Not everyone who serves is deserving of respect.
Last April, WikiLeak.org and its owner, Julian Assange, edited and published a 2007 footage they entitled “Collateral Murder”, which purported to show an American Apache helicopter killing unarmed civilians, including news reporters, in Iraq.
While WikiLeak.org is slated to release a new video of an alleged “massacre” by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, a 22 year old Pfc Army intelligence analyst serving in Iraq was detained about a month ago, accused of being the source of the leaked “Collateral Murder” video. Charges have now been brought:
BAGHDAD — An American soldier in Iraq who was arrested on charges of leaking a video of a deadly American helicopter attack here in 2007 has also been charged with downloading more than 150,000 highly classified diplomatic cables that could, if made public, reveal the inner workings of American embassies around the world, the military here announced Tuesday.
The full contents of the cables remain unclear, but according to formal charges filed Monday, it appeared that a disgruntled soldier working at a remote base east of Baghdad had gathered some of the most guarded, if not always scandalous, secrets of American diplomacy. He disclosed at least 50 of the cables “to a person not entitled to receive them,” according to the charges.
You can see a complete list of the charges here on the Help Bradley Manning website. If you think that site is stomach-churning, check out the Facebook fanpage (another one here and here), with comments like this:
while its very easy to bash some soldiers as being cruel and callous, these soldiers were doing exactly as they were trained by the Army. The Army uses Racism, hatred, and nationalism to train their soldiers to dehumanize the people of Iraq (or Afhganistan)
Soldiers in a sense are re-programmed to feel no emotion for c…ivilians. Its a trigger mechanism that when soldiers do or see something that an average person (non military) would reel or anguish over, soldiers are taught to push through that emotion.
I think that instead of blaming soldiers for the actions that are not only sanctioned by but encouraged by the leaders of our government, we should be focusing on the system that trains these soldiers to behave that way. If we do not demand responsibility from the nations leaders then nothing will change, and soldiers will still be trained in Racism, and hatred!
So what is Manning’s beef?
With his custom-made “humanist” dog tags and distrust of authority, Bradley Manning was no conventional soldier.
Ostracized by peers in Baghdad, busted for assaulting a fellow soldier and disdainful of the military’s inattention to computer security, the 22-year-old intelligence analyst styled himself a “hactivist.”
~~~ Manning is a slight, boyish-looking son of divorced parents from Crescent, Okla., population 1,400. His Facebook page shows him smiling, with stylish, upswept hair and a stated affinity for gay-rights groups including Repeal the Ban, which seeks to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals serving in the U.S. military.
Growing up in a house he shared with his parents and older sister, Manning had a sharp intellect and an interest in science, history and computers, said Jordan Davis, a boyhood pal. He said Manning also was determined at a young age to join the Army.
“It always seemed to me that Bradley was actually was more patriotic than probably even your average person,” he said.
Chera Moore, another childhood friend, described Manning as highly intelligent and helpful. But she said he had “anger issues” and could get furious when people disagreed with him.
When Manning’s parents split up in middle school, he left Oklahoma to live with his mother in Wales, Davis said.
After Manning graduated from high school and returned to Oklahoma, he quit or lost jobs in food service and retail in Tulsa, Davis said. Settling briefly in Chicago, Manning moved in with an aunt in Potomac, a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., and took community college courses before joining the Army in 2007.
Davis said Manning trained in Arizona, probably at Fort Huachuca, where he trained in compiling intelligence reports. Such reports help the military determine changes in enemy capabilities, vulnerabilities and probable courses of action.
In recent months, Davis said, Manning seemed to have grown more aware of social issues, including the gay-rights movement.
There’s some speculation going on, regarding Manning’s sexual identity as motive. So is this what it’s really about and not some “conscientious objection” to our war efforts, “terrorizing Iraqi and Afghan children”?
Check out his public profile and list of pages on his Facebook.
Manning’s family members declined interview requests from The Associated Press.
According to partial chat logs Lamo shared first with Wired.com, Manning started communicating with Lamo on May 21, a couple weeks after he was reduced in rank from specialist to private first class for assaulting another soldier.
