MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Manning sentenced to 35 years for providing Wikileaks with 700.000 classified files
Bradley Manning, the US soldier convicted of the biggest breach of classified data in the nation's history by providing files to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Judge Colonel Denise Lind, who last month found Manning guilty of 20 charges including espionage and theft, could have sentenced him to as many as 90 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for 60 years. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesHe might be paroled at roughly the same time as Assange leaves the Ecuadorean Embassy. About 7 years! Both sentences seem fair.
Aug 21st, 2013 - 06:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No muzzling. No censorship. Just people who break the law paying the price. Manning's book deal alone in 7 years will more than compensate for his time in jail
Interesting to again see the true colours of Assange and his sycophants:
www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/julian-assanges-wikileaks-party-running-mate-leslie-cannold-quits-20130821-2sb99.html
I reckon he will be more than robbed of his youth in prison......bet there's no compensation for that!
Aug 21st, 2013 - 07:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“No muzzling. No censorship. Just people who break the law paying the price. Manning's book deal alone in 7 years will more than compensate for his time in jail”
Aug 21st, 2013 - 07:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Convicted felons can no longer profit from the actions via books and movie deals. He should not have committed the crime if he was unprepared to absorb the consequences of his actions as a soldier. He will be in a military prison, most likely in protective custody to protect his life.
He should be awarded the noble peace prize after they strip it from Obama!
Aug 21st, 2013 - 07:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hey you above......my name is Alfred Bernhard Nobel and I have just turned in my grave......I'm sure it is very Noble of you to call me Noble but my name is Nobel!
Aug 21st, 2013 - 07:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Don't do it a gain I have an Explosive temper!
Edward Snowden is a Noble person unlike the rest of the CIA shills he exposed.
Aug 21st, 2013 - 07:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hey you above........that was one of the best recoveries from a spelling error I've ever seen......well done!.........except this guys name is Bradley Manning!..:o)
Aug 21st, 2013 - 08:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That was my other nomination for the “Nobel ” prize!
Aug 21st, 2013 - 08:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Dumb kid who got caught. He is lucky he's still alive.
Aug 21st, 2013 - 08:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 08
Aug 21st, 2013 - 08:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You ....have got me beat mate!
AVoice has flounced from the building...
I hate it when people confuse the verb to flounce witht the verb to skulk.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 01:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0Anyway, another interesting article on Assange's awful election campaign in Australia:
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/wikileaks-campaign-for-senate-implodes-20130821-2sbqc.html
And Assange has washed his hands of Manning and is concentrating on his new cause celebre, Snowden:
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/wikileaks-campaign-for-senate-implodes-20130821-2sbqc.html
He has, and I quote, been “trying to save the life of a young man” .
Sorry Manning, but that young man wasn't you.
Comment removed by the editor.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 02:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0I see you returned.....make sure your new persona's don't call me Pops. You get caught with minor slip ups......like Bradley. I wonder if if feels the love from Assange? Bradley did not get a death sentence........so what is your messiah from the Equadorian embassy going to claim now?
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 05:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0Well when you join the military in the UK you have to swear an oath of allegiance, I imagine the Americans have a similar thing, and manning would have been under that oath.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 05:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0Security is important, and at the end of the day I wonder how many lives he put in danger. Snowden, Manning & Assange are all cut from the same cloth, under achievers with little man syndrome thinking they will change the world by reporting what they deem to be atrocities committed by allied forces, well on the flip side of that we have terrorists that fly planes into buildings and blow up buses and trains, one can't help think these 3 might have spent there time better dealing with that, than leaking sensitive documents to an attention seeking sh**head like Assange.
No pity for them at all, these do-gooders have no idea, Assange next please, 100 years for that fella me thinks. I have no time for those that would endanger the lives of our troops and our allies with such disregard and arrogance.
After the My Lai Massacre, the only one who was punished was 2nd leftenant Calley. Three and a half year of house arrest for a wholesale murder of some 175-200 innocent men, women and children.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 06:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0US military justice borrows a lot from North Korea.
