Bradley Manning Headed To Prison, While Those Who Presided Over Torture Go Free - HuffPo

[WillyT]

Bradley Manning Headed To Prison, While Those Who Presided Over Torture Go Free
The Huffington Post | By Matt Sledge
Posted: 08/21/2013 10:22 am EDT | Updated: 08/21/2013 10:30 am EDT

<snip>

FORT MEADE, Md. -- Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for releasing 700,000 documents about the United States' worldwide diplomacy and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Manning was a 25-year-old Army private first class at the time of his arrest. He saw himself as an idealist acting to end the wars, and said in online chats with hacker Adrian Lamo that he was particularly concerned about the abuse of detainees in Iraq. No political or military higher-ups have ever been prosecuted for detainee abuse or torture in Iraq, Afghanistan or at Guantanamo Bay.

"One of the serious problems with Manning's case is that it sets a chilling precedent, that people who leak information ... can be prosecuted this aggressively as a deterrent to that conduct," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel and advocate in Human Rights Watch's U.S. Program. "Shouldn't we be deterring people who commit torture?"

Here are some of the individuals who have been involved since 9/11 in detainee abuse and torture, and potential war crimes, and have never been prosecuted.

George W. Bush

George W. Bush was president when the U.S. invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence, tortured terror prisoners and conducted extraordinary renditions around the world.

"Enhanced interrogation," a Bush administration euphemism for torture, was approved at the highest level. A "principals committee" composed of Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft signed off on the methods.

"There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tenet for authorizing torture and war crimes," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, when the group released a report called "Getting Away With Torture" in 2011.

Dick Cheney

As Bush's vice president, Cheney pushed the nation over to the "dark side," as he called it, in the war on terror.

The U.S. used extraordinary renditions to swoop up terror suspects and send them to repressive regimes in places like Syria and Libya for torture. Cheney was the key driver in producing the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. into war in Iraq. And he steadfastly defended the CIA's use of water-boarding and other torture tactics on U.S. prisoners.

Cheney "fears being tried as a war criminal," according to Colin Powell's former chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, but he never has been.

Donald Rumsfeld...

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/bradley-manning-prison_n_3789867.html

[MotherPetrie]

1. The Obama Administration has laid down with dogs and can never stop scratching.

[Catherina]

2. You have a way with images. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

3. 35 years. Authoritarian state much?

The crime: informing the electorate what it is that is being done in their name.
The punishment: 35 years in military prison.

[malaise]

14. What a sad day

[backscatter712]

19. The only consolidation is that he could get parole in 8 years.

But yeah, the authoritarians are creaming their pants right now.

[myrna minx]

28. It's a disgrace. Shame. n.t

[90-percent]

4. Don't forget John Kiriakou

He's in prison for leaking info about war crimes in Iraq.

The people that ordered the crimes are free, and the person that brought the crimes into the sunlight is in prison for it.

Yet another example of our current injustice system.

-90% Jimmy

[bullwinkle428]

15. EXCELLENT point.

K&R for this as well as the OP.

[xchrom]

5. Du rec. Nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. And, the purpose of the 35 year sentence for exposing murder is.......?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

7. Whoever says that "Crime doesn't pay" is wrong.

[treestar]

8. Beating this one to death is silly

It's a lot more complicated to attempt prosecution of a President for acts he did in office.

And not to mention that you are basically saying until all guilty people are in jail, no one should be. We can commit whatever crimes we like until Bush, Cheney and the "banksters" are in jail? That would not work.

[MotherPetrie]

11. No, we're saying the Obama administration defends war criminals and prosecutes whisleblowers.

[Hydra]

12. +1000

Nailed it

[DLevine]

16. Exactly. nt

[treestar]

22. Non sequitur

That's not the argument. It boils down to: I think Bush got away with a crime so until he is convicted of it, no one else has to obey the law.

[4Q2u2]

27. Common sense will not be tolerated

Last time I checked Congress gave the President wide and far reaching War Powers, that the old texas tough guys used for Iraq. Were not they charged with sniffing out all the lies and BS and protect the American people. All they all not culpable. What is worse the liar or the idiot that falls for the lie.




Shhh but lots of Dems voted to give him that power.

[Rex]

18. Only for you and about 3 other people.

Maybe you don't think the laws should apply equally to every American, but the rest of us do. Sorry.

[treestar]

21. As a practical matter

We cannot just disobey the laws and then use the excuse that Bush and Cheney aren't in jail.

There are many people getting away with crimes for many reasons. That's no excuse for not obeying the law.

[Rex]

23. Way to completely miss my point on purpose.

I knew I was wasting my time. Sigh.

[NuclearDem]

24. Actually more like: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others

[Rex]

25. Maybe that will make more sense to him.

Lately I feel like I am typing in a strange language to get back some of the replies I get.

[PowerToThePeople]

9. what a sick country we live in.

Last edited Wed Aug 21, 2013, 01:16 PM - Edit history (1)

I can not say what I want to say. And, that is very sad.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. Cheney "fears being tried as a war criminal," -- Not while Obama is President.

[Hydra]

13. Yep, the have him covered

I don't know why he worries though. We believe in "Too big to Jail" and he certainly is that.

[liberal_at_heart]

17. and we're expected to vote for more hawks in '14 and '16? I don't think so.

[Rex]

20. Until the laws apply equally to all Americans

we will live in this plutocracy created by the Reagan set.

[Uncle Joe]

29. Unless you were a Japanese Soldier around the time of WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding

World War IIDuring World War II both Japanese troops, especially the Kempeitai, and the officers of the Gestapo,[111] the German secret police, used waterboarding as a method of torture.[112] During the Japanese occupation of Singapore the Double Tenth Incident occurred. This included waterboarding, by the method of binding or holding down the victim on his back, placing a cloth over his mouth and nose, and pouring water onto the cloth. In this version, interrogation continued during the torture, with the interrogators beating the victim if he did not reply and the victim swallowing water if he opened his mouth to answer or breathe. When the victim could ingest no more water, the interrogators would beat or jump on his distended stomach.[113][114][115]

Chase J. Nielsen, one of the U.S. airmen who flew in the Doolittle raid following the attack on Pearl Harbor, was subjected to waterboarding by his Japanese captors.[116] At their trial for war crimes following the war, he testified "Well, I was put on my back on the floor with my arms and legs stretched out, one guard holding each limb. The towel was wrapped around my face and put across my face and water poured on. They poured water on this towel until I was almost unconscious from strangulation, then they would let up until I'd get my breath, then they'd start over again... I felt more or less like I was drowning, just gasping between life and death."[36] The United States hanged Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American prisoners of war.[9]

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.