In one of many personal asides, Manning told Lamo he had been the only nonreligious person in a town that had “more pews than people,” and that he had custom-made dogtags reading “humanist.”
Manning said he was pending discharge for an “adjustment disorder,” according to the chat logs, but Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom said Manning wasn’t facing discharge when he was detained May 29.
The chats reveal Manning’s frustration at being “regularly ignored” at work.
“I’ve been isolated so long,” he wrote. “I just wanted to be nice, and live a normal life … but events kept forcing me to figure out ways to survive … smart enough to know what’s going on, but helpless to do anything.”
According to the chat logs, Manning’s turning point came when he watched Iraqi police detain 15 people for printing anti-Iraqi literature that turned out to be a scholarly critique of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
“After that … I saw things differently,” he wrote. “I was actively involved in something that I was completely against.”
Manning wrote he had copied onto compact discs “possibly the largest data spillage in American history” while listening and lip-synching to Lady Gaga’s “Telephone.” He wrote that he exploited “a perfect storm” of military computer vulnerability: “weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counterintelligence, inattentive signal analysis.”
His motive, according to the chat logs: “I want people to see the truth … because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.” Manning wrote that he hoped to provoke worldwide discussion, debates and reform, according to the chat logs.
Lamo told the AP he grew concerned “when it became apparent that he was leaking classified information to a foreign national” — Wikileaks’ Australian founder Julian Assange. Early in their online conversations, Manning told Lamo that he had sent 260,000 State Department diplomatic cables to Wikileaks.
Lamo said he turned the chat logs over to Army criminal investigators after consulting with a friend who had worked in Army counterintelligence.
“It was a combination of an act of conscience and an act spurred by my understanding of the law,” Lamo said. “I did this because I thought what he was doing was very dangerous.”
Ellsberg said he considers Manning and Assange heroes for publicizing information the government wanted suppressed. He said Manning’s alleged leak was possibly more significant than his own, which exposed the secret expansion of the Vietnam War.
“He is the first person in 39 years to do something comparable to what I did — and really better than what I did, because it’s current,” Ellsberg said.
Both Ellsberg and Gabriel Schoenfeld, an author who supports cracking down on leakers, said that the Obama administration has gone further than the Bush White House in pursuing alleged whistleblowers.
The charges against Manning follow April’s indictment of former National Security Agency worker Thomas Drake for allegedly lying and obstructing justice in an investigation of classified information leaks to The Baltimore Sun.
The Army’s decision to charge Manning also followed a federal grand jury’s reissuance in April of a subpoena seeking the names of some sources for journalist James Risen’s book, “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.”
Schoenfeld, author of “Necessary Secrets” and a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute, said leaks of military information during wartime run counter to America’s interests.
“We’re serious about trying to win, and it’s extremely damaging to the morale of our troops,” he said. “It inflames the local opinion, where we have a real battle for hearts and minds.”
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Hey, he’s going to fit in with prison life just grand.
Manning and Ellsberg. Here’s a cigarette before we tie you two to the posts. You guys better wish that the sun doesn’t come up.
He looks like something my daughter could whip, with both hands tied behind her back.
Yep, that is what all those supersmart intellectuals do; lose jobs in food service and fail out of community college.
HMMMM – acting as an agent for a foreign power and hacking should buy him life in Leavenworth. To do this deliberately in a time of war makes him a traitor – and that still carries the death penalty.
My wife landed back in the USA on 4 July after serving her tour in Iraq. This punk added to the danger she faced. I cast my hat into the ring and will return to active duty to be on his firing squad.
This boy is facing a possible excecution. I hope for his sake he has a decent lawyer. Although, I have the sick feeling that the Zero will get him off and award him the corrageous restraint medal.
@Flyovercountry: You touched on what I wanted to say. Our King-In-Chief will pardon him if he is convicted and appoint him to some government position. He will fit right in.
FTA:
Oh yes… it would have been MUCH better if Saddam just had them killed and thrown into mass graves. 😯 What a bozo.
