You know who Bradley Manning is, right?
He's the Army Pfc who leaked the government documents to Wikileaks about what all our government has been doing abroad that created such an uproar some months ago? Remember?
Well, he's been arrested and thrown in jail (prison?) and he's being charged--with 22 counts as I understand it and it's said he may face the death penalty.
Sure, corporate banksters can steal billions of dollars from the country and not even get charged but this young guy leaks some easily-accessed government files and all of a sudden we get all self-righteous and want to kill somebody.
Anyway, news is out now that we are--no kidding--being told that his military jailers forced him to "sleep naked for several days last week."
Excuse me?
Why?
Is this the United States of freaking America where we treat people humanely or not?
First it was Abu Graib and the inhuman treatment we put those people through and now this?
Who are we as a country, anyway?
Who are we as a people?
Do we really believe and stand for what we used to think we stand for anymore?
I'd love to know.
And I'd love to know that we still stand for all that good stuff, too.
Remember?
All the "innocent until proven guilty" and the right of Habeus Corpus and human rights and "equal justice under the law" for everyone and everything like that?
Could we get back to that now?
Please?
Because we'd like our country back.
Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/11/AR2011031106542.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/03/bradley-manning-may-face-death-penalty
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=bradley+manning+news&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=98286c98e5a0f890
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7 comments:
This will be one of the few times I disagree with my fellow blogger. If it was up to me (and it isn't) he'd already be dead.
Hey, have at it. You should, of course, no matter what, be able to have your own opinion, without doubt.
You apparently see it as treason and I don't.
But beyond that, a) what purpose is served by making him sleep naked? That surely falls under cruel and unusual punishment, to begin and secondly, he hasn't been proven guilty yet and b) like I said, he should be innocent until proven otherwise.
Manning is being held in solitary under suicide watch. In those cases the prisoners sleep in their boxers. He mouthed off and said he could easily strangle himself by using the elastic in his boxers. Bye, bye boxers.
If what he did isn't treason I don't know what is. He violated his oath, the trust his country placed in him and put lives in danger by revealing names and techniques for information gathering. Information that could be vital in preventing terrorist attacks.
His callus disregard for the necessity of secrecy in frank discussions between field officers and the State Department harmed relationships around the world.
Yeah, I call it treason. He's received and will continue to receive due process just as long as I don't get my hands on him.
A serviceman convicted of leaking classified information should be punished harshly, regardless of motive. It isn't up to him to decide whether secrets should be exposed.
Convicted. Until then he should be kept from escaping, but otherwise treated as humanely as possible.
Okay, I go back to what I said. That is, to you it's treason, to me it's not, first, and second, he should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. It is, supposedly, a just system and our system.
I think what corporations do to our country is more treasonous than this by a long shot, too. They've nearly taken down the country's and world's economic system and with provable fraud. That counts more to me but they're off scott-free.
Finally, I see what he did as probably more stupid than treasonous. He should have been able to foresee that he was getting himself into a big kettle of fish. I'm sure he never thought it would lead him to where he is now, in several different aspects--physical, legal, etc.
I still don't think it was treason and I do think what he did had some positive aspects for the country, actually.
But that's me.
Enjoy the mild weather and happy St. Pat's.
Sevesteen,
I think he should be "presumed innocent until proven guilty" as our laws and customs dictated through our history. Then, if found guilty, if the judge and/or jury decides on harsh punishment, so be it. That's where the harsh should come in whether it's him and this crime or anyone else and any other. So in that we rather agree, it seems.
Besides, for such a young guy and having pulled such a weak stunt that he should have known would get him in a world of trouble, he's already facing a possible death sentence. You can't get tougher than that.
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