Mood:
irritatedNow Playing: Governement protects its own - mo accountability
Topic: FAILURE by the GOVERNMENT
People who leak state crimes are always insiders who have no other way to find justice for the crimes the state is committing. The state is not going to prosecute itself, the state is going to try to protect itself and insulate itself from liability and seek immunity for war crimes. The same is true for corporations and any powerful entity. It is near impossible to correct corruption from the inside if the entire branch or department or entire entity is operating from the grounds of corruption, often corrupt leaders at the tops. These people can only take the case to the public through journalists and publishers because complaints to superiors can lead to a dangerous dead end. This kind of leak is what we refer to as whistle blowing. Just like it sounds, the person is blowing the whistle and asking for intervention by the public, the media, and any interested parties or organizations.
http://www.presstorm.com/2011/06/fair-trial-for-bradley-manning-not-likely/
Investigative Analysis: Fair Trial For Bradley Manning Not Likely
There is a big difference between leaking state secrets and leaking state crimes. Those who leak state secrets are usually going after monetary gain, character assassination, or any number of self serving interests. These are people like Scooter Libby and Karl Rove who leaked the identity of a US spy, Valerie Plame, because her husband made a comment against the war in Iraq (although Libby nor Rove were never charged with this crime). In this case, those who leaked her identity were not fully prosecuted because US officials don’t prosecute themselves. The journalist apparently did not know she was a spy and faced no charges, but did cooperate in the so called investigation. See original article Novak wrote here. When criminal justice failed, the Plame’s filed civil suit against Libby, Rove, Cheney, and Armitage (who took public credit for her ousting) but that case was dismissed.
Bradley Manning is accused of transferring classified material to Wikileaks for publishing. What may have been what we know as the Collateral Murder video in which 2 Reuters journalists were gunned down and killed by helicopter fire in Iraq, among others. This was the first initial accusation that was believed to have been leaked by Manning. The material here is not at all sensitive in the sense that military operations are time sensitive. Therefore, this video really never belonged in classified status anyway. (military secrets are kept before and during an operation- not after it is over) Furthermore, it illustrates quite clearly state crimes. If you are not familiar with the rules of engagement in battle for US soldiers see it here. This means Bradley Manning leaked state crimes, not state secrets.
People who leak state crimes are always insiders who have no other way to find justice for the crimes the state is committing. The state is not going to prosecute itself, the state is going to try to protect itself and insulate itself from liability and seek immunity for war crimes. The same is true for corporations and any powerful entity. It is near impossible to correct corruption from the inside if the entire branch or department or entire entity is operating from the grounds of corruption, often corrupt leaders at the tops. These people can only take the case to the public through journalists and publishers because complaints to superiors can lead to a dangerous dead end. This kind of leak is what we refer to as whistle blowing. Just like it sounds, the person is blowing the whistle and asking for intervention by the public, the media, and any interested parties or organizations.
This case became entangled in public prosecution and pre-trial media guilty verdicts when alleged chats between Bradley Manning and Adrian Lamo were made public. We cannot authenticate these chats, but they do something very dangerous in this case. These alleged chats would attach Manning to the leaking of the State Dept. Cables. The problem is people are treating the chat logs as if they are legitimate when we don’t know anything about them, other than they were produced by former hacker Adrian Lamo. Wired, the Washington Post, and Adrian Lamo refuse to release the chat logs in full to the public, leading some to question journalistic integrity.
See more about the chats here.
See more about Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com criticism of those who possess the chat logs in full here.
As if this were not bad enough, prominent public figures actually called for Manning to be executed long before the accused faced a court room. (House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers, former Gov. of Arkansas Mike Huckabee)
The leaking of the State Department Diplomatic Cables is another matter entirely, which legally could fall under state secrets. Like it or not, these people schmooze with officials in other nations in an effort to collect information and form some kind of relationship. Even if those leaders are horrible dictators. As a journalist, these are an excellent source for the whole world to benefit from, and it is in the public interest to publish these and bring understanding to them. We appreciate the valuable work of diplomats. There are a few that border upon state crimes. If any diplomat was committing crimes then we go back to Manning as a whistle blower. This makes the task of delving into the cables and identifying state crimes extremely important, at least for the defense.
With President Barack Obama along with everyone else in official capacity beating the drum of his guilt, there will be no fair trial. Julian Assange said fairly accurately:
“we cannot stop publishing because someone takes a hostage,”
in his PBS interview. I agree. Bradley Manning is a whistle blower, and should be treated as such. Instead of impeaching fraudulent officials and charging them with war crimes, the state has decided to make an example out of a single soldier of conscience.
