Brad Manning

Clutch9800 · Post by **Clutch9800** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:32 pm

He's the Private First Class who is accused of leaking the documents to WikiLeaks.

Should he be hanged or given accolades?

Clutch

Juton · Post by **Juton** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:59 pm

This is an excellent question. First of I don't think he should be hanged, I don't think any of the information he leaked has directly put lives in danger. For example I don't think he leaked troop deployments or information about patrols, the key intel that the Taliban would want. Wikileaks sat on this for around 6 months I believe, so by the time they went public the information wasn't fresh.

I don't think sent to prison and given accolades are necessarily mutually exclusive. I hope that the leak of these papers spurs the American government to some fruitful action, whatever that may be. I'm sure that it's pretty clearly stated that you're not allowed to leak classified information. On the other hand, in a democracy the people have to keep government accountable, with government and the media being able to misrepresent the situation you need this information to be able to make informed decisions.

So I think the public should give him accolades, because he has shown himself a servant of the people, risking jail time or worse to inform the public. But the military is going to have to court marshal him and barring technicality send him away. They have to reinforce the notion that you do not leak documents, or else they risk it being open season and eventually the sensitive information that threatens troop's lives will be leaked and that is unacceptable. However if your system works out right though some representative should apply political pressure to make sure he is not locked up for the rest of his life.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 2:23 am

He was a fucking moron for bragging about what he did.

Also, the records apparently contained personal information on Afghanis loyal to the US, which may have put their lives in danger.

Basically, our government tends to be far too secretive about things it has no good reason to be. Secrecy is just another excuse to commit illegal and immoral acts, and our government has been doing that like crazy. However, this sort of thing won't actually make the military any less secretive. In fact, it could quite possibly result in the opposite. So although for the majority of the information it was a good thing to be released, long term solutions of less secrecy would be better.

So criticism or commendation? Commendation, but he's still a fool.

K · Post by K » Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:59 am

I wouldn't hang him. At worse, he simply showed that the American government thinks that it's keeping vital secrets when in fact it is not. I mean, showing evidence that "war is hell" and "there is no evidence of a win condition for this particular game" is interesting, but not particularly useful.

He is kinda a dumbass. Dishonorable discharge is probably in order.... followed by a Barbara Walters interview.

Draco_Argentum · Post by **Draco_Argentum** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:52 am

Give him a medal.

The leak which gets someone jailed over warrentless wiretapping etc is worth shinier medals but this is still worth something.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 5:17 pm

Civilian medals. Agree with K... His leak was of old documents basically proving there isn't a media conspiracy to make the military look bad - the war sucks.

And I believe they redacted even the Afghani government officials' names, which is stupid, since what they're saying should be public record.

-Crissa

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:43 pm

Never mind. The link I posted may already fall under the ban.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:12 am

Zinegata wrote:Never mind. The link I posted may already fall under the ban.

Hey, did you know that you can delete your own posts?

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:25 am

He's the Private First Class who is accused of leaking the documents to WikiLeaks.

Should he be hanged or given accolades?

Neither.

So long as there's at least a shred of respect for the American Constitution left, he should be given due process and presumed innocent until proven guilty of any such accusations.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:26 am

CatharzGodfoot wrote:
Zinegata wrote:Never mind. The link I posted may already fall under the ban.
Hey, did you know that you can delete your own posts?

Yes, but I was thinking people might have already saw the original post, and it's less confusing than if the post simply disappeared.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 9:56 am

Using the name 'BradAss87' was kinda retarded though.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 9:08 pm

If he did what he's accused of he most likely acted according to the dictates of his conscious so that's certainly commendable. I'm more appalled by the blasé attitude of the media and the public about what he released even if it was "nothing new" or "shocking."

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Thu Aug 12, 2010 9:15 pm

Well, that's the point. It wasn't really anything new or shocking. It turns out nearly everything he released - even the few names - was already known to, or printed in the press.

That the military treated it as secure information not to be given to the soldiers and state department workers lest they blurt it out to the press is criminal, but hard to make much stew about.

-Crissa