Death? Too good for a traitor, IMHO. I say lock him up, and only allow him “dial-up” internet privileges. That ought to make his life sentence seem extra long.
Then again, if he gets off…
… it looks like he has all the eligibility to be POTUS.
This boy is gonna be really popular in Levenworth…
“hey boy, ya got a pretty mouth…”
@Romeo13:
Leavenworth is not a Navy brig.
Besides – he should get the death penalty AFTER several years of dial-up connectivity (MataHarley). His trial should take quite a while and he can share a cell and mouse with another disgrace to the Army and fellow candidate for the death penalty, Nidal Hassan.
While we’re waiting for that well deserved sentence, there ought to be no expense and effort spared in locating and arresting the creep that put this stuff on his web site, Wikileaks.
@Romeo13:
This dolt should never make it to see Leavenworth. His fate should be to be staring down the business end of 4 bolt action rifles being wielded by 4 highly qualified marksmen. With only 3 wounds to the heart as one of those marksmen’s weapons will contain a blank and not a live round. Espianage against the flag anytime is unforgiveable, but especially during a time of war, is beyond any living punishment short of torture. Espianage against the U.S. is bad enough, but this man aided the enemy during combat thereby placing his comrades in arms in harms way. Those fellow soldiers would have selflessly sacrificed their own lives to save his, and he returned that trust with an act of treachory. When he’s dead, he deserves to have his ghost executed by the ghost’s of fallen soldiers again.
Hrm…did anyone else catch this? “Humanist” is the term that LeVey said most accurately described the members of his Church of Satan and he advocated that the term “Satanist” should actually be “Humanist”. I’m not saying, nor do i have any proof, that Manning was a satanist, but that line jumped out at me.
La’
Redsol1
I believe that most of these comments are disgraceful. I believe that Bradley Manning did the right thing in releasing these videos to Julian Assange and Wkileaks. With out “Collateral Murder” we would never know what really happens in Iraq as well as Afghanistan.
Mr Zimmett, what did you think REALLY happened in a war before you saw the video?
@ Stephen R. Zimmett,
And I think that Lamo did the right thing by reporting Manning’s actions to the United States Army’s Criminal Investigation. If anything, Lamo is the honest one in this story. I mean, what about all those cases where military members were falsely charged with wrong doing and it turned out that the prosecution was tampering with evidence? As if people can not manipulate content from diplomatic cables for their own nefarious purposes and hatred of our military members.
Take for example the alleged Haditha case, the prosecution was caught red handed manipulating evidence by attempting to dispose a video from a predator drone, because it showed that the Marines were being shot at from the direction of the housing complexes that they later raided.
The predator video by the way, was delivered to the office of the agents investigating the incident using a diplomatic cable. In addition to the video validating the alibi of the Marines in question, the video showed explosions going off in the area and the Marines were trying to evacuate people on the streets to cover. Anyone who would think this was still a massacre with Marines killing indiscriminately, rather than a depressing mistake after the facts that have been brought to light, is hopelessly asinine.
Sadly, this can honestly be said about a massive proportion of America’s general public.
If Manning has an anger problem and is intolerant of those who go against his will, then I hope that Lamo can be kept at a safe distance from him.
And I think that Lamo did the right thing by reporting Manning’s actions to the United States Army’s Criminal Investigation. I DID NOT WRITE THIS!! WHO IS USING MY NAME??
Mr Zimmett, what did you think REALLY happened in a war before you saw the video?
I believe that in many cases, and this is not the first time , that the military has killed many civilians.
I also saw on TV a statement that General Barry McCaffrey said about the Afghanistan civilians.
Many civilians were killed by our US military. I can only guess how many of these poor people were killed.
So much for fighting a war in Afghanistan. I believe that we should get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. The war has no end insight. In Real Time with Bill Maher, he said a few weeks ago that we will have 50,000 troops in Afghanistan 2 years from now.
So mush for the fighting!
No problem, Stephen Zimmett. Because frankly, I consider your comment a disgrace. One needs only envision the US military of your mentality – comprised of low level privates acting as self-appointed whistleblowers and second guessing theatre strategy and command.
