Ex-State Department Spokesperson P.J. Crowley on Democracy Now (Fri 16 Aug)

[struggle4progress]

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, P.J. Crowley, you famously resigned in March 2011 after you were asked by an MIT graduate student why the United States government was torturing Private Bradley Manning, and you responded by accusing the Pentagon of being "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid" in its treatment of Manning ...

P.J. CROWLEY: ... I resigned from the State Department; I wasn’t asked to leave. I did so because having a public disagreement with the president of the United States—I serve at the—I served at the pleasure of the president, and I thought that in light of our disagreement publicly, I could no longer effectively serve in my position as his foreign policy spokesman. That was my decision and no one else’s.

I certainly stood by what I said. I thought that the treatment of Bradley Manning in the brig at Quantico undercut what was, in my view, a very necessary prosecution. Bradley Manning has admitted guilt to a number of serious charges. He violated his oath of office. And I believe that he should serve a significant sentence for his actions. I did not support the prosecution’s pursuit of the charge of aiding the enemy. I thought that was judicial overreach. But I certainly understood that the treatment of Bradley Manning, you know, was affecting international opinion of the United States ...

... I certainly would say, from my vantage point, having gone through the WikiLeaks event at the State Department, is, I can tell you that there was damage done to the national interest, and more importantly, there were real lives put at risk because of the release of these diplomatic cables. Since the entire archive is now in the public domain, you’ll recall that there were a number of cases in these cables where diplomats somewhere around the world had talked to activists, and they had said, "strictly protect the identity," because, if revealed, their lives would be at risk. And I can just attest to you that there were people whose careers were ruined, who had been intimidated, jailed. Some who have been listed in those cables have been killed. I can tell you it’s because of the WikiLeaks revelations. But for those who say that Bradley Manning did no real damage to the national interest, I can tell you earnestly that that’s not true ...

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/16/ex_state_department_spokesperson_pj_crowley