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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica WAKE UP The MANNING Circus Trial Should Be Considered UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Today's ruling also opens up a new avenue for charging leakers and whistleblowerssection (a)(1) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which until now, has never led to a conviction. Its was crafted in the 1990s by using some of the worst parts of the Espionage Act and adding the phrase with a computer.
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/07/bradley-manning-espionage-act-conviction-blow-both-whistleblowers-and-journalists
A recently unsealed decision from Colleen Kollar-Kotelly just changed the interpretation of the Espionage Act for Washington DC to cover leaks that wouldnt even harm the US.
http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/07/prosecutors-burden/
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/07/30/doj-responds-to-non-intell-committee-member-of-opposition-party-but-not-intell-committee-member-of-presidents-party/
Today's ruling also opens up a new avenue for charging leakers and whistleblowerssection (a)(1) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which until now, has never led to a conviction. Its was crafted in the 1990s by using some of the worst parts of the Espionage Act and adding the phrase with a computer.
This harsh conviction, coupled with a little noticed ruling unsealed this week (SEE ABOVE) in the Stephen Kim/Fox News leak case, will make it much easier for the government to charge leakers under the Espionage Act in the future. It's just the latest sign that the law has been morphed into a version of the UKs Official Secrets Actsomething that should be considered unconstitutional in the United States.
(if you have not read this, PLEASE DO)
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/07/bradley-manning-espionage-act-conviction-blow-both-whistleblowers-and-journalists
These charges were unnecessary from the start, given that Manning had already pleaded guilty to ten lesser counts that would land him up to twenty years in jail no matter the outcome of the trial. With this verdict, the government is not seeking justice, it's seeking to intimidate and scare any future whistleblowers from coming forward with potentially vital information that the public should know.
There is a sliver of hope for Manning the sentencing hearing begins tomorrow and there are no minimum sentences for the crimes he has been convicted of. The defense will also now be able to admit evidence as to his intent and the lack of damage the disclosures cost.
**********
also note this:
We are informed that, since July 2010, PFC Manning has been confined for 23 hours a day to a single cell, measuring around 72 square feet (6.7 square metres) and equipped only with a bed, toilet and sink. There is no window to the outside, the only view being on to a corridor through the barred doors of his cell. All meals are taken in his cell, which we are told has no chair or table. He has no association or contact with other pre-trial detainees and he is allowed to exercise, alone, for just one hour a day, in a day-room or outside. He has access to a television which is placed in the corridor for limited periods of the day. However, he is reportedly not permitted to keep personal possessions in his cell, apart from one book and magazine at a time. Although he may write and receive correspondence, writing is allowed only at an allotted time during the day and he is not allowed to keep such materials in his cell.
http://www.juancole.com/2013/07/tortured-americas-bouazizi.html
I did this post for woo me with science
I am heartbroken and not of sound mind today,
thus i ramble...
kp
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)its not civilian it a criminal trial conducted by the military against one of it members. Manning isn't a civilian.
RC
(25,592 posts)Doesn't matter whether they are Military or civilian, both can and have been, conducted as Kangaroo courts.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)totodeinhere
(13,056 posts)same rights as anyone else when it comes to having a fair trial with adequate legal representation. The military has the right to conduct the trial but they don't have the right to violate the constitutional rights of the accused.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)to some kind of sanity, this kind of trial will be judged Unconstitutional and no other decent human being, a person who reported Torture and was basically told to shut his mouth, will be tortured and abused the way Manning has been.
And the real criminals will not be walking around free, invited to the WH to be 'honored for their service to the country', a criminal who went AWOL when he had a chance to serve his country, not at war, in a nice safe place away from the battlefield, he couldn't even do that.
We are no longer in any position to lecture any other country on human rights, and in case anyone hasn't noticed, we are being told this now by other countries on a daily basis.
What a sad day, just another one, for this country.
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)What happened? I like WMWS very much.
kpete
(71,957 posts)I am the one who has been a little shaky today
WMWS has had my back
that is all
kp
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)You're one of my favorites, too.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)completely on this also.
This is a very sad day for this country. Thank you for standing up for what is right.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)I already linked to the one about the changed interpretation of the Espionage Act so often I've lost count. It's that important.
