Lost in the cheering over news that president Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning is one simple idea: justice delayed is not justice served.
The fact of the matter is Chelsea Manning is a hero who should not have been convicted of anything.
McClatchy provided the pertinent facts of the matter on August 31, 2011, in WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says
A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi.
[The above] cell phone photo was shot by a resident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, of bodies Iraqi police said were of children executed by U.S. troops after a night raid there. Here, the bodies of the five children are wrapped in blankets and laid in a pickup bed to be taken for burial. A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes the U.N. investigator of extrajudicial killings as saying an autopsy showed the residents of the house had been handcuffed and shot in the head, including children under the age of 5. McClatchy obtained the photo from a resident when the incident occurred.
Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence
The Wall Street Journal offers this sanitized version it deems suitable for US readersObama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence.
White House spokesman, Joshua Earnest, discussed the “pretty stark difference” between Ms. Manning’s case for mercy with Mr. Snowden’s. While their offenses were similar, he said, there were “some important differences.”
“Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” he said. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.”
He also noted that while the documents Ms. Manning provided to WikiLeaks were “damaging to national security,” the ones Mr. Snowden disclosed were “far more serious and far more dangerous.” (None of the documents Ms. Manning disclosed were classified above the merely “secret” level.)
Ms. Manning was still known as Bradley Manning when she deployed with her unit to Iraq in late 2009. She copied hundreds of thousands of military incident logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which, among other things, exposed abuses of detainees by Iraqi military officers working with American forces and showed that civilian deaths in the Iraq war were likely much higher than official estimates.
The files she copied also included about 250,000 diplomatic cables from American embassies around the world showing sensitive deals and conversations, dossiers detailing intelligence assessments of Guantánamo detainees held without trial, and a video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad in two Reuters journalists were killed, among others.
She decided to make all these files public, as she wrote at the time, in the hope that they would incite “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.” WikiLeaks’ disclosed them — working with traditional news organizations including The New York Times — bringing notoriety to the group and its founder, Julian Assange.
Treason
Manning was charged with treason. She was also held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for eleven months in violation of UN rules on humane treatment.
Those guilty of murdering Iraqi children were not charged with anything.
The UN office that investigates incidents of alleged torture around the world, told the Guardian: “I conclude that the 11 months under conditions of solitary confinement (regardless of the name given to his regime by the prison authorities) constitutes at a minimum cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of article 16 of the convention against torture. If the effects in regards to pain and suffering inflicted on Manning were more severe, they could constitute torture.”
FU Senator Cotton, Lindsey Graham
Senator Tom Cotton moaned to the Wall Street Journal “When I was leading soldiers in Afghanistan, Private Manning was undermining us by leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. I don’t understand why the president would feel special compassion for someone who endangered the lives of our troops, diplomats, intelligence officers and allies. We ought not treat a traitor like a martyr.”
‘A slap in the face’: Senator Lindsey Graham blasts Obama over Manning
The US will be better off and the world will be safer the minute they retire.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Good stuff Mish…phoney patriots is too kind…these guys are the real traitors.
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Is it possible to IMPEACH Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham-nesty … ????
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Obama and Bush were the so-called “leaders” or “commanders-in-chief” who sent both Manning and Cotton into harms way.
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Mish – your Paul Krugman side is showing – going with emotion and ignoring reality. Manning did break the law! You have the right to cheer Manning – I do not as ex-military – Manning is a traitor.
Gary Bowser
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and did his actions with the intention of aiding the insurgents because he was angry at his unit. Like Bergdahl, he cost lives on both sides.
Not a hero, not even a decent human being.
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What don’t you understand about murder and whose lives are you referring to? ‘A decent human being’ is evidently a selective position that you don’t apply to the termination of innocent people by armchair or personal decree. Understandably you must obey orders but there is such a thing as a code of conduct.
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you are wrong on this. Manning did the honorable soldiers duty.
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Someones supposed “intentions” are irrelevant. Manning made information that many consider valuable, available to people who would otherwise not have access to it. Making valuable information available to more people is always a good thing. Only bad things benefit from being covered up and hushed down. The more people have more information, the better the decisions they make are wont to be. And better decisions lead to better outcomes.