@1 I thought a third of 35 years would be about 11 years? And that's only until he can be “considered” for parole.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 07:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0@2 Don't suppose the lucky boygirl will be bothered. Probably looking forward to it!
@9 Very true.
@12 What a pity you can't use proper English!
@14 Totally agree with you. Any person enlisting in any U.S. armed force takes the oath of enlistment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_enlistment
Perhaps Manning didn't understand the “support and defend” part. Or perhaps someone didn't tell him that copying documents with a security classification to unauthorised individuals is just plain WRONG.
I do think he's got off lightly. No doubt the judge had sentencing guidelines to comply with but I tend to believe that some consideration should have been given to the number of people, U.S. and allied, that he endangered. The current number of personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces is 1,429,995. Then there's the personnel in all the allied armed forces. And innumerable civilians.
But I can't see Assange as a do-gooder. As events have demonstrated he is a narcissist who cares for no-one except himself. And he's certainly arrogant.
700,000c classified files and he didn't give a damn about what was in them -- including a couple of them would be used to bury the Belarus reform movement by handing it to Wikileaks who were all cuddly cuddly with Lukashenko. In 35 years, I hope things change there and they get to have a piece of what's left of him.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 09:06 am - Link - Report abuse 0@3 Oh that pesky Son of Sam law and the ones that followed (I hope they also cover ghostwriters but I doubt it)... I say LET him publish and let the proceeds, as they should, go to the people he damaged, if they are in a prison overseas, keep it in trust and let the interest grow.
#14 you typically swear an oath to defend the Constitution of enemies both foreign and domestic, then obey the orders of POTUS, then officers, and then acknowledge you are subject to the UCMJ. He knew he screwed the pooch big time. He got off easy.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 09:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Bradley, we are with you!”
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 09:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0I don't think so.
I think he will need the years to be in solitary;
his prison years could see him bored like a rinoceros and twice as frequently. (OK. I know rhinos are easily bored).
Night-times are the worst.
“Back to the wall, and keep yr eyes open all night, every night, Pte Manning!”
Betraying your country is bad enough, but betraying the people who wear the same uniform as you do and putting their life's at risk is ferking unforgivable, miserable slimy excuse for a man!
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 11:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0They should have sent him to a combat unit in Afghan, given him a metal detector and made him walk point. Instead he gets three square meals a day, a warm place to sleep, unlimited medical care and access to higher education!
He better get some plastic surgery and change his name before he gets out, because the first American combat vet who recognises him is going to give him a well deserved slapping, good and proper.
@20
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 11:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0Plastics surgery and hormone treatment
Bradley Manning: 'I want to live as a woman called Chelsea'
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/usa/bradley-manning-i-want-to-live-as-a-woman-called-chelsea-1.1223103
Years ago I would have called that, “working your ticket.”
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 11:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0Now they probably pay for the surgery and issue you the correct kit /-:)#
@21 No doubt we'll also hear now how transgenders especially will have to adore Chelsea the Judas. I work with a transgender person who works in a position of heavy trust, and pardon the pun but, BOY! Will she'll love THAT! Yeah, that'll go over well. I want to make a TShirt with with a picture of him and a caption that says, “Would you trust YOUR confidential data to THIS person?” And the stupid people will STILL not get it.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 11:53 am - Link - Report abuse 0Paradoxically, the Wikileaks that I have read - and I read hundreds - all showed the USA in a good light.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 12:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But you don't get a lighter sentence for showing the USA is doing a good job. (surely there must be an emoticon for a wry smile)
@24. But it provides ammo for people who are reflexively and fashionably anti-American who cherrypick and write whatever self-validating narrative they want between the lines.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 12:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There is something about these queers. Problem with “gender identity”? Execute. How can you apply “human rights” to something that isn't human? Bradley Manning is a sub-human pervert. Don't like execution? Then bury him a thousand feet under the earth, naked, for the rest of his existence. Bread, water and a bucket. Or, perhaps, send him out on the frontline. Alone. IED detector.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 01:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@Conqueror Yes poor choice of wording perhaps, “Do-Gooder” is maybe how he try's to perceive rather that what he actually is, Manning got off lightly do doubt about it, but 35 years is a long time regardless, and maybe sufficient when you consider the amount of enemies he has gained, is there a safe place for these people? I doubt it.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 02:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Fed up with people disrespecting the Armed Forces, both at home and Away, namely our US counterparts, the debt ordinary civilians owe to these people is beyond comprehension.
