Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years. War criminals? Zero. We’ll keep fighting for you, Bradley!

[Catherina]

Alexa O'Brien ‏@carwinb 53s

Pfc. Bradley #Manning sentenced to 35 yrs (w 1294 days credit) . Reduced E-1. Forfeit of all pay & allowances. Dishonorably discharged.

will be credited with 1,294 days due to pre-trial confinement.

Bradley Manning Sentenced by Military Judge to 35 Years in Prison

By: Kevin Gosztola Wednesday August 21, 2013 10:19 am

...

Guards quickly escorted Manning out of the courtroom as supporters in the gallery shouted, “We’ll keep fighting (for) you, Bradley,” and also told him he was a hero.

...

Manning is unlikely to serve his entire sentence in prison. He will immediately be able to petition for clemency from the court martial Convening Authority Major General Jeffrey Buchanan. A clemency and parole board in the Army can look at his case after a year. After that initial review, he can then ask the board to assess his sentence on a yearly basis for clemency purposes.

Manning has to serve a third of his sentence before he can be eligible for parole. Appeals application to the Army Criminal Court of Appeals will automatically be entered after the sentence is issued. If Manning or his lawyers do find issues to press, they can take the case to the Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces and then possibly the US Supreme Court.

There is “good behavior” credit, which can be as much as ten days for each month of his confinement.

...

The sentence is far greater punishment than individuals in the military, who actually committed war crimes by killing innocent civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan, have received. It is also, when considering proportionality, a level of punishment than what soldiers or officers involved in torture in the past decade have received.

Supporters of Bradley Manning, led by the Bradley Manning Support Network, will now officially begin the next chapter of their effort to free Bradley Manning. This includes pushing for a presidential pardon for Bradley Manning and a college trust fund that would allow Manning to go to college once he was released.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/08/21/bradley-manning-sentenced-by-military-judge-to-35-years-in-prison/

[octoberlib]

1. On MSNBC they said he could be eligible for parole within 10years. nt

[snappyturtle]

2. .............

I find this barbaric....he's been through enough. I know it could
be worse but.......just so sad.

[woo me with science]

3. This is not the America

we were told we lived in.

There are no adequate words for this. I feel sick.

[Catherina]

10. Me too. 35 years for Bradley Manning while George Zimmerman walks free.

That was no trial, that was a circus.

[TBF]

15. Two circuses if you count

both the Manning and Zimmerman "trials".

Greenwald next on board ...

We live in a police state. A racist one to boot ...

[Catherina]

31. I wasn't expecting any miracles 5 years ago

but I wasn't expecting this either.

I hope Greenwald has understood that he better not step foot in the US for some time.

[theHandpuppet]

18. +1000

The grotesque joke that is the American "justice" system.

[MineralMan]

4. That's more than I predicted.

I thought 10 years. I thought incorrectly, apparently.

[Solly Mack]

5. Well, war crimes are OK.

Evidently.

[Catherina]

9. Manning sent to prison. Mubarak set free from prison. War criminals Bush, Blair & drone killers free

Manning sent to prison. Mubarak set free from prison. And war criminals Bush, Blair, & the drone killers live free.

Nobel Peace Prizes for everyone else.

[Solly Mack]

11. Have you noticed my "sig-line"?

That sums it up for me.


When reading it, think everyone who excused torture as done in "good faith".

[Catherina]

19. It's great. People who excuse torture in "good faith" are worthless pieces of shit

They have no "good faith".

[Solly Mack]

20. I agree.

[MisterP]

32. control of the narrative is as important as control of leges

publicly derided for saying that hexavalent Cr is a nutrient? hire experts and create a movement of suburbanites, teenstached faux-radical surfer dudes, Objectivist prestidigitators, and every TV channel that says that intervention in groundwater is ZOMG DON'T U REMEMBER PROHIBITION FAILED
70-90% of Americans want real gun registration, SS, Plan E, peace, no fracking, etc.--but the bounds of acceptable discourse have been moved to deliberately exclude all that

[theHandpuppet]

21. It's madness, sheer madness

it's like some kind of alternate universe where all the rules of decency and justice are reversed.

[Catherina]

28. It is... Well said. I feel horrible about the world we're leaving our kids

We have got to change this.

[Blue_Tires]

6. I lost any pretense of faith in military justice when they let the killers in Haditha walk..

[Catherina]

23. And more than 3 times the maximum sentence faced by anyone involved in Abu Ghraib torture n/t

[Catherina]

7. ACLU Comment on Bradley Manning Sentence

ACLU Comment on Bradley Manning Sentence

August 21, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, [e-mail]

NEW YORK – A military court-martial today sentenced Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for giving classified material to WikiLeaks. Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project had this reaction:

"When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system. A legal system that doesn't distinguish between leaks to the press in the public interest and treason against the nation will not only produce unjust results, but will deprive the public of critical information that is necessary for democratic accountability. This is a sad day for Bradley Manning, but it's also a sad day for all Americans who depend on brave whistleblowers and a free press for a fully informed public debate."

https://www.aclu.org/free-speech/aclu-comment-bradley-manning-sentence

[Vinnie From Indy]

22. +1

"When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system."

Seriously wrong indeed!

Cheers!

[1awake]

8. President Obama should pardon him.

but he wont.