Should that US military ever come to fruition, I do hope it’s you leading the charge on any battlefield, and being knifed in the back by those you command.
Just think. Because Julian Assange released the video “Collateral Murder”, now our wonderful government is trying to put an act together called
National Security. Protecting Security as a National Asset Act
So much for whistleblowers. Now Wikileaks, Salon.com and a number of other websites will be banned here in the US. So much for our 1st amendments rights. No telling what next will happen
to our free speech.
@Stephen R. Zimmett:
What the wikileaks video showed was a professional military doing its job. Those civilians were embedded with armed individuals who were engaged in warfare against our troops. It is a task well beyond reason to expect our, or any soldier to make real time decisions as to who is an enemy and who is just watching under battle conditions.
Manning did not limit his leaks of information to just that video. He also actively diseminated classified material to the enemy. He betrayed lives that depended on his loyalty, and who would have unquestionably sacrificed their own for him.
Go back to smoking pot and living worry free in the blanket of freedom provided by the military you so loathe. That apparently, is the only thing you are good at.
@Stephen R. Zimmett: you’d better get those filaments in your cranium low wattage light bulb checked. There is a chasm between grunt military personnel deciding what should and should not be classified information, and private sector news. Were your hyperbole true, the NYTs would have been out of business a million times over.
What the wikileaks video showed was a professional military doing its job.
DOING ITS JOB. KILLING INNOCENT CIVILIANS AS WAS TOLD IN THIS VIDEO.
GIVE ME A BREAK.
NYTs would have been out of business a million times over.TtHE NEW YORK TIMES DOES NOT TELL THE REAL STORY ABUT THE WAR. I WATCH FREE SPEEECH TV DAILY AND GET MORE INFORMATION FROM THEM THAN FROM NBC, CBS OR ABC NEWS. I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THE THE NEW YORK TIMES HAS A REAL IDENTITY IN AFGHANISTAN OR IRAQ OR ANY WHERE FOR THAT MATTER.
AND BY THE WAY PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE ON HOW OUR WONDRERFUL GOVT. IS PREPARING TO SHUT DOWN THE INTERNET:http://gdmp.net/subdoms/gdmporg/?p=10985
Out of curiosity Stephen, do you feel sorry for the poor people killed by suicide bombers? Most of the killing in Iraq is caused by sectarian fighters and terrorist cells. If crimes committed by our military are so common, then why are there so many incidents where the case against our troops had evidence being tampered with by those attempting to prosecute them?
By the way, nobody is trying to put words in your mouth or use your name. When I said that I am glad that Lamo reported Manning, it was intended as a response to your initial statement. As for wiki-leaks and salon.com, find some reliable sources to learn from, like academic reports or something. You are not expanding your knowledge through websites like those you have listed, instead you are forming a cocoon to hide in from information that may require you to question your own biases.
Ryan: I discovered Wikileaks through Democracy Now on Free Speech TV. I feel that it has the best news information in the business. Do you feel that academic reports will give me the type of information I am looking for? Just like the news media, mostly full of crap. They only want you to see what they are told to tell you about. Honest reporting I seriously doubt it.
I also like Thom Hartmann, who is honest about his form of news information as is Grit tv. So do yourself a favor and check out Free Speech TV.
@Stephen R. Zimmett:
And WikiLeaks is what you consider to be “honest reporting”? Why? Based on what evidence that it is honest reporting and not pushing an agenda and propagandizing the war?
And let’s say “Collateral Murder” happened exactly and as senselessly as WikiLeak will have you believe (3 yrs ago). Let’s say the narrative they shape is the correct one. Does this expose an epidemic problem of what we are doing over there (i.e., murdering innocent civilians and covering it up), or is it an aberration that undermines actual good intentions we have had for prosecuting these wars?
If WikiLeak gives aid and comfort to our enemies, is that a good thing? You can’t possibly believe “Collateral Murder” isn’t being used by the enemy as propaganda fodder, inflaming and emboldening the enemy and endangering our troops?