Not teaching niggas how to read and write, was never a good thing. Nor a “patriotic” thing. Nor a decent thing. And neither is not teaching Americans history. Including recent history from Iraq.
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You go ahead and keep believing the Big lie… Patriot!
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Protect the Constitution from all threats foreign AND domestic.
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The true duty of any US soldier is to defend the Constitution and the spirit of same. Those Manning exposed deserved it.
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Breaking unjust laws (that’d be the ones Moses and his pal upstairs decided not to include amongst the just ones) is always the honorable and morally correct thing to do.
“It’s the Law” binds exactly not in any way shape or form whatsoever in conscience. It’s purely a construct of Newspeak designed to make gullible indoctrinati less uppity, and less likely to question whatever nonsense Massa feels benefits him today.
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I agree that Manning broke the law. But what option did he have? The chain of command was actively suppressing the truth and those who rocked the boat were in various ways harmed or victimized. So he did his duty by going outside the chain of command and released information that exposed the lies. Just following orders or obeying the law only works when the orders are legitimate, the laws are just and those in charge are honourable in upholding decent conduct.
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The fact of the matter is whistleblowers are prosecuted – or worse
Manning and Snowden both did what they needed to do
I salute them
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An argument can be made wrt to Snowden but not for Manning.
He was angry because he had to obey rules like everyone else and knowingly took actions with the intent of harming his fellow soldiers.
His actions cost the lives of Americans, Iranian dissidents, and Iraqis (on both sides).
He was not a “whistleblower”, but a petulant whiner angry at everyone because he was expected to actually work.
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If you are so worked up about those who lost lives, you must be beside yourself over the children and seniors that were murdered by US soldiers and will undoubtedly be writing posts about how they should be brought to justice.
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He thinks ‘only following orders’ is a defense. He also thinks civilians are sub-humans.
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“He was angry because he had to obey rules like everyone else and knowingly took actions with the intent of harming his fellow soldiers.”
WSJ: She decided to make all these files public, as she wrote at the time, in the hope that they would incite “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.”
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Who lost their lives as a result of Manning’s actions?
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Manning was not a whistle blower. He/she was a confused and mentally disturbed individual (gender still unclear) who joined the military for questionable reasons, then put his fellow soldiers at risk over his unhappiness with Obama’s war orders (and Bush’s before that).
A hero would put his own life at risk, not put his fellow soldiers and random Iraqi’s at risk. If Manning had gone AWOL between shits (ie without endangering other soldiers) and if he had publicly said he was opposed to re-starting the Iraq war and would face whatever consequences of his decisions… that might potentially have been heroic.
Manning was (still is?) confused about his/her gender. Why was this confused person given a gun and sent to war? And why was someone so confused given security clearance? Even if one accepts Manning’s gender confusion — a battlefield (with other people’s lives at risk) is not the place to figure things out.
Obozo’s poor “leadership” put everyone in unnecessary danger — the soldiers who did their duty honorably, the mentally confused ones that didn’t belong like Manning, and the Iraqi’s caught in Obozo / Bush’s confusion.
Does Manning belong in prison as a traitor, or is he a mentally confused person who mistakenly was allowed to enlist and put other lives at risk? Obama’s cowardly last minute commuting of Manning’s sentence answers nothing. If Obama thinks Manning was mentally confused, why was Manning put into solitary confinement? If Obama thinks Manning is guilty of treason, why commute the sentence on his way out of the oval office?
Obozo comes out of this looking like an indecisive jack-ss… which pretty much sums up his entire presidency. Its a shame that soldiers like Cotton and confused people like Manning got caught in the middle.
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Not one of those soldiers belonged over there in the first place, and the consequences of sending human beings into an irrational and highly violent military action are that many won’t live up to the standards set by Sgt Rock.
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Your hatred for Bush was never the question here.
The question was whether Manning was a whistle blower (and he was not)
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Have you at all reviewed the items that Manning provided to Wikileaks? Apparently not.
