, Democracy, messy as it is, relies upon balance and integrity from a majority of its citizens across the gamut of political viewpoints and parties, rather than crippling, polarized gridlock, greed and exploitive manipulation.
Loyalty (not blind, deaf and dumb, but at least sincere), Duty, Honor, Sacrifice, Altruism , Truth, Justice, –these are hard masters, and not just terms.These qualities are anti-deconstructionist (thank God) life affirming ideals and developed informants of personal character, and as such, people who live up to them form a kindred that makes a difference in this world for the better. It is a process of incrementally strengthening the social good.
We as a species dependent upon enculturation for achievement of social good are in terrible trouble when we assert that developing civil society and individual ethics, setting boundaries and enforcing limits on injury to others, and reducing risk factors for harm by encouraging mature altruism instead of infantile, greedy indulgent licentiousness is a bad thing.
It is a real stretch, therefore, I’d say a contortion, to assert that other than giving the big talking, neo-anti-war pop stars who slept through eight years of Iraq and only woke up when faced with funding health care too, a buzz point, that this destructive and foolish exercise of profiteering corruption by Assange and his minyons has been any more positive than that hellacious, misbegotten war.