Would it be a good thing for Iraq and Afghanistan if we fail? Will the civilian populace be better off? Would our failure in those countries make us safer?
OMG, Mr. Zimmett….you are soooo right. Our brainwashed soldiers are over there, terrorizing innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians, raping the countries’ resources and making life worse!
No wonder your cranium filament is burnt out, Zimmett. Anyone who lives on a political diet of “progressive and independent” TV is permanently consigned to living in the dark.
STEPHEN R.ZIMMETT: hi, DID it occur to you, IF the civiliens where killed, IT’S because they
where caught planting thoses roadsides bombs, or fabricating it, or helping the ennemy,
or doing watch for the ennemy, or working for the ennemy, in killing our militarys. bye
@MataHarley:
More like “the dark side”….
I suppose you think The Nation Magazine sucks also, but anyway who cares!
@Stephen R. Zimmett: “I believe that Bradley Manning did the right thing in releasing these videos to Julian Assange and Wkileaks.”
Watch the full video and follow Fox’s lead of “We report. You decide.” The full video is at:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c1b_1270800204
I call myself a neutralist in the sense that when I learn of something new I like to get as much info about it as I can before I come to any conclusions about it. The “Collateral Murder” video on YouTube is a good example. I watched it, but I wanted to see the rest of the video, but YouTube keeps blocking the sights that show it. Someone will put it up, then someone complains about it, and it is blocked. The shorter version is always available. Try to watch the video at the sight below and you will see what I mean. ONE person complained and it is now blocked.
http://mountainrunner.us/2010/04/wikileaks.html
Be sure to read the reason it was blocked, but the short version has the same stuff that the long version was blocked for.
The WikiLeaks video didn’t tell you that there had been firefights in the area earlier a few minutes before this. Our guys had already been fired on in the area. One of the cameramen who was killed had just taken a picture of a nearby Humvee. It was still in his camera. These guys were getting ready to engage our forces. Who knows how many of our guys would have died if these guys weren’t stopped.
It is guys like these who have given liberals the right to complain about our military without the fear of having their head cut off. Try that in a lot of other countries and see what happens.
The van that was shot up had earlier dropped off people in the area. You don’t see that in the shortened version. Who takes kids into a known battle zone. Were they figuring on using them as shields when they were going to attack our guys.
One reporter’s camera lens looked like an RPG. The two reporters were with armed enemy. AK47s and an RPG were clearly visible in the group. Reporters are supposed to wear BLUE helmets to make them easy to identify. Did either reporter have on their REQUIRED blue helmet? These guys were obviously wanting to take pictures of our guys being killed.
Our guys have to ask if they can engage these guys. You hear them asking several times throughout the video. They didn’t just go in there and shoot up the place.
When you hear our guys being a little cheerful when something happens to the enemy, they might have watch several of their buddies being killed or seriously wounded or how a trooper was taken prisoner and tortured then had their had cut off. The more of the enemy killed, the fewer of us they can kill, the sooner the war ends, the sooner they all get to go home.
I don’t watch YouTube unless it is a link from a web sight because you can have your kids watch YouTube and learn how to be a terrorist and suicide bomber, but a lot of conservative material is blocked.
Google owns YouTube and Google hates the military and conservatives. They have donated heavily to Obama. They decorate their logo on their home page for each holiday, except that they didn’t for Memorial Day or Veterans Day until the conservative blogs complained about it. They also edit their search help list for web sights they don’t want you to go to.
They took their Street View car on Fort Sam Houston in Texas and took pictures. They are now banned from all military bases.
They got caught all over the world, including the USA, catching unsecured WiFi info from their Street View car and storing it. This included people’s passwords and personal information. They said it was a programming error.
@Mike: After I stopped laughing, I imagined Mr. Zimmett’s face as he is trying to come up with an answer.
If you guys keep a best response list, this has to go to the top. Short, but to the point.
@Stephen R. Zimmett: I would rather have 50,000 of OUR troops over THERE then 50,000 of THEIR troops over HERE.
