Many veterans are out in the streets this afternoon protesting the 2010 arrest and detainment of Bradley Manning, the Army soldier who gave WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The leak brought to light many details and events that embarrassed the military, such as efforts to drastically lower the public civilian death count.
You can learn more about Manning and the case at bradleymanning.org, or get the gist of it at Manning’s Wikipedia page.
Nice. Glad to see people out there protesting in support of Manning. He’s a patriot and a hero who deserves a medal from the American people, not the persecution and prosecution he has been receiving.
Only in SF would some one think Manning a hero. Basically, he worked to undermine U.S. foreign policy by indiscriminately leaking huge quantities of confidential communications. If you care at all about our country being able to conduct effective foreign policy, then you have to understand that what he did was treason. He was not heroic; he was a coward who did not expect to be caught.
Yeah, that’s a load of horseshit right there, son.
Only in SF, and all the other places people were rallying.
SFdoggy you speak the whole and complete truth. And for that, it’s off to the cyber Gulag with you.
If you care at all about transparency in government and whistleblowing you’d realize the detention and treatment of Manning is absolutely fucked. Also, there are many individuals across the US and the world that feel the same way, it’s not just an SF phenomena.
Additionally, throwing around the word treason is ignorant.
Using the word ‘treason’ is the best description for what that coward did! He knowingly joined the Army, accepted his job and security clearance and then stole classified documents and gave then away. This is treason! The penalty for this is death… but that is too good for this scumbag; he needs to receive life in Leavenworth and spend all of it wondering if someone is going to stick a knife in his back.
This has nothing to do with San Francisco… this is a simple case of treason by an individual who thought he could outsmart everyone else and not get his ass in a crack.
Enjoy Leavenworth wimp!
Serious internet toughguy here, watch out folks.
“Treason,” huh? So you hate whistleblowers because you think the government is perfect and can do no wrong?
Hint: American Exceptionalism is an idiotic idea that the folks who founded this country were trying to get away from. If you think whistleblowers should be executed, you are the one committing treason.
I will go further and say that American Exceptionalism endangers Americans far more than anything Manning allegedly leaked.
Sooner: Yeah, that’s horseshit, son.
First of all, nothing that Bradley Manning released was Classified “Top Secret” only Secret. Operatives in every single administration (Scooter Libby for example) regularly leak Documents Classified as “Top Secret” and almost always do so without even an investigation. The Pentagon has gone on record to say they know of NOBODY has actually been harmed by the leaks attributed to Manning.
Also at least 100,000 people had access to what he had access to (he was only a private BTW) Don’t you think that, not only did he expose US malfeasants, but on top of that he exposed the fact that ALL of this information (and probably much higher classified) are available to every single intelligence agency in the world that has any sort of skills already has all these documents and more.
But hey, what Manning allegedly leaked was embarrassing, so he must be punished (Actually he is being made an example of so nobody dares speak out)
HaHa
Kudos for covering this. I wasn’t able to go the march, but Manning is a hero and he does indeed deserve to be free.
Free? I’m in!
He’s no Daniel Ellsberg but he doesn’t deserve the treatment he’s gotten.
Explain the difference.
Ellsberg leaked much more highly officially classified documents. Ellsberg’s were “Top Secret” vs simply “Secret”
A little something to clear the air:
“The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus,(7) etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”
If you support Manning, could you also respect her gender identity as well?
Here’s a quote from the chats she had with the hacker Adrian Lamo: “i wouldn’t mind going to prison for the rest of my life, or being executed so much, if it wasn’t for the possibility of having pictures of me … plastered all over the world press … as [a] boy … the CPU is not made for this motherboard …”
There’s a lot more info out there on the dysphoria she was suffering during her time in the military. I just don’t get why so many people who support what she did, don’t respect her wishes to be identified as female.
I can think of a few more tactful ways that you could have addressed this issue. Despite your condescending tone, lazy assumptions and annoying self-righteousness, I do appreciate you bringing that part of the story to our attention.
I am committed in my own work to address awareness and education of subjects like gender identity.
Here I was informing people of the rally, and giving a very little bit of background from what I know of the case, which did not include Manning’s gender dysphoria.
Translation: ‘Thank you, Lillian, for raising this issue in the most dickish and insensitive way possible — Bradley Manning would, no doubt, appreciate your effort to shit in the punch bowl that is his or her life at this time.’
I have very little problem with conflicted patriots like Bradley Manning, but I have a major problem with shitty shitheads like Lillian
I’m sorry if I came across in the way I did, and rereading it I can see why. That last sentence was charged with a lot of personal emotions and wasn’t really directed at anyone specific, but more so the general Free Bradley Manning campaign. The lazy assumption was definitely there, but I wasn’t trying to come across as condescending and certainly not self-righteous, so again I’m sorry if I did.
I know I’ve had a history of nasty comments on this blog, which probably led you to make some understandable assumptions about me. Now maybe this isn’t the best place to be posting this, but I’ve had a really difficult time this past year and it’s left me rather angry at the world. I’m not looking to be treated like some kind of victim, I’d just like to help you to understand where a lot of these posts have come from. I’m woking to fix my attitude, as I’m finding all it’s doing is holding me back from getting out of the current spot I’m in and moving forward in life. I really don’t want to be seen as a ‘shitty shithead’ either, so that’s another pretty good incentive as well.
On a side not, as a trans woman myself, I appreciate your work as an educator of issues like these.
I appreciate your response. I’m sorry you’ve had a rough year, but I’m glad you’re willing and able to address your own outlook. I hope and believe that that will in turn improve your relationship with the rest of the world. Not that it’s all your fault, but we’ve all gotta do what we can.
I look forward to being able to share some of my recent work related to LGBTQ education.
Take care.