Daniel Ellsberg:If Petraeus didn't commit felony-neither did Snowden, Manning, Sterling, or Kiriakou

[jmowreader]

59. It's not that I'm okay with Petraeus; far from it

Before we get into this, we have a slight "volume" problem to deal with: if Petraeus' disclosures were the equivalent of stealing a pail of water, Manning and Snowden made off with the whole lake.

David Petraeus is a worthless piece of shit who needs to be locked in a hole so deep they have to pipe in sunlight.

Here's the problem:



If David Petraeus walks into court dressed like that - as a military retiree, he has the complete right to - it's going to influence the jury in a way we don't want him to. Why do you think Oliver North testified before Congress in his full Marine dress uniform? And now we're talking about putting the Great Hero of Mosul (he did a very good job there) on trial rather than the Four Star Philanderer who passed top-secret documents to the woman he was cheating on his wife with.

There's also the issue of evidence: Petraeus' lawyers can demand an open trial and they can demand the documents he handed over to his girlfriend be entered into evidence. Depending on what he released, the government may not want any more classified information in the hands of the public than Snowden and Manning already put there...if the government refuses to allow the documents into evidence his lawyers can move for dismissal on grounds they can't properly defend their client without the information, and they'd probably get it.

More reality: Petraeus isn't equivalent to Snowden and Manning. Snowden and Manning are worker bees. There is no disgrace in being one - most of us are exactly that - but if these people wouldn't have fucked up in ways beyond major, none of us would ever have heard of them. David Petraeus is a retired four-star general, the former head of the CIA, and if he could have managed to uphold his marriage vows, he could very well have been president. If we would have charged Snowden or Manning with a misdemeanor, they would have served their sentences and gone on with their business. Petraeus' life is OVER! No one's ever going to ask this man to do anything ever again - I doubt he can even get a gig on Fox News. But if Petraeus (1) gets charged with a felony and walks or (2) gets his conviction overturned on appeal, he's back and bigger than ever. Check out Ollie.

On a strategic level I'd love to see Petraeus cast in the dankest dungeon in all the kingdom and left there to rot. On a tactical level, a conviction he can't get overturned at the appellate level will completely destroy his life regardless of whether it's felony or misdemeanor.