Bradley Manning Is Guilty of “Aiding the Enemy”—If the Enemy Is Democracy.


Of all the charges against Bradley Manning, the most pernicious—and revealing—is “aiding the enemy.”Pfc. Bradley Manning (Portrait by Robert Shetterly)

A blogger at The New Yorker, Amy Davidson, raised a pair of big questions that now loom over the courtroom at Fort Meade and over the entire country:

* “Would it aid the enemy, for example, to expose war crimes committed by American forces or lies told by the American government?”

* “In that case, who is aiding the enemy—the whistleblower or the perpetrators themselves?”

When the deceptive operation of the warfare state can’t stand the light of day, truth-tellers are a constant hazard. And culpability must stay turned on its head.

That’s why accountability was upside-down when the U.S. Army prosecutor laid out the government’s case against Bradley Manning in an opening statement: “This is a case about a soldier who systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents and dumped them onto the Internet, into the hands of the enemy—material he knew, based on his training, would put the lives of fellow soldiers at risk.”

If so, those fellow soldiers have all been notably lucky; the Pentagon has admitted that none died as a result of Manning’s leaks in 2010. But many of his fellow soldiers lost their limbs or their lives in U.S. warfare made possible by the kind of lies that the U.S. government is now prosecuting Bradley Manning for exposing.

In the real world, as Glenn Greenwald has pointed out, prosecution for leaks is extremely slanted. “Let’s apply the government's theory in the Manning case to one of the most revered journalists in Washington: Bob Woodward, who has become one of America’s richest reporters, if not the richest, by obtaining and publishing classified information far more sensitive than anything WikiLeaks has ever published,” Greenwald wrote in January.

He noted that “one of Woodward's most enthusiastic readers was Osama bin Laden,” as a 2011 video from al-Qaeda made clear. And Greenwald added that “the same Bob Woodward book [Obama’s Wars] that Osama bin Laden obviously read and urged everyone else to read disclosed numerous vital national security secrets far more sensitive than anything Bradley Manning is accused of leaking. Doesn't that necessarily mean that top-level government officials who served as Woodward’s sources, and the author himself, aided and abetted al-Qaida?”

While pick-and-choose secrecy is serving Washington’s top war-makers, the treatment of U.S. citizens is akin to the classic description of how to propagate mushrooms: keeping them in the dark and feeding them ********.

But the prosecution of Manning is about carefully limiting the information that reaches the governed. Officials who run U.S. foreign policy choose exactly what classified info to dole out to the public. They leak like self-serving sieves to mainline journalists such as Woodward, who has divulged plenty of “Top Secret” information—a category of classification higher than anything Bradley Manning is accused of leaking.

While pick-and-choose secrecy is serving Washington’s top war-makers, the treatment of U.S. citizens is akin to the classic description of how to propagate mushrooms: keeping them in the dark and feeding them ********.

In effect, for top managers of the warfare state, “the enemy” is democracy.

Let’s pursue the inquiry put forward by columnist Amy Davidson early this year. If it is aiding the enemy “to expose war crimes committed by American forces or lies told by the American government,” then in reality “who is aiding the enemy—the whistleblower or the perpetrators themselves?”

Candid answers to such questions are not only inadmissible in the military courtroom where Bradley Manning is on trial. Candor is also excluded from the national venues where the warfare state preens itself as virtue’s paragon.

Yet ongoing actions of the U.S. government have hugely boosted the propaganda impact and recruiting momentum of forces that Washington publicly describes as “the enemy.” Policies under the Bush and Obama administrations—in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and beyond, with hovering drones, missile strikes and night raids, at prisons such as Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo and secret rendition torture sites—have “aided the enemy” on a scale so enormous that it makes the alleged (and fictitious) aid to named enemies from Manning’s leaks infinitesimal in comparison.

Blaming the humanist PFC messenger for “aiding the enemy” is an exercise in self-exculpation by an administration that cannot face up to its own vast war crimes.

While prosecuting Bradley Manning, the prosecution may name al-Qaeda, indigenous Iraqi forces, the Taliban or whoever. But the unnamed “enemy”—the real adversary that the Pentagon and the Obama White House are so eager to quash—is the incessant striving for democracy that requires informed consent of the governed.

The forces that top U.S. officials routinely denounce as “the enemy” will never threaten the power of the USA’s dominant corporate-military elites. But the unnamed “enemy” aided by Bradley Manning’s courageous actions—the people at the grassroots who can bring democracy to life beyond rhetoric—are a real potential threat to that power.

Accusations of aid and comfort to the enemy were profuse after Martin Luther King Jr. moved forward to expose the Johnson administration’s deceptions and the U.S. military’s atrocities. Most profoundly, with his courageous stand against the war in Vietnam, King earned his Nobel Peace Prize during the years after he won it in 1964.

Bradley Manning may never win the Nobel Peace Prize, but he surely deserves it. Close to 60,000 people have already signed a petition urging the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the prize to Manning. To become a signer, click here.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/06/05

I love it when guys like this do their thing and expose the government, just wish more of the public would take an interest in what our employees are doing and start choppin heads off so to speak.

While I can see the value in releasing some of the information Manning released, he didn't review all of the hundreds of thousands of other documents before releasing them wholesale. He also broke his agreement to keep secrets secret, as a condition of his clearance and placement. He should get life in prison for that.

Manning did what he did because he did not like what members of the U.S. military were doing, not because he thought that the U.S. military was doing something illegal.

The claim that Manning was exposing illegal activity is not a claim that has been supported with facts.

