Kevin Zeese

Bradley Manning leaves the court after hearing the judge's verdict
on July 30, 2013 (Photo: Associated Press / CBC News)

The verdict in the Bradley Manning trial has already begun to create reverberations as people start to understand its impact, beyond the impact on Manning. While the greatest threat to Manning, Aiding the Enemy, was defeated, another threat, The Espionage Act, was not. The crimes Manning was convicted of mean he is risking 136 years in prison. For a whistleblower who exposed war crimes and unethical behavior in U.S. foreign policy to be facing a lengthy prison term, while the people exposed by government documents are not even investigated, shows how confused the United States has become.

In fact, the crimes Manning exposed were much more serious than the crimes of which he has been convicted. The “Collateral Murder” video which showed U.S. soldiers slaughtering innocent Iraqis, and two Reuters journalists, with joy and glee is one example of many civilian killings that deserve prosecution.

More »

Stephen Lendman

Evidence mounts. America crossed the line. It operates lawlessly. It reflects police state ruthlessness. Big Brother's real. It's not fiction. It watches everyone. It's about control, espionage and intimidation. It targets fundamental freedoms. It has nothing to do with national security. America's only threats are ones it invents. It does so for political advantage.

On July 31, London's Guardian headlined "XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the Internet.' " It "gives 'widest reading' collection of online data. NSA analysts require no prior authorizations for searches." They sweep up "emails, social media and browsing history." It collects "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet." Every keystroke enters a database. NSA training materials call XKeyscore its "widest-reaching" online intelligence gathering tool. Agency officials call it their Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). Virtually nothing escapes scrutiny.

London's Guardian used classified information. It's sourced from a February 2008 presentation. It's about meta-data mining. It explains what Edward Snowden meant, saying: "I, sitting at my desk, (can) wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email" address. It's chilling. It's worst than previously thought.

According to Guardian contributor Glenn Greenwald: XKeyscore lets analysts "mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed." Agency personnel use XKeyscore and other systems for "real-time" interception of personal online activity.

At the time, US officials scoffed. House Republican Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Mike Rogers said: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

More »

William N. Grigg

Bradley Manning is the only combat veteran of the Iraq war whose service is worth honoring. Like hundreds of thousands of servicemen, Manning carried out unlawful orders to participate in an illegal war. Unlike any of the rest, he took necessary action to expose discrete criminal acts committed in the larger context of that illegal enterprise.

While serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning sometimes felt as if he were “watching nonstop snuff films,” according to a New York magazine profile. His job consisted of sitting at a work station and evaluating Iraqis as targets. This meant “reducing a human being to a few salient points. Then he made a quick decision based on imperfect information: kill, capture, exploit, source.”

Unlike countless other U.S servicemen who took refuge in the idea that obedience to superiors immunizes criminal behavior, Manning tried to discriminate between “insurgents” and innocent bystanders, only to find that such distinctions do not exist when one is fighting a war of aggression. When he expressed concerns about this to his superiors, Manning was told to choke down such questions and get back to the task of killing people who resented being occupied by a prohibitively stronger foreign power.

In late 2009, Manning told a psychological counselor “about a targeting mission gone bad in Basra” in which an unambiguously innocent bystander was killed. That incident left Manning incapacitated with guilt and remorse. It’s quite likely that it also led Manning to confront the moral reality that every use of lethal force by U.S. personnel in Iraq was an act of murder.

Shortly after speaking with a psychologist about the Basra incident, Manning performed a heroic act in the service of his country and the rule of law by leaking the Iraq war logs and the notorious “Collateral Murder” video documenting the slaughter – by two U.S. Apache helicopter gunships – of twelve innocent civilians.

More »