Chelsea Manning files appeal against 'grossly unfair' 35-year prison sentence

[askeptic]

27. Crimes were exposed. Whether they remain to be prosecuted is irrelevent

“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

“Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is this awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest.”

—Robert Gates, Unites States Secretary of Defense

During my service, it was the Mai Lai massacre that was covered up but eventually exposed. From Wikipedia:

It was committed by U.S. Army soldiers from the Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.[2][3] Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest.

Since it seems to me Manning's "crimes" were much less severe, and not with the intent clearly displayed in Mai Lai, no matter how much of a military apologist you are, you have to a see the injustice of the sentencing by comparison. Manning has been in custody longer than that already....