Bradley Manning, a military trained intelligence analyst, allegedly downloaded classified US government documents and videos to his laptop and passed them on to Wikileaks in November of 2009.

This has turned Manning, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange into both heroes and outlaws in an international public arena.

Manning was arrested on May 26, 2010 in Kuwait. This single act has landed Manning over 24 different charges stemming from simple fraud, to “mouthful” military charges like “communicating, transmitting and delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source and disclosing classified information concerning the national defense with reason to believe that the information could cause injury to the United States.”

Bradley Manning was recently transferred from the Marine Corps Brig in Quantico to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas by the Pentagon. This follows a 9 month long stint of solitary confinement, amongst other alleged deprivations, to a U.S. soldier whom most of the “free world” considers a hero.











Condition Deteriorating and Presidential Faux Pas



Since Manning’s detainment, friend David House (one of 2 visitors allowed to speak with Manning) has described Manning’s condition as follows:

“Over the months, I’ve seen his condition deteriorate. Mentally, he now has trouble keeping up with some topics of conversation. He has bags under his eyes and he appears to be very weak.”

House has described Manning as catatonic during some of his visits and suggested, without transparency into Manning’s treatment, that psychological abuse was a distinct possibility.

At a star studded Los Angeles presidential fund-raising event, Barack Obama dazzled political followers with introductions and appearances from names like Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx and Will Ferrell.

All of that glitz and glam couldn’t mask the commentary made by the commander in chief that followed.

“If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law. … We’re a nation of laws. We don’t individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate.… He broke the law.”

There are two great inconsistencies in the president’s statement, the most obvious of which is the fact that Bradley Manning hasn’t even been given an official court date, and he most certainly hasn’t even been convicted of any crime.

Some may argue that this was a presidential slip of the tongue. It may well be, but to that I would argue, “Isn’t Barack Obama a self proclaimed Constitutionalist?” Didn’t he teach Constitutional Law at Chicago Law School?

You would think that someone so well versed in law in general wouldn’t make that kind of slip, but the possibility still remains plausible.

The President Has the Right to Declassify

The next inconsistency in the president’s statement lies in the context of the example he used.

President Obama stated that if he were to release information he was not supposed to, he’d also be breaking the law. As the commander in chief, president Obama is allowed to declassify whatever information he so chooses. So at best, he used a poor example in an attempt to justify his administration’s stance on the issue.

And make no mistake, with all of Washington’s top political brass crying foul about Bradley Manning’s revelations, there is no doubt that this is going to become nothing less than a witch hunt.

The way I see it, Manning’s most popular revelation was the video capture of US forces gunning down civilians and reporters carrying cameras Iraq.

The release of this information was done in an effort to hold US forces accountable for the loss of innocent life and to prevent future episodes like that one.

In the 250,000 documents released to Wikileaks, lawmakers looking to make an example of Manning and Assange claim that military lives were put at risk with the leak of this information. So far no one has died from Manning and Assanges’ “leak”, but we can count several deaths just in the video that the public hasn’t honestly been made aware of.

Wikileaks has also agreed not to release specific names of at risk informants in future releases, while the government has deflected responsibility for the exposed incident itself. So, who presents the greater danger to the public?

Innocent Until Proven Guilty?

A true constitutionalist would have averted making claims of guilt on anyone who hasn’t yet stood trial, never mind a serving US soldier.

I could give the president the benefit of the doubt if it weren’t for the seamless continuation of Bush policy.

Broken campaign promises to bring home troops, close Guantanamo, cut down on lobbyist presence in the White House, and even attempting to pass an unimaginably lengthy and unconstitutional health care bill that forces citizens to literally buy health insurance has left him on a shaky pedestal.

According to activists like Jesse Ventura, over 16 million Government documents were deemed classified last year. Without folks like Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, what exactly would we know about what our government is doing behind our backs?

References:

–>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_manning

–>http://failedempire.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/alleged-wikileaks-source-bradley-manning-apparently-subject-to-psychological-torture/

–>http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1104/obama_charms_tinseltown.html

–>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53601.html

–>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53601.html

Originally published on TopSecretWriters.com