ACLU: America using Manning case to intimidate ANYONE considering revealing valuable info in future

[kpete]

“While we’re relieved that Mr. Manning was acquitted of the most dangerous charge, the ACLU has long held the view that leaks to the press in the public interest should not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “Since he already pleaded guilty to charges of leaking information – which carry significant punishment – it seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information in the future.”

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/30/bradley-manning-found-not-guilty-of-aiding-the-enemy-still-faces-over-100-years-in-prison/#ixzz2aabEoupT

[Th1onein]

1. Thank the Universe for the ACLU! eom

[frazzled]

2. Anyone who wants to indiscriminately dump 700,000 classified documents?

That's not an everyday event. People need to understand that there's a difference between someone leaking a specific piece of information (and documents pertaining directly to that issue) and these kinds of mass steal-and-dump actions. It's new because it was never possible to do before thumb drives and laptops. The Pentagon Papers at least was a single report.

There were real laws broken here, and putting out 250,000 private diplomatic cables for the world to see cannot possibly be construed as blowing the whistle on any one thing. Let's imagine that we cheer every time a government employee decides to dump the entire files of the military or the State Department ... the ability of the government to act would be decimated.

In the new world of technology, we do need to approach things differently. This is not the Wild West.

[dogknob]

4. "Laws?" Look around...

...We are no longer a nation of laws.

We are a nation of privileges. This is not the Wild West. It is the Wild World.

I'd love to see the return of laws; the kind that everyone, regardless of wealth, has to follow.

We'll have to get through Monsanto's private, accountable-to-nothing-but-corporate-policy, army, and some other stuff, before that happens.

[newfie11]

8. +1

[MotherPetrie]

3. K&R and let's be specific. It's the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION that's using Manning to intimidate

whistleblowers.

[Fumesucker]

5. I'm fucking quaking in my boots.. The ACLU can go fuck themselves.. I'll release what I want..

[Hydra]

6. Laws are for little people

And look how well they abuse those laws towards the little people? 100+ years in jail for exposing lawbreaking. Not the first time either...assuming you don't end up like the DC Madam or Michael Hastings.

[woo me with science]

7. +100000 That's exactly what they are doing,

while also changing the interpretation of the Espionage Act to criminalize journalism and waging legal battles to curtail the union and whistleblower rights of hundreds of thousands of federal employees.

It all boils down to one apparent unconscionable goal: to eliminate every possible avenue for exposing government crimes and tyranny.

[kentuck]

9. How could it not?

Leaks to the press should not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, period.