Bradley Manning was sentenced by a military judge today to 35 years in prison for releasing classified information to Wikileaks, the largest leak in US history.
BREAKING: #Manning gets 35 years in WikiLeaks case, and will be credited with 1,294 days due to pre-trial confinement.
— RT America (@RT_America) August 21, 2013
The army soldier apologized to the court last week, saying “I am sorry that my actions hurt people; I am sorry that they hurt the United States.”
Defense attorneys for Manning had tried to influence a lighter sentence for Manning, arguing that the Army was negligent in not recognizing the soldier’s growing instability. The defense maintained that the army should have in turn revoked Manning’s security clearance, transferred or discharged him. A psychiatrist had testified that Manning’s gender identity disorder and narcissistic personality traits contributed to his decision to leak classified materials.
On July 30th, Bradley Manning was found guilty of twenty offenses of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which included espionage, theft of government property and exceeding his authorized access. He was found not guilty of the most serious charge of ‘aiding the enemy.’
Manning leaked more than 450,000 war logs, several war related videos and 250,000 state department cables to Wikileaks.
He had faced a maximum of up to 90 years in prison, which had been reduced from 136 years when the judge ruled that some of the counts should be merged to avoid “an unreasonable multiplication of charges.”
Read here for prior Bradley Manning coverage.
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Without Snowden you wouldn’t know about FIVE EYES.
Five Eyes are the agreements between: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the UK, and the USA. It explains how the FBI was able to direct New Zealand’a police to confiscate Kim Dotcom’s MegaUpload.
Snowden has also taught many Internet users how data is collected. And, even encryptions often fail. GroKlaw closed down. Lavabit closed down. And, Americans have learned we’ve got SECRET COURTS.
Sure, we’re told it’s all about terrorism. Instead, we got the Patriot Act. Because Evil really knows how to game stuff by calling it in Orwellian fashion … something it is nt.
We also know the whole top level is incompetent! (Including our courts.)
Meanwhile, the USA got some sort of “head’s up” that Glenn Greenwald’s boyfriend was “transiting” Heathrow. And, that all airports have this “no man land … where you’re not actually IN the country … The airport contains “free space.” And, a “can do anything it wants.” David Cameron is defending this.
And, in England, very slowly … British ‘subjects’ are waking up. What will they do? I don’t know. But politicians are artists at fabrications and lying …
So there’s a good chance what’s been lost is trust.
Ahead, will England “dangle” the stolen electronics, plus two brand new watches” taken from David Miranda … as something David Miranda needs to “pick up in person?”
Whatever information Laura Poitras sent for “Glenn Greenwald’s eyes” … are her work-in-progress film on the evidence in Snowden’s treasure trove.
Some cities are safer than others.
You’ve learned that Hong Kong, though under Chinese control, is a very open “free speech” society. As well as business hub. And, the locals will work hard at keeping things this way.
Turns out Berlin is another safe city. Laura Poitras scoped out an apartment in Berlin which she considers safe. And, I don’t think Obama can push Merkel around. So this will also be a safety hub for free speech.
The Five Eyes are no longer able to keep their secrets on data gathering.
Microsoft is also up to its ying yang. When you buy anything from Microsoft’s products line it’s security has been compromised.
Ed Snowden says that leaps and bounds are occurring with greater frequency. And, it is possible … security conscious people (not just Kim Dotcom) … will be scouting for sites where the Americans have no reach at all. Including Russia. Which has been given one hell of a business opportunity!
Sure. America can become a police state. But what about jobs in other sectors? What about small businesses? What about the need to have “open forums” that are not open to government intrusion. Or to secret courts?
Why was Ed Snowden hired? He had more skills than anybody “over him.”
If young Americans don’t want to work for the government. And, they’re skilled in their knowledge of computers … could there be a brain drain … as the best seek work outside of the borders of all the FIVE EYES?
Did Heathrow become an avoidable transit stop?
How many lawyers are proud of the addition of Secret Courts to our judicial system? See a problem? Or are there people stupid enough to just consider this a “new” business opportunity? Nine hours, at billable hours, sweeps in money that “white shoe” firsm wouldn’t mind jumping into. Even if it smells like sh!t on their shinola.
The 5 eyes is well known – Established after ww2. However Canada & NZ are on the outer since the 70s . Canada due to its pm Trudeau & as a magnet for anti American Americans. NZ due to its anti nuclear anything.
Even through differing governments the other 3 are core western intelligence monitoring / exchange centres.
When there are parades and legislation, homosexuality is a “normal, natural and healthy” lifestyle. When there’s a defense to mount for a war traitor it’s a “gender identity disorder.”
What bothers me is that the PC culture didn’t allow Manning’s superiors to pull his clearance even though it was indicated any more than Hasan’s superiors didn’t nail him before he went on his shooting spree. Frankly, because of PC, all minorities are suspect simply because no one has the cajones to challenge damaging behavior.
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