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Still the issue here is not whether you or some arrogant public servant (Paul Ryan cited by Mish below) think a certain document was or wasn’t top secret at the time a confused kid stole it.
The issue was and still is whether this hopelessly confused kid had any idea what the f@k he was doing. The evidence is he didn’t know why he was a soldier. Actually the evidence is he was thoroughly confused about his own gender.
Mentally troubled is not the same as whistle blower. Some will argue treason, others will argue it was a cry for help — but definitely not a whistle blower
And the coward leaving the oval office had this troubled kid put in solitary for months — neither getting the punishment a traitor deserves, nor the mental treatment a cuckoo deserves. As commander in chief, and an avid reader of cr-p published in Rolling Stone (see Gen McChrystal etc) — Obama could have intervened in Manning’s case right from the start.
Obama is the villain. Manning is confused and troubled (possibly treasonous) — not a whistle blower
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Whether a whistleblower releases information due to moral outrage or simple revenge they are still whistleblowers. Additionally you seem preoccupied with Mannings gender confusion.
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@MikeG — Your blind hatred for George Bush seems to be clouding your ability to argue Manning’s whistle blower status. Manning is mentally disturbed — big time.
You can’t argue that he stole the documents for moral outrage (when he chose to join the military knowing that would involve killing people). Nor can you claim it was simple revenge (against whom you don’t say? Obama? Bush? The easter bunny? your anger caused you to forget completely).
The kid is mentally troubled. Not a whistle blower. Try to stay on message
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There are all sorts of reasons that people join the military, some simply become disillusioned with Imperialism and the waste of human life in the name of enriching shareholders of the Military Complex. Take two examples who became soldiers, one does it to defend Old Glory, the other does it to impress chicks, guess what? They’re both still soldiers. The same goes for whistleblowers.
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@mikeg — you still don’t seem to be able to focus. Are you off your meds?
The question was and still is whether Manning was a whistle blower (not a chance). He was a mentally troubled weirdo, possibly committing treason, possibly crying for help.
Either way, Obama used Manning to score political points, get donations and votes back in the US. Obama could have pardoned Manning or gotten him better holding conditions — or he could have thrown away the key.
Instead, Obama made sure Manning got a sex change operation paid for by the military — because that is what surveyed well to Obama’s donors. Manning got used. Not a whistle blower.
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You make no sense. Who in the devil cares wether he is confused? If Obama used him in some sort of nefarious way, again, who cares? The point is, he can be perfectly confused, perfectly gender non-specific, he could also be wearing a green hat with polka dots and a funny propellor. The day he started releasing information regarding the poor behavior of our military he became by definition a Whistleblower! Read below!
“The disclosure by a person, usually an employee in a government agency or private enterprise, to the public or to those in authority, of mismanagement, corruption, illegality, or some other wrongdoing.”
It says nothing about confusion, Obama, gender, craziness, sex changes or anything else. If Manning meets the definition of what is quoted above, he is…..a Whistleblower!
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@mikeg — You made up your own whistle blower definition (as if it mattered), quoted irrelevant executive orders (written by Obama, no one else) — and still you haven’t addressed the actual question of whether Manning was a whistle blower.
Manning doesn’t know which end is up, he is mentally unglued. Who knows if he really wanted to become a woman — BEFORE Obama put him into solitary confinement for months (Obama could have changed that instantly). A mentally troubled kid was mentally tortured and used for Obama’s political goals.
No one knows why a person who joined the military decided to leak information said person thought was classified. Plenty of gays say they want to serve their country or defend against terrorists — and they do so without putting other soldiers at risk. Who knows if Manning was gay or transgender or whatever before being stuck in solitary for months.
Lots of people are whistle blowers — on purpose. People who have lawyers that recast their clients as whistle blowers after the fact, while getting a gender change operation at the behest of a left wing president — are mentally troubled. Whistle blowers know they are going to get caught, and make plans to head to the Ecuador embassy or a flight to Hong Kong. People who don’t have any plan (or self awareness) sit around, knowingly get caught and then used by slimy politicians.