[Catherina]

14. President Obama should give him Obama's undeserved Peace Prize n/t

[ecstatic]

12. Zimmerman: 0 nt

[deminks]

13. Torturers ok, war criminals ok, economy busters ok, environmental destroyers ok,

one private who blows a whistle not ok.

[DLevine]

16. Shameful. nt

[MNBrewer]

17. How much time did these war criminals serve?

[WillyT]

24. Un-Fucking-Believeable...

[Catherina]

25. Amnesty calls on Obama to commute Bradley Manning's sentence, investigate exposed abuses

Instead of fighting tooth and nail to lock him up for decades, the US government should turn its attention to investigating and delivering justice for the serious human rights abuses committed by its officials in the name of countering terror

- Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International, Wed, 21/08/2013

21 August 2013
USA: Commute Bradley Manning’s sentence and investigate the abuses he exposed

President Obama should commute US Army Private Bradley Manning’s sentence to time already served to allow his immediate release, Amnesty International said today.

“Bradley Manning acted on the belief that he could spark a meaningful public debate on the costs of war, and specifically on the conduct of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. His revelations included reports on battlefield detentions and previously unseen footage of journalists and other civilians being killed in US helicopter attacks, information which should always have been subject to public scrutiny,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International.

“Instead of fighting tooth and nail to lock him up for decades, the US government should turn its attention to investigating and delivering justice for the serious human rights abuses committed by its officials in the name of countering terror.”

Some of the materials Manning leaked, published by Wikileaks, pointed to potential human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law by US troops abroad, by Iraqi and Afghan forces operating alongside US forces, and by military contractors. Yet the judge had ruled before the trial that Private Manning would not be able to defend himself by presenting evidence that he was acting in the public interest.

“Manning had already pleaded guilty to leaking information, so for the US to have continued prosecuting him under the Espionage Act, even charging him with ‘aiding the enemy,’ can only be seen as a harsh warning to anyone else tempted to expose government wrongdoing. ” said Brown.

...

“Bradley Manning should be shown clemency in recognition of his motives for acting as he did, the treatment he endured in his early pre-trial detention, and the due process shortcomings during his trial. The President doesn’t need to wait for this sentence to be appealed to commute it; he can and should do so right now,” said Brown.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/usa-commute-bradley-manning-s-sentence-and-investigate-abuses-he-exposed-2013-08-21

[Ichingcarpenter]

26. Meanwhile.......

George W. Bush
George W. Bush was president when the U.S. invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence, tortured terror prisoners and conducted extraordinary renditions around the world.

"Enhanced interrogation," a Bush administration euphemism for torture, was approved at the highest level. A "principals committee" composed of Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft signed off on the methods.

"There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tenet for authorizing torture and war crimes," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, when the group released a report called "Getting Away With Torture" in 2011.

Dick Cheney
As Bush's vice president, Cheney pushed the nation over to the "dark side," as he called it, in the war on terror.

The U.S. used extraordinary renditions to swoop up terror suspects and send them to repressive regimes in places like Syria and Libya for torture. Cheney was the key driver in producing the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. into war in Iraq. And he steadfastly defended the CIA's use of water-boarding and other torture tactics on U.S. prisoners.

Cheney "fears being tried as a war criminal," according to Colin Powell's former chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, but he never has been.

Donald Rumsfeld
One of the planners of the Iraq War, Rumsfeld steadfastly maintained while Defense Secretary under Bush that U.S. soldiers did not have an obligation to stop torture being used by their Iraqi counterparts. He also approved of "stripping prisoners naked, hooding them, exposing prisoners to extremes of heat and cold, and slamming them up against walls" at Guantanamo.

While deployed to Iraq, Manning discovered that Iraqi soldiers had arrested members of a political group for producing a pamphlet called "Where Did the Money Go?" decrying corruption in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"‘i immediately took that information and *ran* to the officer to explain what was going on," Manning wrote in the chat logs. "he didn’t want to hear any of it … he told me to shut up and explain how we could assist the FPs in finding *MORE* detainees."

George Tenet and CIA torturers
Tenet was the CIA chief who told Bush that the case for war with Iraq was a "slam dunk." Under his watch, the CIA waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Further down the chain of command at the spy agency, lower-level officers have escaped prosecution for killing a prisoner in Iraq and one in Afghanistan in CIA custody. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012 ruled out prosecuting anyone responsible for those deaths.

In sharp contrast, former CIA agent John Kiriakou is currently serving a 30-month sentence for revealing to reporters the names of interrogators involved in detainee abuse.

Abu Ghraib higher-ups
Although low-level soldiers like former Army Reserve Specialist Lynndie England were court-martialed for their role in detainee abuse at this notorious prison in Iraq, graphically illustrated in photos, the only officer prosecuted in the case had his conviction tossed out.

A 2009 Senate Armed Services Committee report found that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not the result of a few unmonitored bad apples but rather the direct result of "enhanced interrogation" practices approved of by officials much higher up in the Bush administration.

[Catherina]

29. Saints and *men of honor* every last one of them according to US justice

Sickening.

[wundermaus]

27. Outrageous.

An abomination of Justice.
And a scar on the face of Liberty.

[TDale313]

30. This is so, so wrong.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. Well, at least the regime is "transparent" as to what it does to whistle blowers.