I didn’t know Bill Maher had any listeners left.
I have seen footage of the aftermath. An RPG and an AK-47 were clearly visible. Those reporters embedded themselves with terrorists preparing to murder our soldiers. They died as a result. Manning is no hero. He’s just another self centered piece of garbage angry his self annointed brilliance wasn’t recognized by others.
Mr. Zimmett, you are in severe need of a cranial-rectumotomy.
Agreed guys — what we know about Manning is as fake as Bin Laden and “Al-Queda”.
This is all about goading chumps to their self-destruction.
Some guys never learn you can’t kill a cartoon character.. too bad for them.
Smorgasbord: I BELIVEE THAT MOST OF WHAT YOU SAY IS CORRECT. HOWEVER:
The van that was shot up had earlier dropped off people in the area. You don’t see that in the shortened version. Who takes kids into a known battle zone. Were they figuring on using them as shields when they were going to attack our guys. THE VAN WAS USED TO PICK UP THE FALLEN CIVILIANS THAT WERE SHOT. NONE OF THESE CIVILIANS HAD ANY WEAPONS, THIS WAS PROVEN!
The more of the enemy killed, the fewer of us they can kill, the sooner the war ends, the sooner they all get to go home. I DO NOT BELIEVE WE WILL BE LEAVING AFGHANISTAN ANY TIME SOON PERHAPS IN 2 OR 3 EARS IF WE ARE LUCKY.
When you hear our guys being a little cheerful when something happens to the enemy, they might have watch several of their buddies being killed or seriously wounded or how a trooper was taken prisoner and tortured then had their had cut off. A LITTLE CHEERFUL, ALL THEY DID WAS SWEAR UP AND DOWN ABOUT HOW GREAT A SHOT THEY WERE. I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHO WAS IN COMMAND AT THAT TIME.
Wordsmith:And let’s say “Collateral Murder” happened exactly and as senselessly as WikiLeak will have you believe (3 yrs ago) I READ ON ONE WEBSITE THAT MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE WAR IN IRAQ IS OVER, AS MOST PEOPLE DO NOT EVEN CARE ANY MORE. YOU’RE RIGHT 3 YEARS AGO
Big talk from an armchair socialist… like your sorry socialist butt would live thru even two weeks of our military basic training. You should be thanking whatever idol you choose to worship that our military protects even the likes of you.
STEPHEN R. ZZIMMETT: TELL me, which side are you? you TALK favorbly about the ennemy and negativly about the AMERICAN braves, who went there following order from this president to continue that war. they where being savagly exploded with the roadside bombs whyle
the civiliens where watching on the road giving a signal to their positions. and I cannot beleive a guy like you, going around and shoot your mouth against the braves; THAT alone make you and your participated groups the lowest of this country and you should be all ashamed.
Bees, Zimmett subsists on progressive socialist news sources… i.e. Free Speech TV and The Nation, as he has volunteered. I would think that would tell you “which side” he is on. He’s beyond lib/prog. He wanders in the socialist/Marxist circles by choice…. like his POTUS.
In Response to; “I feel that it(wiki-leaks) has the best news information in the business. Do you feel that academic reports will give me the type of information I am looking for? Just like the news media, mostly full of crap. They only want you to see what they are told to tell you about.”
Mostly crap? Respectfully, I beg to differ. Academic reports don’t remove the findings that the researcher does not want the readers to see. They are very thorough which is why they are always quiet long, and why people tend to have a difficult time reading them. In addition to answering the issues of the study as thoroughly as possible, academic reports also raise questions for the readers and researchers alike, which perpetuates more research and thought on the issues examined.
To answer your question, anyone who is looking to become informed, rather than taking what is on the mainstream media (such as wiki-leaks), will find what they are “looking for” in scientific research. If anything, wiki-leaks is more like the news, contrary to your statement than any other source that is not the news. As for your defense of wiki-leaks, lets take into account what they have to offer us as citizens active in political issues.
