Bradley Manning Guilty of Espionage

July 30, 2013 in Montana

by lizard

I put “Bradley Manning” into the old search engine, and here are the first headlines:

Acquitted of aiding the enemy… (CBS)
Found not guilty of aiding the enemy… (Washington Post)
Acquitted of aiding the enemy, still may face long jail term… (Chicago Tribune)
Found not guilty of aiding the enemy… (CNN)

And then there’s the BBC: Guilty of espionage:

Pte Manning, 25, has been convicted of 20 charges in total, including theft and computer fraud.

He had admitted leaking the documents to anti-secrecy organisation Wikileaks but said he did so to spark a debate on US foreign policy.

The leak is considered the largest ever of secret US government files.

He faces a maximum sentence of up to 136 years. His sentencing hearing is set to begin on Wednesday.

Tomorrow Manning will learn whether his sentence will amount to being in prison for the rest of his life.

And James Clapper walks free after lying to Congress, a felony.

And Halliburton gets fined pocket change—$200,000—for destroying evidence related to the Gulf oil spill.

And JP Morgan will pay their penance for rigging energy markets.

Bradley Manning, guilty of espionage for disclosing war crimes.

Not Jane Harman, who actually tried to peddle her influence on behalf of two Israeli spies:

The California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to drop espionage charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung
up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”…

Bradley Manning sacrificed his freedom to push a conversation about America’s destructive role on the world stage into existence. At the very least, what we owe Manning, and all the other courageous whistle blowers, is to pay attention.