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USA torturing Bradley Manning

Why should a person with knowledge of classified information, in jail for sending classified information to wikileaks, be allowed to mingle with the general jail population?

Great point, one which sails no doubt right over the heads of those perversely debating the minutae of definitions of torture.

I suggest that we object if his cell is smaller than 4x4 feet.

And if the ceiling is lower than four feet, also.

Can't have that. That would be torture.

;)
 
Yes, because everyone knows that the US's intelligence services are totally unable to function without their morning coffee and the ability to read the last diplomatic gossip columns from the DoS.

You sneer, but the extensive and well-honed US IC was unable to prevent 9/11.


No, he leaked them, he didn't publish them, the media did that, and we don't know that he took everything "he could get his hands on" at all. From my understanding having read up on it all, he took what he considered to be in the public interest to know.

You've been reading opinion columns. It is impossible that Manning took only what he felt was in the public interest to know, because he cannot have read all or even enough of the - how much is it so far, a quarter of a million? - individual documents he leaked between the time the newest of them are dated (FEB 2010) and the time Wikileaks published them (APR 2010) even if we imagine he handed them over the day they were published, which according to WL they weren't. Logically they must've been obtained at one time in bulk, not as targeted documents over a long period of time.



The assumptions are based on military commentators, not the military trying damage control.

The assumptions are based on public statements made by US military spokespersons.

And that is what he should be charged with, but that isn't treason.

He will likely not be charged with treason; espionage will probably work fine.

Free access doesn't equate to aid and comfort.

What bizarre world do you live in, where you freely acknowlege that handing documents to the enemy is treason, but dropping them on the ground directly in front of him is not?

And for doing that he'd deserve to get a treason charge too. However, unfortunately for you, your nice little story isn't anything like what Manning actually did with these leaks.

Manning wasn't tasked to deliever a vital battle instructions or troop locations. Nor did he take any information directly to any enemy commander. Finally, the value of the information didn't change between his getting it and his handing it over.

A closer analogy would be this:

Our solider is tasked to read all of the Commander's diaries on a daily basis, then condense the information in them into a report and pass that on to the General. In the course of his duties he starts to read things he feels are wrong, some reports about soliders looting farms, shooting civilians, and also a few rather uncensored descriptions of local milita commanders and the general staff. He copies down these reports and sneaks them out to a national newspaper reporter who then prints them.

Has this soldier commited treason? He has certainly embrassed his commanding officers. He has let out information that they didn't want released, he may have even allowed that information to get into the enemies hands, though it's not likely that much use to the them, if any use at all. But in all of that there is zero evidence that he has provided any aid or comfort to the enemy. He still should be charged for the breach of confidence, but that's it.

Manning did not leak diary pages, personal musings, or op-ed articles. He leaked operational reports and data.
 

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