"The Falcon and the Snowman" and the Bradley Manning/Julian Assange affair.
For those of you not familiar with the story read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Falcon_and_the_Snowman
Although the story is about two overprivileged young men in the seventies, who sold secrets to the Soviet Union embassy in Mexico, parallels between Bradley Manning and Julian Assange start to emerge.
One of the young men, Christopher Boyce, who is working for a top secret government communications agency called the "Black Vault" coerces his drug dealer friend Daulton Lee into negotiating with the Soviets for secret communications that he is privy to from the CIA. The reason he does it is because he starts realizing that the CIA is calling the shots in raising and deposing leaders in other countries of the world, in this case the assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile and plans to depose Australian PM.
Since he has become a liberal democrat in direct confrontation with his conservative Republican family, he feels some rapport with the socialist ideals of the Russians. Well to cut to the chase, he does become disillusioned with the Soviets and realizes they are no different than us. He claims when he is caught and sentenced to prison that he has learned a lot about predatory behavior through his hobby of falconry and he felt the CIA and Soviet Union had become corrupted to become predators.
His dope dealing friend, his messenger, is arrested on trumped up charges of murder on flimsy evidence, a photograph, taken in custody by Mexican police, beaten and tortured and then returned to the United States, to be arrested there. That was the plan. Back in those days we didn't do our own torturing. The Mexicans knew he wasn't guilty. They serve twenty + years of time before getting out of prison. Their lives destroyed for flawed idealism.
We all know what is going to become of Bradley Manning if this same procedure is followed by our government officials. Assange, if put into US custody, for releasing that video of our troops shooting civilians and two Reuter's reporters in Baghdad, will no doubt follow in his footsteps. Manning has already been beaten and tortured. He will no doubt be taken before a kangaroo court that will convict him with no problems. If Assange can't fight being taken into custody by first the Brits, then the Swedes, both USA diplomatic lap dogs (it's well known in international circles), he will meet a similar fate. If he does escape, look for him to commit an unfortunate suicide in the future.
I was just as disgusted with our government dealings, just like Christopher Boyce, for the same reason, the Allende affair, although as a more mature and less idealistic person, I didn't choose to commit treason against my country, but preferred to try to change it legally from within so that the America which we were taught about in school could start to emerge. However, I understand why Bradley Manning did what he did. It was the same idealism that Christopher Boyce had and access to the information. Assange is not the Soviet Union, but didn't we make sure that Afghanistan took them down, which led to its destruction? It seems we always get our man one way or the other.
I feel that we are being manipulated into condemning Assange for his sexual behavior, an ages old tactic to condemn someone deemed an enemy of the state by appealing to the prejudices and moral high ground of the masses and then finding some trumped up charges and witnesses to seal the deal of what is a really flimsy case. We really need to fight this because its done to us all the time. Look at the war on women. It's classic manipulation of the people making them willing to condemn someone and making it so much easier for the authorities to remove a troublesome entity that is interfering with business as usual.
PEACE!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Bradley Manning was a serving soldier who intercepted classified material and transferred it to foreign nationals. This is by definition espionage. It is also categorically an offence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The nature of the offence makes it punishable by death; see the following ("grave risk of death to another person" = "revealing the names of confidential informants and intelligence sources"
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“(1) Any person subject to this chapter who, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any entity described in paragraph (2), either directly or indirectly, anything described in paragraph (3) shall be punished as a court-martial may direct, except that if the accused is found guilty of an offense that directly concerns (A) nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, early warning systems, or other means of defense or retaliation against large scale attack, (B) war plans, (C) communications intelligence or cryptographic information, or (D) any other major weapons system or major element of defense strategy, the accused shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.
(2) An entity referred to in paragraph (1) is—
(A) a foreign government;
(B) a faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States; or
(C) a representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen of such a government, faction, party, or force.
(3) A thing referred to in paragraph (1) is a document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, note, instrument, appliance, or information relating to the national defense.
(b)
(1) No person may be sentenced by court-martial to suffer death for an offense under this section (article) unless—
(A) the members of the court-martial unanimously find at least one of the aggravating factors set out in subsection (c); and
(B) the members unanimously determine that any extenuating or mitigating circumstances are substantially outweighed by any aggravating circumstances, including the aggravating factors set out under subsection (c).
(2) Findings under this subsection may be based on— (A) evidence introduced on the issue of guilt or innocence; (B) evidence introduced during the sentencing proceeding; or
(C) all such evidence. (3) The accused shall be given broad latitude to present matters in extenuation and mitigation.
(c) A sentence of death may be adjudged by a court-martial for an offense under this section (article) only if the members unanimously find, beyond a reasonable doubt, one or more of the following aggravating factors:
(1) The accused has been convicted of another offense involving espionage or treason for which either a sentence of death or imprisonment for life was authorized by statute.
(2) In the commission of the offense, the accused knowingly created a grave risk of substantial damage to the national security.
(3) In the commission of the offense, the accused knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person.
(4) Any other factor that may be prescribed by the President by regulations under section 836 of this title (Article 36).”
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/mcm/bl106a.htm
And as to Assange it's neither here nor there; he is wanted for prosecution in Sweden, he should stop trying to hide from justice. I think he should answer the allegations against him. This does not mean I think that he should be extradited to the US or charged with espionage against the United States; quite the contrary, I would strenuously oppose any such action on the part of the US government as an illegitimate abuse of power. I don't see the two things as connected.
