Julian Assange And Pfc Bradley Manning Have Done A Huge Public Service

The Atlantic:

Julian Assange and Pfc Bradley Manning have done a huge public service by making hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents available on Wikileaks -- and, predictably, no one is grateful. Manning, a former army intelligence analyst in Iraq, faces up to 52 years in prison. He is currently being held in solitary confinement at a military base in Quantico, Virginia, where he is not allowed to see his parents or other outside visitors.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[iuriggs6]

11:13 AM on 12/09/2010

Manning should never see the light of day again.....

[Dean Kevorkian]

04:05 PM on 12/07/2010

Manning should be put to death for treason. The wiki leaks guys should be charged with espionage as well. No ifs ands or buts. Shame on people trying to justify Mannings actions.

[renman2010]

11:37 AM on 12/07/2010

Truth is good. There is also no such thing as internet security. Get used to it. This is way bigger than Wikileaks.

[gfirmin57]

10:03 AM on 12/06/2010

From the article:

In a recent article in The New Yorker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Steve Coll sniffed that "the archives that WikiLeaks has published are much less significant than the Pentagon Papers were in their day" while depicting Assange as a "self-aggrandizing control-freak" whose website "lacks an ethical culture that is consonant with the ideals of free media." Channeling Richard Nixon, Coll labeled Wikileaks' activities - formerly known as journalism - by his newly preferred terms of "vandalism" and "First Amendment-inspired subversion."

So much for Assange's noble motives.

I certainly will enjoy seeing this weasel experience his comeuppance.

[renman2010]

11:47 AM on 12/07/2010

Coll "sniffed" this comment? How appropriately quaint and mid-Twentieth century of him. It's a brave new world of communication, Steve, and things are a bit more dissonant than they were 11 years ago.

[Moder8tion]

12:52 PM on 12/07/2010

So, ignore the facts stated then lib.... The information didn't expose any conspiracy. He leaked day to day official classified communications because of greed.

[xanxia]

07:06 AM on 12/06/2010

Its a shame Pfc Bradley is spending 52 years in prison. Julian and Bradly are heroes.

[frameofmind2]

08:39 PM on 12/06/2010

co-sign!

[Moder8tion]

12:53 PM on 12/07/2010

Heroes for what? Would you be more specific?

[me again]

07:28 PM on 12/05/2010

A diplomat should have no fear to provide an assessment and commentary of a situation to his/her superiors. Their thoughts are priviledged information provided so that America uses the right negotiation tactics with our friends and foes alike. Quality intelligence allows us to win and without it, we can get the short end of the stick. Any American citizen who is praising the release of private e-mails between diplomats and our State Department should have their head examined. Assange is a cyber-problem and no friend of ours.

[persimmon8]

09:15 PM on 12/05/2010

In the larger picture...this is a very good thing as most things clandestine and secret are a cover for bad behavior and corruption and on and on. Can you imagine if our diplomats actually behaved like grown-ups and did business in a no nonsense kind of way through real cooperation, transparency, and accountability? Julian Assange is doing what is necessary to allow the free flow of information which in the long run will help create a better upfront way of doing business with integrity.

The way you are defending is the old outmoded 'business as usual' model that has protected the entrenched power and money elites who mostly do not want to create the necessary positive and benign changes for humanity and the earth world.

[Keith Cozart]

10:16 PM on 12/05/2010

outstanding F & F

[me again]

06:39 AM on 12/06/2010

I absolutely do not agree with you whatsoever. We are not talking about back room deals, we are talking about opinions by the U.S. official representative to a given Country. Their advice from the front lines should be allowed to be priviledged information, not for public consumption. Assange is meddling in something he has zero right to be involved with. Our Country has normalized relations with the Nation of his birth, therefore he has some sort of odd hostility towards the U.S. to seek and dump this sort of private information. It frankly is a very sad state of affairs.

[persimmon8]

11:24 AM on 12/06/2010

one thing....is that it is NOT about winning...it is about international cooperation and dealing with our common business in a grown-up and upfront manner. Winning is about wanting domination over the other...and at this point in history...that paradigm has to go. We must create a cooperative and tolerant community both local and global. And transparency, integrity, and accountability is a real and essential part of that process. This 'my tribe or nation winning' crap is why we have so many problems.

[salty07]

01:55 PM on 12/06/2010

So.... all we need to know about international relations can be learned at kindergarten recess? Well, let's see.... How would that work in practice? Lets take a simple situation. Do you buy a car by walking into the dealer and telling him exactly how much you have been approved for? Or do you price a house (or something else) you are selling exactly what you expect to get for it? Do you tell your casual friends about every little thing that irritates you about them? Pretty difficult to put that nice idea into practice with interpersonal relations. Now, compound that with nation states, pursuing complicated and often divergent ineterests. Are you really saying that pure honesty makes some kind of sense in international communications when human beings are fundamentally unable to practice it on an individual basis? Pardon me, I can't hear your response over the roar of laughter coming from the ghosts of soldiers and diplomats (and spies) from the past five thousand years of history.

[dryhole]

09:09 PM on 12/09/2010

What no tribe tribe are you not a part of?