Sounds like there are a few judgementals on here who haven't bother reading what Manning "dumped" to wikileaks.

Most of it was never released by Assange and part of the reason Julian and Manning are still alive probably.

What was released, shows the inhumanity suffered at the hands of invading forces firing on civilians and reporters without any intel on what was taking place, then firing on the civilians (with 2 children in the van) who were simply trying to help the innocent wounded. Then tapes and video of when it was discovered to be civilians, children and reporters, the lack of remorse by commanders who ordered the "tap and double tap" to get them adequate or the earliest help possible, then lying to cover it up.

Here, that would be like the responders at Newtown saying "It was only a few children and teachers...no big deal!" and letting those responsible go about their business.

Manning was only doing what he took an oath to do

Brad the Patsy!
Got to be stupid to brag about something you have done that is Illegal!
He could have gotten away with it!
But the way he went,I wonder if he still think it was worth it twenty years down the road!

A Patsy for that selfserving Punk of Wikileaks!

We all know gubamemt is to keep us safe and drones are good

They might do Holder soon!

Ya know Con.... we need sources like wikileaks to do the job the gov't media won't.

We used to have journalists that actually risked their a$$e$ to get stories like this to inform the public..... no more

Now any who try are attacked by the IRS and Holders' DOJ, labeled as whistleblowers, and black-balled in the gov't controlled press corp

Manning left himself wide open for those Charges!
Could have definitely been more discreet!
Laying down in front of the Juggernaut won't stop it,it will only crush you,as he will soon experience!

"I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces." -Étienne de La Boétie

We're talking about a 20 yr old child.... how "smart" were you or I at 20?

He saw something he considered VERY wrong, the people he worked for responsible for it (remember...a 20 yr old mind) and did something about it.

It may have not been the best route, but the news did get out (which it would not have by any other "proper" means....like chain of command

Sounds more like a human being controlled by conscience than a traitor to me. A 20 yr old private in a massive machine.... what would you have done?

Kids a hero in my eyes!

Does anyone remember why they automated our missile defense systems?

Even when it is renamed transparency, spying is against the law...Putting 250 thousand plus classified docs online has "potential" danger to national security...On the other hand, citizens are entitled to the truth... The hidden danger of Manning's actions is "how" people react!...We cannot allow security concerns to cloud governments threat to our civil liberties!...Loss of freedom(s) is the price for apathy...
People like Bradley Manning and Julian Assange only serve to open the door wider when it comes to allowing government to "create" exceptions to First Amendment freedoms...It might not be so bad if Manning and Assange were the only focus of government anger, but government is also pizzed and pointing a very big finger at media for providing the outlet for the "stolen" docs...Manning's biggest mistake was stupidity and for that he will pay a huge price...All he managed to do was destroy his life while giving government another excuse to step on constitutional freedoms...I hope they throw the book at him if for no other reason than to strengthen our case against Assange if and when we do get "our turn at bat" with that pasty piece of chit....

i agree, but the government shouldn't hide behind that to do illegal things for illegal gains...

A legal duty to report war crimes

Manning is charged with crimes for sending hundreds of thousands of classified files, documents and videos, including the "Collateral Murder" video, the "Iraq War Logs," the "Afghan War Logs" and State Department cables to Wikileaks. Many of the things he transmitted contain evidence of war crimes.

The "Collateral Murder" video depicts a US Apache attack helicopter killing 12 civilians and wounding two children on the ground in Baghdad in 2007. The helicopter then fired on and killed the people trying to rescue the wounded. Finally, a US tank drove over one of the bodies, cutting the man in half. These acts constitute three separate war crimes.

Manning fulfilled his legal duty to report war crimes. He complied with his legal duty to obey lawful orders but also his legal duty to disobey unlawful orders. ...........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/16731-bradley-mannings-legal-duty-to-expose-war-crimes

Military code of justice....... He is innocent, we are guilty.

no, those facts are misrepresented a bit... the military always investigates these types of so called "war crimes" does what needs to be done internally. when documents like these get out, it compromises their investigation.

Bradley had a clearance, secret, i believe, and they do not hand those out easily. he knew not to do it, it doesn't matter why... they only way he might not get life is the liberals save him, but i think even the libs know how bad he screwed up.

BS on that we the american people would never had known of these atrocities had it not been for wiki leaks and nothing was done to the savages who committed the war crimes.

Enshrined in the US Army Subject Schedule No. 27-1 is "the obligation to report all violations of the law of war." At his guilty plea hearing, Manning explained that he had gone to his chain of command and asked them to investigate the "Collateral Murder" video and other "war porn," but his superiors refused. "I was disturbed by the response to injured children," Manning stated. He was also bothered by the soldiers depicted in the video who "seemed to not value human life by referring to [their targets] as 'dead bastards.' "
http://truth-out.org/news/item/16731-bradley-mannings-legal-duty-to-expose-war-crimes
We need no further proof of our mainstream media being the propaganda arm of the "government".

a little one sided, as usual... you don't know that any "war crimes" were ever even committed... i watched the real video of the helo shooting the 12, and the part wikileaks left out was one of them shoved a RPG launcher in the white van before the shooting. and the tape clearly shows the followed their orders, as they have to check in with the commander at the base before they fire. he ok'ed it... thats why these videos are surpressed to the public, because of hotheads like you that have it in for bush, anything about his presidency... 7 years after his legacy, you have yet to whine about the currant admin killing kids with drones and lying even worse than whatever you think bush did... you can stop the hate, bush is gone and not coming back..

That is a total fabrication I saw the video please post your link to your version love to see it..........