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kpete

(71,994 posts)
Fri Aug 23, 2013, 02:41 PM Aug 2013

---so what you are saying, is we would be BETTER OFF --- NOT KNOWING THESE THINGS?: [View all]

reposting hat tip: JDPriestly

Below is a list of 10 revelations disclosed by Manning’s leaked documents that offer insight into the breadth and scope of what he revealed, help explain his motivation for leaking, and provide context for the ongoing trial. The list, in no particular order, is far from comprehensive but encompasses some of the most significant information brought to light by the leaked documents.

During the Iraq War, U.S. authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers, according to thousands of field reports.

There were 109,032 “violent deaths” recorded in Iraq between 2004 and 2009, including 66,081 civilians. Leaked records from the Afghan War separately revealed coalition troops’ alleged role in killing at least 195 civilians in unreported incidents, one reportedly involving U.S. service members machine-gunning a bus, wounding or killing 15 passengers.

The U.S. Embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country that opposed genetically modified crops, with U.S. diplomats effectively working directly for GM companies such as Monsanto.

British and American officials colluded in a plan to mislead the British Parliament over a proposed ban on cluster bombs.

In Baghdad in 2007, a U.S. Army helicopter gunned down a group of civilians, including two Reuters news staff.


U.S. special operations forces were conducting offensive operations inside Pakistan despite sustained public denials and statements to the contrary by U.S. officials.

A leaked diplomatic cable provided evidence that during an incident in 2006, U.S. troops in Iraq executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence. The disclosure of this cable was later a significant factor in the Iraqi government’s refusal to grant U.S. troops immunity from prosecution beyond 2011, which led to U.S. troops withdrawing from the country.

A NATO coalition in Afghanistan was using an undisclosed “black” unit of special operations forces to hunt down targets for death or detention without trial. The unit was revealed to have had a kill-or-capture list featuring details of more than 2,000 senior figures from the Taliban and al-Qaida, but it had in some cases mistakenly killed men, women, children, and Afghan police officers.

The U.S. threatened the Italian government in an attempt to influence a court case involving the indictment of CIA agents over the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric. Separately, U.S. officials were revealed to have pressured Spanish prosecutors to dissuade them from investigating U.S. torture allegations, secret “extraordinary rendition” flights, and the killing of a Spanish journalist by U.S. troops in Iraq.

In apparent violation of a 1946 U.N. convention, Washington initiated a spying campaign in 2009 that targeted the leadership of the U.N. by seeking to gather top officials’ private encryption keys, credit card details, and biometric data.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/04/bradley_manning_trial_10_revelations_from_wikileaks_documents_on_iraq_afghanistan.html


adding these as well (for those who don't think the above is enough):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3518698

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175879/too-often-forgotten-amazingly-long-list-what-we-know-thanks-private-manning#axzz2coqF27hD
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please please please don't take my blinders away.... mike_c Aug 2013 #1
Yes. I don't need to know these things. progressoid Aug 2013 #2
progressoid kpete Aug 2013 #3
Fuck yeah! DeSwiss Aug 2013 #15
Books! progressoid Aug 2013 #22
Yes. Aerows Aug 2013 #4
Nice phrasing LearningCurve Aug 2013 #20
It's the classic authoritarian argument. Let your leaders take care of you. rhett o rick Aug 2013 #31
Except he would say Aerows Aug 2013 #33
It's like Ellsberg revealed in his memoirs, Fuddnik Aug 2013 #50
They're protecting us from our own traitorous and untrustworthy minds. Tierra_y_Libertad Aug 2013 #5
If those things were all Manning leaked, your point would be stronger (nt) Recursion Aug 2013 #6
Oh? Aerows Aug 2013 #7
He asserts great damage was done by the large release Hydra Aug 2013 #10
Please, chervilant Aug 2013 #23
Heh Aerows Aug 2013 #24
How do you know what was leaked? Read about it somewheres? Care to share your rhett o rick Aug 2013 #32
kick hfojvt Aug 2013 #8
well, yeah--makes it easier not to have cognitive dissonance MisterP Aug 2013 #9
Msg 2 Obama: I'm all grown up now, and don't need "protection" from the truth. ~nt 99th_Monkey Aug 2013 #11
Obama is not the only adult in the room Ocelot Aug 2013 #48
Of course we'd be better off not knowing. Ignorance is BLISS, baby! kath Aug 2013 #12
Thank you Kpete for not letting go of this issue. zeemike Aug 2013 #13
I continue to be shocked kpete Aug 2013 #14
The chopper video did it for me too. I can understand being gungho and wanting to A Simple Game Aug 2013 #25
Shooting up the van with the kids in it, did it for me. RC Aug 2013 #56
Wait. What? tblue Aug 2013 #26
No it was the same one. zeemike Aug 2013 #28
If you watched the long version, near the end, there was a guy just walking down a sidewalk... xocet Aug 2013 #39
Yes I saw that. zeemike Aug 2013 #43
They're scared kpete. DeSwiss Aug 2013 #16
You quote..... AnneD Aug 2013 #52
DURec. bvar22 Aug 2013 #17
K&R! Phlem Aug 2013 #18
Are you implying that all 250,000 cables Manning indiscriminately released contained pnwmom Aug 2013 #19
Well, progressoid Aug 2013 #21
First, get the story right... TiberiusB Aug 2013 #41
I'm so proud of my country Jackpine Radical Aug 2013 #27
K&R n/t jtuck004 Aug 2013 #29
None of this will be stopped until people worry more about what the Country as a whole is doing A Simple Game Aug 2013 #30
K&R blackspade Aug 2013 #34
Depends. Is anyone going to do anything about any of it that might make a merrily Aug 2013 #35
Those Iraq numbers seem suspiciously low. ucrdem Aug 2013 #36
Wikileaks is a Bush operation? Your thinking is most impressive! DisgustipatedinCA Aug 2013 #53
It would be uncivil to amplify the sentiment indicated by the word "impressive", wouldn't it? xocet Aug 2013 #55
Well, I ask, are we better off knowing these things. Since knowing...no more income, no job for kelliekat44 Aug 2013 #37
a year ago here on du SwampG8r Aug 2013 #38
True knowledge is a danger to TPTB; propaganda is much better. blkmusclmachine Aug 2013 #40
And they believe the Enemy is us. tblue Aug 2013 #60
kick burnodo Aug 2013 #42
knowing all that stuff is riuning my enjoyment of american idol. KG Aug 2013 #44
K&R NorthCarolina Aug 2013 #45
K&R n.t myrna minx Aug 2013 #46
Thank you for the original, other OP.. pangaia Aug 2013 #47
Kick and Rec and bookmarked! Fuddnik Aug 2013 #49
If the Bush administration had prosecuted Manning, then no- Obama administration, yes MotherPetrie Aug 2013 #51
I thought most of this had been reported by madinmaryland Aug 2013 #54
If the government thought we needed to know any of that, they would have told us themselves. dawg Aug 2013 #57
It's not about our knowing, but about treestar Aug 2013 #58
. corkhead Aug 2013 #59
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