Obama used Manning for political gain. Manning’s usefulness has ended. That is why the sentence was commuted (NOT the same as a pardon). Manning was a mentally disturbed pawn who probably still has no idea what happened.
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Your mind must be a swirling dust devil.
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You are both right so should not be arguing, though it is interesting to read:
Fred sees a whistle-blower as someone who sees foul play, pulls out his whistle, and stands there pointing as he blows it.
MikeG includes a whistle-blower as someone who finds a whistle to blow and starts blowing it, maybe, if Fred is right on the non/motives, simply because it makes a noise.
……
After that there is the question of whether purposefully, through negligence, or instability he endangered others. That is not to do with his whistle-blowing status but military tribunal.
Law in essence does not condone an error of that kind because the intent was not to do harm, or because of instability. At best the sentence is mitigated and lines of responsibility investigated.
There is moral hazard involved by in any way justifying the release of sensitive information.
There is moral hazard involved by restraining the release of sensitive information that is necessary to prove corruption or misdeed.
Who should be arbiter of what information is released?
Who owns the information?
Who is in control?
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Manning plead guilty after he was caught. That is not a question.
His solitary confinement clearly effected his mental state, which was arguably in trouble before that.
Obama’s use of Manning’s predicament is why we know Manning was just a pawn of left wing extremism (used to push transgender nonsense).
Obama had the option to pardon Manning from the get go, and could have pardoned him yesterday instead of commuting the sentence. Obama also could easily have ordered Manning’s confinement to be changed at any time.
Instead, Obama chose to make Manning a martyr to advance Obama’s political causes.
If Obama was having a change of heart about actual whistle blowers, one would expect pardons for Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Notice that the actual whistle blowers did not even get a mention
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”
There is moral hazard involved by in any way justifying the release of sensitive information.
There is moral hazard involved by restraining the release of sensitive information that is necessary to prove corruption or misdeed.
Who should be arbiter of what information is released?
Who owns the information?
Who is in control?
”
In a free society, one always errs on the side of NOT restraining. NOT “controlling.” NOT “owning.”
The more widely disseminated information is, the more people are able to incorporate it in their decisions. Leading to decisions that are, quite literally, more informed. The “arbiter” of what information is “released” should be everyone, individually. Or noone, it amounts to the same thing.
The only beneficiaries in a system consisting of a class of “arbiters”, are those arbiters themselves. And even them, only in the short run.
More specifically to this case: The only correct way to avoid having credible evidence that oneself is involved in atrocities released, is to not perform atrocities. Once the atrocities, like anything else, is performed, they are part of the historical record. Which should always be disseminated as widely as possible, so that as many as possible will be able to learn from it in the future.
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Fred, your reasoning is 100% MORONIC. American soldiers not only murdered civilians covered it up. WTF do you think Manning was exposing???? Gender dysphoria is an excuse used by idiots who condone soldiers who violate code of conduct.
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(1) Your writing skills are terrible
(2) Your opinion about US soldiers is clouding your ability to look at Manning’s actions, and those of his commanding officers
(3) Manning’s gender confusion points to his state of mind (or lack thereof). Your attempts at censorship by political correctness are offensive. Remember snowflake, you are not on campus when you make online comments
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No, I’m looking at the facts: “A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes the U.N. investigator of extrajudicial killings as saying an autopsy showed the residents of the house had been handcuffed and shot in the head, including children under the age of 5.”
So you condone this behavior?
As for my writing skills, I was commenting using my iPhone. I’m definitely not a snowflake or anything close to a liberal.
“I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America. “….
In your mind, God condones the facts cited above. Your parents must be proud of you.
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My my my. Mish you have released an inner Krugman being. Manning is quite simply a traitor, be it a man or woman.
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Apparently you believe it is OK to cover up murders
I happen to believe in the Nuremberg principle
Mish
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mish,
you are going to discover a extreme totalitarian mindset among any US military member under age 40.
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A traitor against the practitioners of lies, cover ups, child murder and basic human decency! Ain’t he some horror!
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The largest danger I see is the power struggle with the US intelligence agencies who try to control everybody. Their power must be broken. More heroes like Manning & Snowden are needed!