I'm glad you made this an OP.
To kpete, Th1onein and Sabrina1. It's mutual.
Brother Buzz
(36,364 posts)UCMJ was established by the United States Congress in accordance with the authority given by the United States Constitution in Article I, Section 8, which provides that "The Congress shall have Power... To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces."
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)rules you feel are so important, regarding Bradley Manning, will be held accountable? No one has so far which is leading people to believe that the Military doesn't care much about the 'rules and regulations' except when it suits them.
Rules and Regulations. You say that with a straight face when War Criminals walk free in this country.
Please don't remind us of those arbitrary 'rules and regulations'. We are becoming the laughing stock of the world, punishing those who do their duty and REPORT war crimes, while honoring those who commit them.
Hard to have much respect for those 'rules and regulations', isn't it?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Thank you, kpete. K&R.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)it should shake all of us to the core.
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)Arbitrariness has a way of making things much clearer. There's no stopping the slide. Plan accordingly.
kpete
(71,957 posts)and what I have been so sick about today:
they'll make up the law as they go along
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)in fairness, his life is governed by the UCMJ
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)He stole thousands upon thousands of classified documents and turned them over to Wikileaks not having any idea what they contained, and the ones we saw did not show any crimes or any kind of wrongdoing.
He did not steal them to whistle blow on anything, he stole them because he was angry, or fucked in the head, or because he felt like it. It was Assange's idea to try to make him out to be a whistleblower when he was not, and his idiot attorney jumped on that bandwagon sucking people out of their money to fund this non-whistleblower's defense, and after all this time they're still screaming he's a whistleblower when he isn't and never was.
His case has nothing to do with whistleblowers nor the law on whistleblowers being granted protection. He. Is. NOT. A. Whistleblower.
Peregrine
(992 posts)is that his defense wasn't that the information was illegally classified. You see it is against the law and UCMJ to classify information to cover for a crime or any wrong doing. If he thought the Army was covering up a crime as most here think, then the defense all along should have been that it was illegally classified. But it wasn't his defense. I wonder why?
kpete
(71,957 posts)Leaked Documents Summary:
1. There is an official policy to ignore torture in Iraq.
2. There is an official tally of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
3. Guantanamo prison has held mostly innocent people and low-level operatives.
4. The State Department authorized the theft of the UN Secretary Generals DNA.
5. The U.S. Government withheld information about the indiscriminate killing of Reuters journalists and
innocent Iraqi civilians.
6. The State Department backed corporate opposition to a Haitian minimum wage law.
7. The U.S. Government had long been faking its public support for Tunisian President Ben Ali.
8. U.S. officials were told to cover up evidence of child abuse by contractors in Afghanistan.
9. The Japanese and U.S. Governments had been warned about the seismic threat at Fukushima.
10. The Obama Administration allowed Yemens President to cover up a secret U.S. drone bombing
campaign.
11. Known Egyptian torturers received training from the FBI in Quantico, Virginia.
Now we know. That's what governments dont want the public to know. I say thank you Manning for having open our eyes. How long are we going to discuss whether Manning is right or wrong? These are the massive crimes we should be concerned about.
http://www.bradleymanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WikiLeaks2.pdf
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)any crime or wrong doing. They were classified for some other appropriate reason. Why classify something to try to cover up any wrongdoing or a crime when it DOESN'T show any crime or wrongdoing? Geez, we all sat here for weeks reading them. Manning didn't even KNOW what all those thousands and thousands of documents contained - he stole them for purely personal reasons having no intension of whistleblowing (how could he if he didn't know what they contained?), and they DIDN'T contain information that was either criminal or wrongful.
His attorney should never have touched that whistleblower rubbish with a ten foot pole, but it sure got a lot of money out of fawning suckers to pay for Manning's defense. The only thing that could have in any way helped Manning was to use the "nutball" defense... he was emotionally disturbed, didn't know what he was doing, not in his right mind at the time, temporarily insane, etc. There even already was evidence of the military knowing he wasn't right in the head - they should have used that. Instead his attorney went ape with all the claims of how sane he was as it went to his confinement status.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)In fact, you haven't the foggiest clue who Manning did or didn't do, because he never had the due process of his "crime".