He certainly seems a bit confused now!
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 03:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Perhaps he joined up to be with “the boys”.
Is 8 years enough time for an extreme makeover? I reckon he will come out and earn a fortune as Americas most famous transexual author. I don't agree with what he did, but he obviously felt let down by the society he was paid to protect.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 03:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Was probably picked on by the other GI Joe's......and plotted revenge!
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 03:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's obvious to see how assange was able to take advantage of someone that was in all likelihood in a state of total confusion being tormented between the male/female identity crisis. I suspect those are the types that assange preys upon and makes an easy case to exploit. Seems everyone in assanges exhaust resents julia.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 04:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Now that he knows he will not be executed, maybe Correa will step up and tell Julia the vacation is over......meet your victims in Sweden.
Where are you going Pops......don't leave!
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 04:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Gender identity issues can be debilitating to some and Manning is not alone with his problems.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 05:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0While it doesn't forgive what he did, the US Army was remiss in dealing with his multiple mental health issues and I'm sure they will be reviewing how he came to join and how he came to be deployed overseas.
Ignoring Conq's whiskey breath infused rant about “queers”; I still don't think Manning is an extreme case just a case that is highlighted to a world that doesn't understand or encounter gender identification issues.
Captain Poppy, you are right about Assange. He totally used Manning and then threw him to the wolves. It's probably why he is vainly trying to help Snowden. Even a narcissist can sometime feel guilt.
@33 “It's probably why he is vainly trying to help Snowden. Even a narcissist can sometime feel guilt.”
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 07:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I really doubt it that he understands the concept of guilt. Assnage needs to associate with Snowden so things can be “All About Julien” once again and not about this upstart Carl the Intern. If he had a conscience he'd be leaving the poor besieged people in the Ecuadorian consulate in peace and face the consequences of his actions. Manning is Assange's sacrificial lamb, his martyr for his organization. Better to cast some “sad hot-mess tranny” down on the stone altar than someone important -- like Julian.
As for Manning's transgender issues, being transgendered may be weird for a lot of us (I know it threw us for a loop and still does even though we still like him, or as we now say, her, and more importantly we respect and very much still trust her as a professional) but having TG issues isn't an excuse for treason. Manning did what he did because is was as narcissistically amoral and maliciously careless as Assange, and honestly it sickens me to see people trying to grasp at this straw to provide some level of sympathy for the little ... I need to review my sensitivity training as to when in the “process” I can call her the C-word.
But... Now that the TG card IS being by Manning and his appologists and since he IS a “public figure*” and this IS now a “public interest*,” I'm sure, that HIPAA be damned, I'm sure that Manning, St Julian the Martyr-by-proxy, and Wikileaks would have NO problem seeing his medical and psycological records “leaked” -- for the public interest.
Wouldn't they?
*as was done with a certain Senatorial candidate who was running agiainst a cettan political it-girl (or should I say here, it-boy) and his SciFi actress's family court files -- all in the “public interest” of course. But I really can't see doing it if said candidate was a member of the other party -- that would be “different.”
Anglotino...the US Army has a long way to go in reviewing their processes on a lot of things. However, G2 usually has some pyscho evaluations but I am guessing it is more geared to other things than sexual identity crisis. But they really screwed up with Manning in everyway possibly. His actions can never be rationalized as he knew what he was joining, the ultimate men's club in the world, not to mention the stringent rules, yet....I still feel sorry for him. Can you imagine a gender conflit in the Army? assange is a scumbag.....I hope he rots in the embassy. Better yet, release him, I don't think it's government assange fears, I think he fears non government retribution.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 07:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0GFace
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 07:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A well said comment.
