Sign in / up

back to article WikiLeaks: Manning guilty verdict sets 'dangerous precedent'

Chief WikiLeaker Julian Assange has said that the guilty verdicts in the case against US Army Private Bradley Manning have set a dangerous precedent. Manning, who handed hundreds of thousands of classified documents over to WikiLeaks in what he claims was an attempt to prompt debate about US military and foreign policy, was …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

        1. Scorchio!!
          Reply Icon

          Re: AC And the others?

          "If you wish to prove otherwise then please do supply some form of verifiable proof or risk being exposed as just a gullible bigot."

          To my amazement you were given negative marks for your post, and this just goes to show that the truth does not appeal to some. Or, in the words of the PR woman in Doug Adams' Hitch hiker's guide, "well tell me mister wise guy, do we want fire fitted nasally[...]', and a load of other culturally relative committee BS about the need for fire, and its applications.

          1 0
    2. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Re: And the others?

      Not true - Lieutenant Calley (My Lai Massacre) did three years for illegal and unethical acts while in the service of the US military. /sarcasm

      0 0

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: UK has history for this to...

      "have you got blood on your hands Prime Minister?"

      1 0
      1. Bleu
        Reply Icon
        Pint

        Re: UK has history for this to...

        Following enjoyable deviation from topic

        An Irish friend posed to me the rhetorical question 'Why did Blair convert to Catholicism?'

        After all of my attempted replies missed the mark, my friend delivered the true answer.

        In paraphrase, the evil bastard wanted absolution for his evil acts,

        and the Catholic church was the only one nearby that might deliver it to him.

        I believe my friend is correct.

        Beer, 'cos half soaked.

        6 0
        1. Scorchio!!
          Reply Icon
          Thumb Up

          Re: UK has history for this to...

          "In paraphrase, the evil bastard wanted absolution for his evil acts,

          and the Catholic church was the only one nearby that might deliver it to him."

          It might also explain his predilection for reproduction, and reproduction by proxy, in the form of importing so many millions of people that our infrastructure is creaking, and much, much more.

          I will volunteer for the post of public executioner the day that ToniBliar and crew are found guilty of their crimes.

          1 0
    2. Mephistro
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      Re: UK has history for this to...

      I agree with your comment, but I find the last sentence -"... and closed the case."- distasteful, given the context. ;0)

      1 0
    3. Scorchio!!
      Reply Icon

      Re: UK has history for this to...

      "Still it could be worse, after a certain British doctor spotted that the dossier of evidence in favour of the Iraq war was bunk, they killed him in order to create a distraction, then basically forged the coroners report into his death."

      Make it simple please; do you have evidence to support what appears to be the claim that he was killed because he decried rather than supported the dossier? If you can prove it and have more than suspicions I'll be grateful, because one thing that I do have in common with the Wikileaks idiota is that I want Blair et al prosecuted for conducting an illegal war. I also want the Blair's babes and others who supported the call prosecuted, especially those who voted strongly against an investigation into the rights and wrongs of the whole sordid affair.

      Bear in mind that Hans Blix - the UN atomic specialist - said that Blair's et al. claims were bunk, including the Nigere yellow cake claim, which turned out to be sheer desperation on the part of these vile creatures in pursuit of their war.

      1 0
  3. dougal83

    Does this sum up American? A country where you can get more incarceration for leaks of information than being a serial killer?

    3 4
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      re: Does this sum up American?

      Sadly, there are far worse things that sum up present day America.

      However, incarceration for "leaks of information," if one works for government or armed services is somewhat expected the world over. Or worse.

      There may be considerable arguments that the actions of Manning and Snowden were for the general good of the world, but no government could be expected to see them as being for the good of their country.

      What did anyone expect that an American military court was going to give an American soldier who admitted to giving away a huge amount of information? A pat on the back? Not very likely.

      2 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: re: Does this sum up American?

        "There may be considerable arguments that the actions of Manning and Snowden were for the general good of the world"

        Is anyone actually better off?

        Most of the stuff released by Manning was boring drivel. Some cost decent diplomats their jobs. The US was mildly embarrassed for a day or two - more over the actual leak than any content.

        As for Snowden, he has informed us governments are reading data we send over the public internet. Forgive me if I'm underwhelmed.

        Like telling us there are cameras on motorways. As if we didn't know.

        1 2
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Is anyone actually better off?

          Julian Assange?

          People have heard of him now.

          0 0
  4. ShadowedOne

    I tend to wonder..

    Just how Watergate would be handled today (if it were recent rather than a past event). At a guess I'd say, the investigative journalists who brought the story to light would be vilified as traitors/un-American/etc and locked up (or worse), and Deep Throat would hunted down and either executed or conveniently die in some plausibly deniable way. The general public, of course, would be getting the standard diet of PR and spin and would be cheering on the persecution, err prosecution.

    8 1
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I tend to wonder..

      You can't possibly compare the exposure of Presidential corruption by a high level insider with the dump of hundreds of thousands of low level memos the guy couldn't possibly have read.

      The difference between the Watergate journalists and todays press is that back then Mannings action would have been recognised for what it is - a ridiculous attempt at attention seeking.

      Same with Snowden. A guy ruins his life to tell us that PUBLIC data has been read by governments, and not just by greedy corporate advertising oligarchs seeking to know what colour pants we wear.

      The worst part of the Snowden affair is that it exposes the fact journalists haven't the first idea about how the internet works. Ironically most of the newspapers those same journalists work for are busy mining our data and posts so Google can sell more targeted ads.

      2 3
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dead men walking

    That would be Manning, Snowden and ASSange. Hopefully they will have learned a lesson from their criminal behavior and stupidity.

    2 10
  6. Someone Else Silver badge
    FAIL

    Oxymoron alert

    But the Democratic and Republican heads of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee said in a joint statement that "justice had been served".

    The House Intelligence Committee has what can easily be the most oxymoronic name in the U.S> Government (and that's sayin' something!)

    2 1

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He's about to spend the rest of his life in jail and for what?

    He did force the Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan to resign - the poor guy had been criticizing corruption and the USA and the memo was publised. Otherwise I don't recall anything of political significance resulting from these leaks.

    And given that Manning couldn't have read all those documents, it's was possible he could have put lives at risk.

    You have to be seriously misguided to think that Mannings dump of hundreds of thousands of documents is anything other than complete madness by an rather odd attention seeker. Admittedly it had a few gullible newspapers hot under the collar for a week or two.

    Had he filtered the information and leaked only the odd relevant document, he'd have had a much better case to be classed as a whistleblower, but sadly - somewhat like Snowden - he's just an insignificant bloke who wanted attention.

    2 3
  9. BornToWin

    Wow, 136 years !

    That would be great if the judge gives Manning the full 136 years in prison without parole. Now THAT would be justice for a change. Blighty could learn something from this case regarding punishment for cyber crims.

    2 4
    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Meh

      Re: Wow, 136 years !

      "That would be great if the judge gives Manning the full 136 years in prison...." Realisticly, what will happen is the judge will compress the overlapping charges. For example, when the charges are "release of documents, electronic release of the same documents, and release of documents to unauthorised people", the judge will take those to be three instances of the same crime and reduce the sentence to reflect that. In truth, Manning could actually get away with forty years and still get an early release inside that term, if the judge feels lenient. I suppose a lot depends on the frenzied dealing going on behind the scenes, and how much Manning now gives up to help the US nail Dickileaks and A$$nut.

      0 0

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like