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Wait for them to age out. The highly bureaucratic lifetime employment system holds the organization three or four decades back. They’re still worried about Boris Yeltsin and Sadam Hussein – thus the Crimea/Syria meddling.In a few years they’ll move on to young Hugo Chavez. Maybe they’ll fix Columbia before the government falls appart.
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A good move by Commander in Chief Obama if he genuinely is ashamed by his administrations ignoring the psychopathic and abusive behaviour of his employees as revealed by Manning. Some acknowledgement of Wikileaks and Snowdon’s part and softening of attitude to whistleblowers might also help Trump to curb the military and ‘intelligence’ excess in the future. ‘Collateral damage’ can be blatant murder by any name and the perpetrators should be named and shamed (at least).
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Highly unlikely that Obomber is genuinely ashamed about anything. He spent 8 years telling lies, manipulating data, telling more lies, drone bombing innocents, and telling more lies, yet undoubtedly still believes that he is one of the great presidents in our history. Guy is a sociopath.
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@AJ nails it
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Obummer doesn’t fit the definition of a sociopath, he is however a weak willed and pathetic example of the scum that too often rises to the top and now is just trying to put a gloss on his legacy by releasing Manning. If he truly believes Manning should be freed then why didn’t he sign the paperwork as soon as Mannings court martial was completed?
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As an Obama voter who has had 8 years to study the man, I’m now intrigued by a personality study that compares Barack Obama and Gustavo Fring of the series ‘Breaking Bad’. I wonder…
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Certainly, through this ordeal, Manning has been thoroughly muzzled. Maybe now we can get the “other side” of the story? Unless silence was a a condition of the pardon, that is.
Yes, truth is the first casualty of war,,,and the second, third, fourth and so on.
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It was not a plea bargain, so I’m sure Manning will be free to speak out. The only problem is that to accept the pardon for his “crimes”, he has to admit he did crimes (that was a previous SCOTUS decision). Then again the “crime” is only what the military says it is. At the Nuremberg Trials it was established that soldiers do not have to obey unethical orders, and can be held accountable for criminal acts if they do.
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Nuremberg only applies to the defeated.
You may argue that, in theory, it applies to all.
However, in practice, the victors are immune from prosecution.
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21 gun Salute for Manning and Snowden! Ahhhh… F the guns. We’ve had enough bloodshed to fill the bowels of Hell ten times over.
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Obama hosted a White House Rose Garden reception for Mr. & Mrs. Bergdahl and their wonderful snowflake son Beau.
March Madness and World Series winners usually get that sort of treatment.
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Ever wonder why Bush and cohorts seem to never leave the country? (MSM did not cover the story back).
“In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.
The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/05/12/bush-convicted-of-war-crimes-in-absentia/
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Complete and utter rubbish Greg.
We have enough fake news without you parroting this trash
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Never found anything debunking it and it’s just too funny that snopes doesn’t even address it.
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Snopes itself got debunked.
A man and wife team with no “debunking” qualifications, but lots of extreme left wing credentials.
Anyway — non-existent courts do not issue blanket in absentia rulings against a group of defendents that are accused of very different crimes. There is no persian gulf war crimes court in Kuala Lumpur, nor does Malaysia have any shred of jurisdiction
As much as the morality of their actions might be in question, legally the fact remains that presidents (and VPs and senior officials) generally have very broad immunity.
Its not like it matters fundamentally, but when you quote that bullshit it just encourages the clueless snowflakes who now think its ok to commit violence at Trump’s inauguration.
MANY of us think Obama is a world class jack-ss, an embarassment to the country and to the human race. But out of respect for the office (certainly not the man), we don’t go launching violent rebellions against the office. We are a country under the Constitution (not Obama), even if that jack-ss never read the Constitution.
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Right on Mish….others should be doing time. This kid has suffered enough
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Like the other US soldiers that Manning endangered? Like the Iraqi citizens killed and maimed in the chaos?
Even if you a snowflake and accept Manning’s gender confusion, a battlefield was not the place to figure things out. The man/woman whatever it is put hundreds of other lives at risk.