I don't think that Manning's mental health issues are an excuse. There is no excuse for what she did. And I do believe it was treason. And I do believe that she had an inflated sense of self as well as being delusional that what she was doing was anything other than wrong. You can whistle blow within the US and while the consequences would sometimes be difficult, the government would be more willing to pardon someone like Manning in such as situation.
What I guess I was trying to say is that Manning's issues couldn't have been secret. She doesn't seem to possess the strong personality and deceit that would be required to fool everyone. The US Army needs to look at how they put this individual in the position she was in. However that still does not mean that Manning isn’t 100% at fault for his own actions. He did it and should pay the price. But the US Army should be looking how to prevent this in the future.
Assange has used Manning and all but abandoned her. If Assange really believed his own hype he could have cut a deal somewhere along the way but his messianic complex gets in the way of most things that he does.
Everything Assange touches turns to crap. People bail out for almost all his ventures and everyone is starting to see the pattern. Notice how little Snowden talks or mentions Assange? Even though Assange talks about him all the time. Most people want nothing to do with Assange, including the Ecuadorian government I am now starting to think.
(You will not that I use she and her to describe Manning; this is because Manning has now asked to be identified as a female and whether we like or understand this process, we should respect her rights)
Bradley or Chelsea is just means to an end for Mr. Assange.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 09:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Just collateral damage.
Do not forget that Assange took the stolen documents provided to him freely, and then asked for millions for them for his “ consideration and compensation, ”. over glasses of wine, according to The Guardian.
Anglotino
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 01:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0Normally I agree with your posts but on this occasion I must disagree.
Manning forfeited any rights he may have had when he decided to betray his brothers and sisters in the armed forces. Whether intentionally or not, his actions put their life's at risk.
He is now a convicted criminal, he can have his rights back when he has completed his sentence.
... but his conjugal visits should provide him with a series of dilemmas.
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 05:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0Conjugal's.....I don't think so.
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 07:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0@36
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 08:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Notice how little Snowden talks or mentions Assange?”
It has been reported that Snowden does not trust anyone at Wikileaks anymore or Greenwald. Yet another person who was sucked into Assange's cult only to be disenchanted.
“Most people want nothing to do with Assange, including the Ecuadorian government I am now starting to think.”
That is for sure. Remember the 'stone and the shoe' comment?
If Manning was not sentenced to death obviously assange will get even less IF in the unlikely event they were going to pursue him. Maybe it's time for correa to depart ways with assange......no one cares about him anymore, they are bigger issues than him happening.
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 09:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0One thing is for certain, he will pursued for breaching his bail in the UK. Unfortunately that would probably cost him a fifty dollar fine or a maximum of a week in jail.
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 12:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I can not remember, did his sureties lose their money? I believe they were substantial sums of money.
I believe they lost 50% of them. The magistrate said something to the effect that they put up that money on good faith or something.
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 01:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Britain's secret listening post based in the Middle East is revealed in 'Snowden leaks' (The Daily Mail asserts, reporting on an Independent article).
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 01:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0* Site accesses web traffic by tapping into underwater fibre optic cables
* Operation is part of GCHQ scheme to monitor communications around world
*Edward Snowden said he was not behind the report in the Independent
*The exact location of the base has not been reported
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2400702/British-surveillance-facility-based-Middle-East-revealed-Snowden-leaks.html#ixzz2coENzp6x
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2400702/British-surveillance-facility-based-Middle-East-revealed-Snowden-leaks.html#ixzz2coENzp6x
I'm waiting for the first of the 'secrets'.
We have been doing this for many years - I visited the British Kantara mountain complex on North Cyprus a few months back; it is perfectly located for listening in on the Eastern Med. especially Syria, the Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq.
(Well I remember in the 1960s the regular songs sent by loved ones to and from Kantara on the BBC's Forces Favourites).
This type of surveillance is just updated for the electronics age, but with physical intervention - hacking into the 'main cable' of the regional internet.
These articles are very sparse but the newspapers make a lot of what little they have got.
Snowden says “Nothing to do with me”.
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