[UNCLEJOE]

05:54 PM on 12/05/2010

CAUGHT WITH THEIR PANTS DOWN

Considering that foreign intelligence agencies like China, Russia, Israel the UK and many other nations already have copies of these easily accessible unclassified U. S. Government documents, it become clarion clear that the US Congressmen are only upset because the American Citizens are now aware of the corruptive shenanigans of our government that are being carried out which are in adverse to the welfare of the American citizens whose future votes will be decided on these disclosures. Let the Heads Roll.

I can't wait until the book is published with all the nefarious disclosures of out hidden government.

[marleysghost]

05:52 PM on 12/05/2010

The price of revealing the truth in this strange world of a living 1984 nightmare of lies, doublespeak, and criminal administration officials allowed to run around free, is steep. After all, he blew the cover on all these liars, cheats, and thieves who call themselves servants of their countries, when all they are doing is looking to pull the wool over everybody's eyes so they can continue to destroy us - and I am just talking about the US government officials, here. We need a constitutional convention and tell these malefactors all to go home and elect a new set of public servants.

[gfirmin57]

09:59 AM on 12/06/2010

There is always a heavy price to pay for treason. I am looking forward to seeing Pfc Manning pay that price.

[OnTheOtherBeach]

12:46 PM on 12/06/2010

If that's what you believe we need, what are you doing to make it happen? Or are you just typing and hoping?

So many have so many ideas for revolution, yet so few do anything.

[foggytoo]

05:36 PM on 12/05/2010

This is a nation of laws so the two gentlemen under discussion should not be lumped together. Private Manning broke his oath and must pay the price. He will be tried & the punishment ought to be serious enough to discourage anyone else from repeating his error. We ought to be looking at who has access to what data in this land.

I cannot imagine what reasoning the military can provide for giving a Private First Class permission to even enter a building containing this sort of data which one would think would be more compartamentalized than it seems to be.

Do we have a military where officers who do analysis have clerical staffs to do their typing which would have gone on fifty years ago? Or has the military joined the rest of the world by placing limits and responsibilities on the person actually using the computer for sensitive work?

Mr. Assange did what journalists used to do. He received information & passed it on to the public. He may have a personal agenda & maybe Daniel Ellsberg did, too, but the fact is freedom of the press is critical to the salvation of democracy. Our government's reaction to Mr. Assange does undercut the noble words found in our Constitution.

And to suggest that government employees or future hires will be have their careers harmed if they read Wikileaks is beyond me. They more than the rest of us need to become aware of the reality we live with.

[greezil428]

04:59 PM on 12/05/2010

In a memorandum entitled "Transparency and Open Government" addressed to the heads of Federal departments and agencies and posted on WhiteHouse.gov, President Obama instructed that "Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing." The Administration would be wise to heed his words -- and to remember how badly the vindictive prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg ended for the Nixon Administration. And American reporters, Pulitzer Prizes and all, should be ashamed for joining in the outraged chorus that defends a burgeoning secret world whose existence is a threat to democracy.

[Enroh Mot]

04:50 PM on 12/05/2010

The corporate controlled warmongering news media, echo chamber of the government hate Julian Assange, because he's doing the job they should have been doing, but didn't.

[Linda Williams]

04:40 PM on 12/05/2010

The truth will set one free.

[gfirmin57]

10:01 AM on 12/06/2010

And treason will get you 52 years in a federal prison...as Pfc Manning is about to find out.

[CherokeeGirl]

03:41 PM on 12/05/2010

I'm grateful. Me and about 68.8 million of my friends, once they get past the spin and to the facts. Go Julian! Hang in there Bradley!

[FaaLaveLave]

05:28 PM on 12/05/2010

Couldn't have said it better. Kudos to Julian and Bradley.......keep them safe from the demonizers and infidels.

[boomcat44]

03:30 PM on 12/05/2010

I'm just not sure what the point of all of this was.
I haven't read anything yet, that I didn't at least suspect was going on.
Certainly, nothing earth-shattering has been revealed.
If there's more damaging stuff left, I think everyone needs to stop and consider the possible fallout.
Mr. Assange had to have known he was making some very powerful enemies by doing this, and pfc Manning knew he was crossing the line. Both of these guys made their own beds.
Right or wrong, there ARE consequences.

[josef k]

03:46 PM on 12/05/2010

> there ARE consequences.

Not if you're a war criminal from the Bush administration.

[boomcat44]

04:02 PM on 12/05/2010

Hopefully, time will tell a different tale on the criminal actions of the Bush Administration.
But, my opinion is that right now, with all that is facing the country, this is not the time to make that case.
We just have too many more important things to worry about.
I have no problem putting Cheney and Co. in chains for what they've done to this country with the run-up and prosecution of the war in Iraq, but it's not on my list of things that NEED to get done first.

[HummusGringo]

07:28 PM on 12/05/2010

Oh, SNAP! :)

[Enroh Mot]

03:30 PM on 12/05/2010

The government has warned students not to download WikiLeaks, and they don't want them to watch the Wizard of Oz either, they might get ideas about pulling the curtain.