And Obama’s indecisiveness just made things 100x worse for everyone (including Manning). A mentally disturbed individual shouldn’t be in solitary confinement; a traitor shouldn’t have his sentence commuted.
With one foot out the door, Obama is just practicing a vindictive scorched earth policy.
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He/she put lives at risk because our government said so. I want more proof.
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You need proof this kid was completely confused? He doesn’t even know what gender he/she is… never mind his joining the military for completely the wrong reasons
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“I want more proof.”
So does the attorney for Gen. David Petraeus, daddysteve.
His career came to an abrupt halt after one single page of classified material was compromised and Paula Broadwell actually did have a security clearance. Although hers was not a sufficiently high enough clearance, isn’t it an understandable error on Petraeus’ part when he thought that Broadwell had clearance?
It’s a slippery slope indeed.
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This is a preliminary move to test the waters before issuing a pardon to Hillary Clinton. Nothing more. It has nothing to do with justice. It doesn’t even have anything to do with the merits of the case. Basically, if nobody pitches a screaming hissy fit, then sometime in the next 3 days HRC will be pardoned.
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Pardoning Nixon didn’t make anyone think he was innocent. Won’t work for HRC either.
Obozo would be convicting her in the public eye, even if he pardons her in the eyes of a court.
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Yes, but didn’t Assange agree to US extradition if Manning was released?
If so, and Assange sings, where does that leave old Cankles? You see, the leak was from within the DNC and everybody from Obama down ALREADY KNOWS IT. What they desperately want are names. Would that be worth Manning’s freedom? You get it would.
Once and for all, it will be shown :
– the broad scope and undeniable proof of HRC’s crimes.
– the Russians were not the source of leaks
– the credibility of WikiLeaks
And maybe, just maybe, Assange actually has HRC own stuff from the infamous unsecured server. Wow! How’s that for a blockbuster story? Cankles taken away in handcuffs with a jacket over her head.
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It would be awesome if cankles was taken away in handcuffs — but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Assange promised to turn himself in if Manning got a pardon (not a commuted sentence). A nice legal technicality that that lawyers can bicker about for years…. another Clinton-esque ‘it depends on what you think the definition of “is” is moment’
And while Assange has been cagey… others within wikileaks already disclosed the DNC leak. They went so far as to tell interviewers that the data was given to them in a park just next to American University (in DC)… directly behind the headquarters of the Dept of Homeland Security. The 39th and Massachussetts trail park or some name close to that.
That DNC staffer that was mysteriously killed last summer at the Tenley Circle metro stop (a very short walk from that park) was rumored to be a developing source, but supposedly wiki-leaks hadn’t finished vetting him…. that is the rumor anyway. The DNC staffer’s murder might also have just been a gang initiation (which is a big crime problem in DC)
Manning already disclosed how he stole classified US military data — but he wouldn’t know who at the DNC was the Hilary leak (he was in prison).
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Mish,
You are right and wrong. Manning should have reported the killing of civilians, but that is not what he did. He provided a wide range of documents in the tens of thousands that jeopardized others. You should not exonerate him because a small portion of the information he released to wiki leaks needed to be known. That’s like saying you save a little old lady from getting run over as you are fleeing a bank you just robbed
You are off base on this one.
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Agree with Seen on this one. Manning is not a hero, he directly jeopardized his fellow soldiers. Most of us who have served in the Military get this.
If you have not served it is difficult to understand this perspective.
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OK – so let’s all get together and support murderers
Have to keep the group together don’t we.
By the way, please name one person harmed by the revelation (other than manning)
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you saw the video ‘collateral murder’ ?
Manning release documents which exposed the most heinous war crimes routinely committed by a military that has lost its morale compass.
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“I am totally sick of fake-patriot, warmonger as*holes like senators John McCain, Tom Cotton, and Lindsey Graham.” – tweet by Mish 4:15 PM – 17 Jan 2017
Equal justice requires that McCain, Cotton, and Graham spend 35 years in solitary confinement since they are among those who sought to prosecute Manning as well as being responsible for the crimes Manning exposed.
