Veterans Defend Accused WikiLeaks' Source Bradley Manning

[unhappycamper]

Protesters rally for Bradley Manning.


Veterans Defend Accused WikiLeaks' Source Bradley Manning
Friday 24 September 2010
by: Ryan Harvey, t r u t h o u t | Report

At a rally Sunday, September 18, 2010, outside of the gates of Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, Iraq veterans spoke on behalf of a soldier imprisoned inside, Pfc. Bradley Manning.

Manning has been held in solitary confinement at Quantico for almost three months now, accused of being the source of the "Collateral Murder" video which was released in April by the online whistleblower web site WikiLeaks. The video shows US forces firing 30 mm cannons from helicopter gunships into a crowd in Baghdad, killing over a dozen Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists, and seriously wounding two children.

The government has intimated that Manning may also be considered the source of the "Afghan War Diaries," a series of almost 100,000 documents pertaining to the Afghan war published in July by WikiLeaks, which all together constitute the largest leak in military history.

A former soldier from the ground unit that responded to the helicopter shooting seen in the now-infamous video described the incident as a typical moment in his 2007 deployment to Baghdad as part of the Surge. "It was by no means abnormal," said the former soldier, Josh Stieber, who served 14 months in the New Baghdad neighborhood.

In a previous interview with me, Stieber and two other soldiers from his unit, Bravo Company 2-16, detailed the paradox of attempting to "win hearts and minds" while systematically abusing people. "I think it illustrates why we shouldn't put soldiers in that situation" he said of the video.

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[Cid_B]

2. If manning did it..

... then I hope he gets a dark cell all alone for a long time.

[The Magistrate]

3. Why, Sir?

[xchrom]

4. Recommend

[Scuba]

5. Assuming Manning did it, he did his duty.

That from a US Air Force veteran.

Hiding American crimes is illegal. Obeying an unlawful order is illegal.

[USArmyParatrooper]

6. What crime?

Yep, I hope he spends some time in a concrete box with a metal toilet. If he is the leaker of the 92,000 documents I hope he stays there for the rest of his life.

[Scuba]

7. The entire war is a crime, but in this case shooting into ...

... a crowd of civilians should be investigated, not swept under the rug.

[USArmyParatrooper]

8. It is? Where did you get your law degree? Which court decided that?

It was investigated.

BTW, wearing civilian clothes doesn't make you a civilian.

[Scuba]

9. The war was based on intentional lies.

Sounds an awful lot like treason to me.

[USArmyParatrooper]

10. I'm not defending President Bush

I'm simply saying that claiming the Iraq war is "illegal" to imply every Iraq war veteran is a "war criminal" is absurd.

Footage and documents of troop movements and actions are classified for a reason. And no, not for the tinfoil reason that is often claimed on DU. They provide a wealth of information that is usable by our adversaries. Disclosing classified information is a crime.

[Scuba]

11. I don't mean to question the good faith of our service men and women....

...but if one were to fire into a crowd of civilians, I want him/her charged.

As I understand it, what was released was years old, and the enemy knew where we were those years ago. I would never sanction releasing something that put our troops in danger.

But only by exposing the criminal acts can we be honorable.

[USArmyParatrooper]

12. Again, civilian clothes do not make a civilian

The Iraqis are allowed to have one AK-47 per home. It is widely known in Iraq that there are certain things that warrant kill or capture on sight. Mortar tubes, rockets, IED materials and yes, rocket propelled grenades. Those Apaches were called in from troops in contact and the group of "civilians" were walking around with at least one AK-47 and one RPG - from the vicinity that the troops took fire. Despite what Reuters claims (whether they know about it or not) it's clear to me they were embedded with insurgents. I don't even fault them for that but if you're going to embed yourself you're taking known risk.

[Pavulon]

13. He is going to die in federal custody. He will never see light of day again.

he made a choice so now he can live with it. Hopefully in Florence ADX.