Recent Comments

• John Poole said...

  1

  My fantasy still. That Manning stood up immediately and said, “There I did it, I take full responsibility. I did the right thing-let the chips fall where they may..” No lawyers, no plea bargaining, no defense team, whatsoever except a personal admission to his superiors. When fighting the dark stand immediately in the light- don’t call lawyers or remain silent. I know many will disagree. He would have been a hero in my mind but he isn’t. Maybe in yours but not mine.

  03/16/13 2:48 PM | Comment Link

• meloveconsullongtime said...

  2

  Mr Poole wrote: “When fighting the dark stand immediately in the light- don’t call lawyers or remain silent.”

  I agree about standing in the light, but I disagree with about remaining silent. By now it’s no secret here that I think in Catholic ways (different from my BAD behaviour! ;-), so in that light and for what it’s worth:

  1. At His trials, Jesus was mostly silent. His stance was that his words and actions were always open – which accords with Mr Poole’s ideal. HOWEVER,

  1.a At His trials before Caiaphas and Pilate (respectively the Jewish and Roman courts), Jesus did not argue with his accusers, and He did not directly answer any of the false charges against Him. BECAUSE:

  2. To answer evil on its own terms, gives credibility to evil. That’s why it’s righteous to remain silent when questioned by evil. In other words it’s righteous to refuse to answer evil on its own false terms, the terms of darkness, the terms of lies.

  03/16/13 4:05 PM | Comment Link

• pitchfork said...

  3

  quote”He would have been a hero in my mind but he isn’t. Maybe in yours but not mine.”unquote

  To paraphrase a great blogger…
  “Hell yeah ‘Merica! Let’s pillage, waste, steal, torture, and murder with impunity and keep all our barbaric episodes under wraps so the entire fucking world don’t find out what kind of Empire building war criminals we REALLY are! Youbetcha. And should some scumbag leak this shit out, well..let’s hang that motherfucker!!” Thank you Mr. Sibler.
  Fine. Maybe the world shouldn’t have seen the evidence of unmitigated evils perpetrated in our name by the USG. Fine. Well, maybe in your Parallel Universe of Keeping Head in the Sand While Enabling War Crimminals… but not mine.

  Back here in my universe, exposing International Law defined War Crimes against Humanity committed by our government takes precedence over any goddamned Enlistment Oath. In fact, in reality land, Bradley Manning had THREE choices of action. Obey the Oath, obey his conscience, or..obey International Law. To wit…
  http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_cha_chapter43_rule152
  Furthermore, to deny the fact that the USG tortured human beings with impunity, and murders of innocent civilians by US Military soldiers have been documented in mass, not to mention the vaporization of hundreds of innocent men, women and children via Hellfire missles, and the documented murder of Journalists in Iraq thanks to Bradley Manning..amongst the other illegal crap perpetrated by the State Department and Military..well, I’d submit you need a refresher in standing erect.

  And then look up WHISTLE BLOWER.

  03/16/13 5:52 PM | Comment Link

• meloveconsullongtime said...

  4

  This is partially – but not entirely – off topic, a spin-off from a recent email from me to PVB. For several decades now, the American Empire has sung this song, “Everybody Loves Me, Baby!”:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG6SCDUiFZs

  03/16/13 6:03 PM | Comment Link

• Jon Rey said...

  5

  To borrow a well used quote… Who among us is perfect?
  Taking the whistle blower route required being a traitor. Manning will have to live with that and all of the attending consequence.

  03/16/13 7:25 PM | Comment Link

• Rich Bauer said...

  6

  Bless those who had the guts to stand up to the evil this corrupt country embraced in its darkest hour and acted on principle and damn the rest of the cowards who knew better but predictably acted on self-interest. I think there were three at the State Dept., including John Brown. Would like to know how many CIA officers had the guts to resign. Of course, the revisionism continues in the corporate media which went along with the neo-conartist propaganda:

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/16/iraq-war-10th-anniversary_n_2885510.html

  03/16/13 8:14 PM | Comment Link

• Michael Murry said...

  7

  “The Ship of State leaks from the top” — U.S. President John F. Kennedy

  “Kill the chicken, scare the monkey” — Chinese proverb

  Free Bradley Manning (in forty-four syllables)

  Petulant President
  Barack Obama who
  hates him some leakers (just
  not from the top),
  makes an example of
  lowly buck privates so
  cabinet ministers
  don’t have to stop.

  Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2012

  03/16/13 10:51 PM | Comment Link

• pitchfork said...

  8

  For anyone who is really interested in the Bradley Manning prosecution debacle, here is the best source for IN PERSON journalism on the subject. Kevin Gosztola is an Independent Journalism benchmark, and has attended every single hearing.
  http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/
  For further resources, Cryptome is vital.
  http://cryptome.org/
  Like this..
  http://cryptome.org/2013/03/manning-spy-analyzed.htm

  Note, during these hearings, the USG refused to supply written transcripts of the proceedings. It took Kevin and others filing suit, that finally forced the Army to respond. Which, as usual, was as little as they could get away with. If one believed MSM reports, Bradley Manning is a traitor. Until you actually read what has taken place in the hearings, you don’t have a clue to what the military has done to this human being, nor to the facts surrounding his act.

  03/17/13 3:07 PM | Comment Link

• Kyzl Orda said...

  9

  ” When fighting the dark stand immediately in the light- don’t call lawyers or remain silent.”

  Well no offense. With such situations, the person taking the action doesnt get to tell their side and that is the very point – the machinery goes into high gear and tries to skew the narrative. For lower level whistleblowers, it’s diplomatic security that is used and sent to squirrel employees from the building, banning them from returning.

  Wasn’t it Manning’s mother who had to make a public plea on his behalf because he had been locked up and no legal access? Sounds like a 1970s central american backdrop but it wasnt. Manning did the deed, do we need him to bleed blood too? The whole point has been to prevent him from talking and controlling the ‘discourse’ as if there ever was one. It’s hard to find good lawyers whose-give-a-damn meter still works and plea bargaining is malarkey, but for different reasons. Everyone has a right to a lawyer though. Freedom is messy someone on the right once claimed. Well defeats the purpose of fighting a law on behalf of the values we are simultaneously dismantling

  03/17/13 11:37 PM | Comment Link

• John Poole said...

  10

  Every totalitarian state fears the unattached male-single guy from an orphanage with no girlfriend. Manning’s gay orientation even strengthened the chance he could pull off the rogue act of following his conscience since he was even more estranged within the American military machine. Now he is thought a traitor by millions of Americans and Assange isn’t going anywhere. I’m still in disbelief. Will his actions have any lasting and positive results?

  03/18/13 2:47 AM | Comment Link

• Kyzl Orda said...

  11

  Good questions, might be early still and the jury is literally not there yet either. But Dr Juan Cole’s blog has something of potential interest and if you consider what he raises, manning’s role is part of context:

  “What we Lost: Top Ten Ways the Iraq War Harmed the US”

  http://www.juancole.com/

  03/18/13 6:37 AM | Comment Link

• jim hruska said...

  12

  j. rey,
  Could you please explain your cmt that Manning is a traitor?
  I’m confused.
  Do you consider killing civilians as patriotic?
  jim hruska at rangeragainstwar

  03/19/13 2:00 PM | Comment Link