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Maybe McCain should be held accountable for this:
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It’s ok to release classified information if it shows the government broke the law. This is what the law should be. The majority of what Manning released was not such information and in that case he broke the law. Contrary to what people believe the majority of the damage was not the content but that other intelligence agencies got a very good insight into how US encryption works by cross referencing previously captured encrypted data with what Manning released unencrypted.
All the information Snowden released showed the government broke the law yet he was not pardoned.
This just shows these presidential pardons are a joke and have nothing to do with justice.
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“This just shows these presidential pardons are a joke and have nothing to do with justice.”
I’m expecting Scooter Libby to be pardoned before the first toast is raised at the Inaugural Ball.
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Snowden and Assange are much more deserving of executive pardons from prosecution or relief from jail sentences than Manning. Both have been very selective about what documents they released ensuring it did not endanger human lives. But Snowden and Assange are not gender confused males so Obama left both hung out to dry. Perhaps if Snowden and Assange were fitted for blonde wigs and slapped on some eyeliner, rouge and lipstick they too would have made Obama’s pardon list.
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… but it would be because of their white privilige, I’m sure.
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Both have been very selective about what documents they released ensuring it did not endanger human lives.
Exactly – And Wikileaks cooperated as well
Mish
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Yes, Assange runs Wikileaks. When I stated “both” I was referring to Snowden and Assange.
Manning? His document release was not as selective and more haphazard.
IMO, Of the 3 Manning was least entitled to a pardon. And it makes me wonder whether his gender confusion had something to do with it since Obama failed to address their precarious situations with the US legal system.
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Snowden and Assange should both get pardons… actually I would say gave Snowden a parade, and make James Clapper, Keith Alexander, Michael Hayden and Patreaus all pull the parade float around by hand.
…but Manning is just a seriously confused kid who joined the military for the wrong reasons, put his fellow soldiers in serious jeopardy, and then got a sex change in military prison (just in case his mental health wasn’t already in doubt).
Manning is insane, not a whistle blower. Might be a traitor too, but definitely insane.
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Excellent analysis, Fred.
Males who claim that they are women trapped in a man’s body should not be enabled with sex change operations or special protections in the workplace or given hate-crime victim status. All nonsense. They should be given psychotropic medications and intense psycho-therapy to determine what traumatic event in their lives created such disturbed and distorted thoughts and put them back in touch with their DNA.
Modern medicine sucks. Political correctness has infiltrated every facet of our lives – even science that should be immune from that crap.
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Thats nonsense…we have all known men who act effeminate and women who act more masculine, so a condition where someone of one gender feels “misplaced” should not take much of a stretch of the imagination. Do you also believe in praying the gay away?
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Manning debate – Paul Ryan blasted
Not a single document leaked by Manning was “top secret.” You support every foolish war yet blame a soldier/whistleblower for risking lives.
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Paul Ryan blasted a lot of things… he’s a slimey politician
“We the people” have to suffer Obamacare forced on us by that treasonous witch from San Fran, while Ryan and Congress exempt themselves
While building a wall for normal people is too expensive, and securing the country is too expensive — Ryan has walls (plural) around his Washington residence, his massive home state home, and gets driven around in an armored limo paid for by the taxpayers Ryan spits on.
And Ryan arrogantly thought he and his fellow “insiders” were going to impose their candidate on the country. He still won’t accept the will of the people.
Paul Ryan is an insubordinate public employee.
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“In no case shall information be classified… in order to: conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency… or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.”
—Executive Order 13526, Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations
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Manning was/is insane. He may also be a traitor. He is not a whistle blower
You mindlessly quoting executive orders does not change any of that.
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In America today the powerful are, in essence, above the law.
No high ranking banker was charged for crimes committed in the 2008-2009 crisis during the eight years of the Obama administration.
Clapper, the highest ranking intelligence official in the country, lied to Congress and faces no penalty for doing so.
Hillary Clinton has quite obviously committed crimes in the handling of classified material that are far more serious than Manning’s or, possibly, even Snowden’s. She allowed material classified *above* top secret to be readily accessed by hackers, and the FBI concluded that most likely at least four foreign intelligence services had hacked her server.