Anyone can manipulate the contents in wiki-leaks, just as they can for all of the other wiki websites. As Smorgasboard has pointed out, the wiki-leaks video was edited to be shorter, and only included the parts that the publisher wanted the audience to see (a practice so common in professional news services). In short, they were caught red handed for making sure the audience saw exactly what they wanted them to see, and they are guilty of the misconduct that you are accusing the academic reports (and all other sources that fuel dissent from your beliefs apparently) of.
Again, thanking Smorgasboard and giving him/her full credit for the findings, the wiki-leaks video was edited so that way it did not show that the target had RPGs and assault rifles. It did not show that the area had intense fighting when the troopers of the second U.S. brigade combat team had arrived and that they went straight into some intense urban warfare. Much like the Haditha incident that I had brought up earlier, the accusers had tampered with the visual evidence to make people think the troopers were killing indiscriminately.
I do not want to jump straight into conclusions, but I have a hunch that Private Manning’s intentions for sending the diplomatic cables to wiki-leaks included knowledge that this website had veracity issues, since it’s users may manipulate it’s contents as they desire. Personally, and this is just me, I think that since Private Manning was a vengeful person who became “furious” towards those who disagreed with him, he was probably hoping that wiki-leaks would find something through the diplomatic cables. And that they would manipulate whatever it was into a tool to place guilt on the shoulders of our military members, which would be a perfect form of retaliation for his rank reduction as a result of assaulting his fellow soldier.
http://fora.tv/2010/05/25/Uncommon_Knowledge_Sebastian_Junger#fullprogram
If anyone is interested, this FORA.tv interview with Sebastian Junger about his new book WAR
might give you a different perspective about what I watch and what I listen to.
Its 38 minutes in length and FORA.tv has many interviews about a host of things, not only the war, but some pretty darn good journalism. Peter Robinson from The Hoover Institution interviews Junger who has been in Afghanistan for some 5 years as a journalist.
Any comments after you view this would be appreciated.
You think that you watch an interview with Junger makes up for your initial foray into this forum, calling all the commentary “disgusting”? And then post countless ensuing arguments defending a military traitor who assumes his private rank gives him the wisdow to decide what should and should not be classified?
That cranium filament of yours has just officially blew. Suggest you look for a eco friendly 15 watter to continue power to your thought processes.
Mr. Zimmet, have you ever been in a combat zone, did you ever consider the ideas of these terrorist using their woman and children as sheilds, have you ever considered what you would do if you were the one being attacked for having the nerve to defend your turf, or are all of these types of questions beyond your current understanding of what makes a a war a battle field of not only the mind or the soul of a person?
I have been there Mr. Zimmet, I can tell you first hand if you are unable to get in the minds of any Patriot of their country you have no business even commenting on the subject, let alone share your idea of what happened. You were not these and as many have alreasdy proven through links, memory and deed of the leftist mindset, you cannot say anything about our fine warriors who are currently keep them over there vrs. over here attempting to take your little infidel ass off to alla-la-la land without your fricken noggin. Please go back to idiots-r-us and talk to the hand because a mind is a true waste trying to analys your attitude. U.S. Marines, f*&k with the best die like the rest.
Semper Fi.
Funny, the title of that video you linked is self contradictory, Mr. Zimmett. “Uncommon knowledge” is what is presented in many sources we cite on this website, “uncommon knowledge” is what is presented in the Lieu Institute for Research on Global Issues’ Human Security Report and the military PTSD study from the University of Louisville. So far, all of the sources you have presented to vindicate yourself in this thread just fuels common fallacious opinions held by the general public, which can hardly ever qualify as “uncommon knowledge.”
However, I truly appreciate you sharing where you get your information. It helps me understand where you are coming from. While I would beg to differ with what you consider reliable information, I choose to respect it. After all, if I don’t honor your right to read what you want and watch what you want regardless of the content’s lack of veracity, then I would be slapping the face of all those who gave up their lives, and brothers and sisters in arms for you to enjoy that right. Rights are privileges, privileges earned by military members and protected by them, as well as earned and protected by the right those military members gave me to question the information you are giving me, as opposed to just believing you (ie; Wiki-Leaks, Mr. Junger, etc.) without scrutiny. 😉
You have a typo in the title of this blog post. It should read, “Pfc. Bradley E. Manning is a Hero.”
