when were you in Iraq? you seem to know the truth better than the people that actually there...

I do.

Personal attacks, how typical, and a load of ignorant nonsense at that.

Bradley manning committed acts of treason and espionage. Any rhetoric you employ is merely superfluous.

Are you confusing Manning with Snowden?

i think snowden is more right in these two cases... bradley reported war crimes, which 2 reasons made what he did bad... the first, he was under direct orders not to tell secrets... thats treason, plain and simple... the second, war is war... both sides are trying to win, and only one can... not very many people in these forums have a clue as to what it's like in war, and what you would do to survive. the whole thing was nothing but dispruptive and detrimental to winning a war and keeping our people alive... manning should be hung.

snowden actually showed us something important, that has meaning to all of us, not something stupid like a helicopter pilot laughing as he shot someone... in war...

How can it be treason? Didn't he make an oath to defend the constitution? In the now well documented commission of war crimes that Manning revealed, wasn't he doing his DUTY? Isn't the US a signatory to the Geneva conventions? Doesn't the USA have laws against the commission of crimes against humanity & war crimes? I know it never ratified its membership in the World court it helped form...Why would that be?...Doesn't it want to be held to the same standards of justice that it itself promoted at Nuremberg?

sorry you missed it, but i'll say it again... manning was under DIRECT ORDERS not to divulge secrets...

i'm confused on what part of that you don't understand...

So the Germans should not have been convicted at Nuremberg for the atrocities they committed because they were only following the lawful orders of their Commander-in-Chief?

Exactly. We are still human beings after all.

He did take an oath to defend the constitution, but more than that, he has a right to a conscience.

If someone is committing WAR CRIMES, he has a choice. Engage in them or refuse to follow orders. Cover them up or report them.

Germans convicted of war crimes were also following orders weren't they? Yes they probably would have been shot for disobeying their orders.

What a world we live in. What a shame. When is humanity going to GROW UP?

you are making the same Circular Argument as Best!
That Helicopter Incident was ruled as No-Crime!

Oh of course it was. Pardon me.

So why was it such a classified incident?

Snowden said he fears for his life, and he fears he will be tortured if handed over to the U.S.

Can you blame him?

So the Germans should not have been convicted at Nuremberg for the atrocities they committed because they were only following the lawful orders of their Commander-in-Chief?


they only convicted the ones that gave the orders, thousands of soldiers were not even tried...


from wiki:

The International Military Tribunal was opened on November 20, 1945, in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg.[25][26] The first session was presided over by the Soviet judge, Nikitchenko. The prosecution entered indictments against 24 major war criminals and seven organizations – the leadership of the Nazi party, the Reich Cabinet, the Schutzstaffel (SS), Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Gestapo, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the "General Staff and High Command", comprising several categories of senior military officers.[avalon 1] These organizations were to be declared "criminal" if found guilty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials

ask Manning,he might know!

he pissed a lot of people off... he should be protected...

small wonder,carrying four Laptops along with him with all sorts of sensitive Intelligence on them!
Way beyond of the Stuff about NSA spying on Americans,stuff that actually could hurt the US!
This action has cost him quite a bit of the Good Will People had for him!

Most classified things are classified to protect the guilty.

Isn't your Bankaccount classified for most people?

Carrying it and using it ... two different things. And how do you know he has all sorts of sensitive intelligence? If he does, maybe he needs it as leverage.

The guy might be a jerk, but our government has a lot of nasty little secrets to hide I'm sure. And what has it come down to when an American citizen is afraid of being murdered or tortured without a fair trial?

Its a sad sad situation.

Most average citizens...but anyone with clout and a court order can get into and even freeze any bank account. This isn't Switzerland and we don't have secret bank account numbers with no names...

No. There are millions, or billions of documents that have nothing to do with guilt or innocence. Like the point above about banking documents was a good example, but saying that 'anybody with clout' can access them is not true. Sure, a bank or court could freeze your bank account, but that doesn't mean that they get to look at the contents of it. I can assure you that your medical records are classified, and doctors only get to look at them when you go for treatment. Insurance companies only get to look at the pertinent information regarding a bill they pay. Even then, they only look at the coding numbers.

Also, just because some entity can examine a classified document, doesn't make it unclassified. Some people are allowed by law to look at certain things in certain cases.

I think you're inadvertently combining police files or possibly political files with 'all classified things' for the sake of the argument, but most of the thousands of classified documents I've seen are boring items, that by themselves are harmless. Piecing together many of them, analysts, like myself, can deduce very interesting facts about the subjects. In the case of police files, we can figure out a suspects pattern of life, or motives. In military intelligence files, we can predict the enemy's next moves. Guilt or innocence is up to a court, but in most cases, it doesn't even apply.