This case has EVERYTHING to do not only with whistle-blowing, but just how much crap the "docile Americans" are willing to put up with. Your logic is a fallacy because you want it to be.
So, wake the fuck up, your own damn self, TTW.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)classified documents that he didn't even know what the hell information they contained and turned them over to a foreigner to be made public constitutes whistleblowing. I've been waiting since the story about Manning first broke to hear anyone here explain that and NOT ONCE have they ever done so. And they never have made even an attempt at explaining how he can be a whistleblower given the information that he stole because they CAN'T and they KNOW they CAN'T. They just do the same crap that you just did in totally ignoring his non-whistleblower status and throw out idiotic insults.
So go right ahead. You're the one claiming that his case had "EVERYTHING" to do with whistleblowing when all those tens of thousands of documents he stole showed no crimes nor any wrongdoing and he didn't even KNOW what they contained at all so therefore stole them with no intension of whistleblowing. I'm sure I'll be waiting a long times since this has NEVER EVER once been even attempted to be explained by his fans here. Because they/you CAN'T.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)The evidence of state's secrets that have been revealed thus far do not place in jeopardy "national security", and that already has been shown because of the evidence presented. What was or wasn't redacted and anything else that goes along with breaching national security hasn't been tried in due process.
So, see if you can wrap your brain around the fact that the evidence SEEN (a war crime that surely has been played over and over and over for the blind who cannot acknowledge what goes on in it) is a crime that is not punished. The person bringing it to our collective attentions as AMERICANS is being punished.
This will surely be lost on you, based on your response.... So deal with those facts and good luck with being fit for your nose ring.
Go back to bed American... Watch American Gladiator... Nothing to be seen nor understood here... Go back to bed!
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)700,000 classified documents from US military servers - documents you clearly have not read, and most of which you probably wouldn't understand, even if you did - and claim status as a whistle-blower.
Whistle-blowing entails exposing specific information demonstrative of crimes or wrongdoing. It is not a matter of stealing documents and throwing them at the Wikileaks wall, in hope that some of them will stick.
For all Manning knew - having not vetted the documents he released - he could have been leaking information detrimental to the security of the very citizens he now claims he merely wanted to inform with the truth.
Raising the nose-ring analogy was delicious in its irony - because it's obvious that you're the one being led around by one.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)This deft reasoning of yours surrounding the of downloading 700,000 documents, but leaving out the part to whom he reveals them to is a little strange to me. Manning relies on a source to have journalistic responsibility is more like conspiracy, rather than treason. You leave out who the other party was, and how responsible they were in release or redacting that vast volume of information. So, rather than unceremoniously (documents which WE both have not read), or HAVING HAD RELEASED INFORMATION THAT DOES NOT PUT LIVES IN DANGER, but CALLS OUT WAR CRIMES... the SAME crimes that by due process his command structure conspired to withhold, Manning does nothing more than whistle blow.
You remember when Valerie Plame was outed by that dick weed in the mainstream media? Now THAT'S a misuse of journalistic review. Was anyone who was responsible for outing Plame arrested? No... and what abuse gets recognized here?
Get yourself pointed in an accurate direction before you stick your foot in your mouth further. By the way... do you even THINK what happened that Manning revealed WAS a war crime? You leave out the part you wish to. How convenient of you to have left that out.
How unAmerican of you to have left that out.
Okay, which size nose ring did you say you prefer to wear today? ooo000OOO Go back to bed, American...
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)Lest you diminish your concern further over what this country should really be asking. Yes, I'm through with this, too. Not worth it...
Pelican
(1,156 posts)''For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.'' ~Jonathan Swift
dkf
(37,305 posts)This is not right. They are making it a crime to be a person of conscience.
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)Hydra
(14,459 posts)"Do not fuck with us. At all. In any way. Do not question, do not investigate, do not speak to anyone of anything you see our suspect or have evidence about. We WILL swat you like a fly...and we'll still get away with it."
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Out of curiosity, what was the specific secret(s) Manning was attempting to advertise to the world?