I Fix Typos: Hurray someone finally got it right. You have a typo in the title of this blog post. It should read, “Pfc. Bradley E. Manning is a Hero.”
Nope, Zimmett. Just means you have some company in the light bulb section, looking for a replacement low watter for your craniums.
Ryan: Read this about Ron Paul and what he thinks of PFC Bradley Manning:
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/139403
@Stephen R. Zimmett:
Ahhhhhh………
Ron Paul, the crazy zenophobic uncle of the GOP. I just love it when the libtards tell us who our leaders should be on the right side of the aisle. Ron Paul isn’t even a true Republican. He is a Libertarian who runs as a Republican for the purposes of Getting elected. I am appologize to all of my Libertarian friends for lumping Paul in with you. That is your big argument which is supposed to sway anyone. By bringing up this zenophobic clearly insane boob, you are truly grasping for straws.
His possible sexual identity, the shape of his mouth and his religious beliefs have nothing to do with this issue.
Really.
Should I repeat it? Ok. I will.
His possible sexual identity, the shape of his mouth and his religious beliefs have nothing to do with this issue.
I’m talking especially to you @Romeo13
You boys should grow up. Commenting that you think prison rape would be an appropriate punishment for anyone really makes me wonder just how strongly you believe in the Constitution of our United States.
Now, to the larger issue. The video that was released was the object of a Freedom of Information Act request and from what I could tell held nothing that would make it subject to one of the nine exemptions and three exclusions contained in the statute.
Legally, that video should have been released by the government years ago. The real issue is – how many other similar videos are out there and why wasn’t our government forthcoming in providing them? Americans are financing this war and we have a right to know what’s going on.
We shouldn’t be having this discussion because this video should have been made available long before it could be leaked.
You may shake your head at this soldier (who may I remind you may have bragged online but has certainly not been convicted of a crime). You may disapprove of his actions and his means. But relishing the thought of him getting sexually assaulted in prison, explicitly or by implication, only makes you seem like teenage bullies in a bathroom locker.
Provide concrete, intelligent arguments if you wish to prove your points and express yourselves well. That’s the only way to sway opinions.
Apparently neither of you read the Ron Paul website. Ron Paul may be a Libertarian and I would have voted for him in 2008. None of the news media, our great news media took him seriously.
I have great respect for this man. Had he been elected president, he would have gotten us out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. Too bad neither of you see the goodness in this man. Amen!!
Justin Raimondo script Bradley Manning, American Patriot, tells it all. Our great government as written by Justin: This case has already generated considerable publicity, much of it seemingly put out there by the feds and their media operatives – yes, editors of Wired magazine, I’m talking about your pathetic rag – and designed to obfuscate the issue with personal attacks on Manning. How Manning was busted, and by whom, is a sickening tale of a government informant working in tandem with the hi-tech “media” to “out,” prosecute, and smear a brave whistleblower – go here for the full story. Suffice to say, in this space, that Manning’s detractors have stepped up their propaganda campaign: now that charges have been filed and the “mainstream” media is covering the case, the smears have migrated from Wired to the Associated Press. Check out this story, which begins rather oddly:
Ron Paul might make a good Sec. Treasury, but a good POTUS? No effing way. Why leaving Iraq and Afghanistan immediately would be considered a good thing is beyond me. The power vacuum would just put the Taliban and Al Qaeda right back into a leadership role in those countries.
Even a know it all Private, intent on demoralizing our troops and sabotaging our efforts in the Middle East would know that. One wonders why Stephen R. Zimmett isn’t smart enough to figure that one out…
anticsrocks: hi, I was reading about that CONSERVATIVE, on the pannel beside, HIS name is TIM PAWLENTY, has a very well read backing, and his wife was a judge THEY look very sympa
and well like,as he was in a bbq party,they are young with solid consrvative views, check it up,
HE is looking at the presidency appointment, bye 🙄