She has not been charged, and there’s a very good chance that Obama will pardon her before he leaves office.
No doubt many many other criminals come to mind, but I don’t want to make this post longer than the article by listing them all.
If the powerful are essentially immune to the law, is it fair to use the full force of the law against the powerless?
Is this justice or oppression?
We need to either prosecute the powerful or stop prosecuting the powerless.
If a jury heard one of these whistleblower cases, there is a very good chance that they would nullify these laws. It’s pretty damn obvious that they are applied selectively to crush whistleblowers while the people who committed the original crimes go scot-free.
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The people that don’t think Manning and Snowden are Patriots have simply not discovered how sinister their govt has become, but they will. These defenders of govt abuse sound like the Dems who want to shoot the made up messenger (Russia), while ignoring the facts contained in the emails.
If we have a government by and for the people, then how is it possible to betray the nation when they are informing the people when government lies to them? CONgress and the NSA have abused every principle of freedom and justice, and every politician that calls these Patriots traitors deserves the fate they inflict on others.
Whistle-blowers Use to Be American Patriots – https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/whistle-blowers-use-to-be-american-patriots/
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Okay, the Manning person is awful and bad and we hates it.
Now, will someone please convince me that the crimes exposed are defensible?
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Mish: the Nuremberg Trials were a dog and pony show. The victors write history and will never accuse themselves of war crimes they themselves commit. The bankers, financiers and industrialists who backed WWII (both German and non-German) received extremely light sentences at Nuremberg and by the 1950s plenty of these had already resumed their high-ranking positions both inside and outside of Germany. Some of these financiers were never caught at all and the Bank for International Settlements (founded 1930) continues to operate from the shadows, offering clearing facilities to happy customers on the political left and right as deemed expedient. The BIS chooses its clients, not the other way round. Follow the money. all other discussion is moot.
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When I found out the US government agreed to furnish Manning w/ a sex change operation in prison at taxpayer expense it was one of those moments that jumped out at me that we, as a nation, had left the rails and were beyond the point of no return.
A neighbor of mine who obeyed the laws, worked all his life and paid his taxes like clockwork needed a pacemaker operation but put it off because it was a financial hardship. He collapsed mowing his lawn and never regained consciousness.
He died because he couldn’t afford a lifesaving medical procedure while Manning is transformed into pseudo-woman for free.
Really f’ed up.
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Obama is a coward that, as commander in chief, could have stepped in to “help” Manning at any time. If Obama believed the kid was gender confused, what was Obama’s point in putting Manning into solitary confinement? As Commander in Chief, he could have ordered other confinement from the start — but he didn’t. If Obama thought the kid was innocent, he could have issued a pardon at the start.
Obama wanted to use a very confused, mentally troubled man to score political points — right up there with having trans-genders use the other bathroom.
It was never about Manning (who is insane and possibly treasonous). It was always about Obama’s giant ego, and scoring political points for his extreme left wing supporters.
Manning was just a mentally troubled, gender confused kid — caught in the middle and used by Obama for Obama’s political gain.
As LFOldtimer pointed out, lots of honest taxpaying Americans (both genders) got screwed by Obamacare and denied healthcare they needed. They couldn’t get Obama campaign donations or votes, so they didn’t count.
Manning couldn’t offer donations or votes — but he could be used by Obama. That is all that ever mattered to Obama.
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I don’t agree. I don’t see how Manning can be put in the same category as a Daniel Ellsberg who exposed a secret war the country didn’t know about or Ed Snowden who exposed abuses to Americans right of privacy. With Manning there simply was an attempt to embarrass the U.S. government and endanger lives. Releasing diplomatic cables or compromise intelligence officials should be punishable.
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Einsatzgruppen!
It wasn’t just rocket science we adapted from the Nazis.
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If this was the correct thing to do, it was only done as a cynical LGBT pandering move by the party that absolutely DEPENDS upon identity politics because that is ALL they have going for them. I suspect that there would not have been a pardon if Manning had not been trans-gendered.
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