Given media reports on his arrest three years ago, you’d think Army Pfc. Bradley Manning (25) posed a far greater threat to U.S. national security than Osama bin Laden. Recall that the government charged Manning with all manner of crimes, including the treasonous “aiding the enemy” for handing over hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks on a silver platter. This made him the biggest leaker of such information in U.S. history.
Yet nothing demonstrates what fickle, ratings-driven whores media organizations are quite like the way they covered George Zimmerman’s trial like the “Second Coming,” but ignored Manning’s like the plague. This contrast was especially telling considering that both trials were unfolding at the same time.
But, unlike political pundits who (to a man/woman) coat-tailed the media’s hysterical coverage of his arrest, I thought claims about Manning aiding the enemy were much ado about nothing from day one.
In fact, here’s how I pooh-poohed his notoriety and predicted his fate, most recently, in the context of the hysterical coverage now surrounding NSA leaker Edward Snowden:
Nothing indicates how fleeting, inconsequential, and costly Snowden’s notoriety will be, and rightly so, quite like the fates that have befallen Bradley Manning and Julian Assange for their “WikiLeaks” of U.S. diplomatic secrets:
- Their leaks have had practically no impact on U.S. foreign policy.
- Manning is being tried in virtual obscurity, and faces even greater obscurity if/when he’s sentenced to life in prison.
- And Assange is already in a de facto prison, hiding out, as he is, in Ecuador’s embassy in London since last August as a fugitive from justice…
To be clear, just as it was with Manning, the United States must protest damage to national security in this case. It must do so not only to establish probable cause for arresting and prosecuting Snowden, but also to provide whatever deterrence it can for all of the other misguided nerds out there who might be thinking of emulating his method of revenge … for their 15 minutes of infamy.
(“Ignorance Prevails re: NSA Spying and Snowden Leaking,” The iPINIONS Journal, June 13, 2013)
Mind you, if Manning and Snowden had acted like true whistleblowers (i.e., by turning over their classified documents to freedom-of-information advocates in the United States), I would have championed their cause. But they chose instead to conspire with foreign agents and governments – whose mission is clearly to undermine US national security. This is why I have no sympathy for them and think they should both rot in jail.
Frankly, this only reinforces my abiding view that the invasion of Afghanistan to impose democracy is every bit the march of folly the invasion of Iraq to find WMDs turned out to be….
So where’s the outrage?
(“Another Sign Afghanistan is a Lost Cause,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 29, 2012)
I insert this quote here to affirm my solidarity with Manning’s declared intent to stir public debate on, if not to incite public outrage over, the absolute folly of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, I felt like a latter-day John the Baptist preaching this message in the wilderness for years.
Here, for example:
These wars have converted multitudes of peaceful Muslims into jihadists who welcome the opportunity to sacrifice their lives in bin Laden’s holy war. Moreover, these jihadists have demonstrated that they are just as committed to (and capable of) killing Americans (in Iraq and Afghanistan) as President Bush is to ‘routing them out … one by one.’ And it doesn’t take a genius in military war strategy to figure out who will win this asymmetrical war (especially on their turf).
(“Please spare us the al-Qaeda obituaries,” The iPINIONS Journal, December 5, 2005)
And, more prophetically, here:
All indications are that the die has been cast for this so-called “good war.”
The United States’ legacy there will be distinguished either by a terminally wounded national pride as American forces beat a hasty retreat in defeat (following the Russian precedent in Afghanistan), or by thousands of American soldiers being lost in Afghanistan’s ‘graveyard of empires’ as they continue fighting this unwinnable war (following America’s own precedent in Vietnam). More troops only mean more sitting ducks for Taliban fighters…
Therefore, Obama would be well-advised to cut America’s losses and run ASAP; to let the Afghans govern themselves however they like; and to rely on Special Forces and aerial drones to ‘disrupt and dismantle’ Taliban and al-Qaeda operations there.
(“‘Without (or even with) More Forces, Failure in Afghanistan is Likely,’” The iPINIONS Journal, September 23, 2009)
Incidentally, I hope I can be forgiven for feeling somewhat vindicated by an ABC News/Washington Post poll (dated July 26, 2013), which found that – after nearly 12 years, 2,239 dead, and $650 billion – two-thirds of Americans now think the war in Afghanistan was not worth it. And I suspect that – after over 10 years, 4,488 dead, and $815 billion – even more Americans now think the war in Iraq was not worth it….
All the same, we can’t have useful idiots (like Manning and Snowden) leaking U.S. military and diplomatic secrets to transparency fanatics (like WikiLeak’s Julian Assange) based solely on their conscientious objection to the way military commanders are conducting U.S. wars. For obvious reasons, such leaks (no matter how well-intentioned) are naive and untenable; especially given that Assange think no government is entitled to keep any secret.
That said, given media reports on yesterday’s verdict in Manning’s case, you’d think he got off scot-free. Whereas, even though he was acquitted on one count of “aiding the enemy,” he was convicted on 20 related counts, including 6 for espionage. And if you’re wondering about the apparent inconsistency here, it might be helpful to know that violations of the Espionage Act do not necessarily require proof of any harm done to U.S. citizens or interests.
In other words, the military judge determined that he’s neither the mercenary traitor his critics decried, nor the heroic whistleblower his supporters hailed. He’s just a cyber thief who betrayed his military service in the most irresponsible, destructive and cowardly way possible.
But, lest you think his acquittal on that sensational charge of aiding the enemy amounts to any kind of vindication, the sobering reaction of Manning’s spymasters at WikiLeaks should disabuse you of this thought. For here’s what they tweeted just moments after the judge read her verdict:
Bradley Manning’s convictions today include 5 [sic] counts of espionage. A very serious new precedent for supplying information to the press.
Far from getting off scot-free, Manning now faces up to 136 years in prison, which means he could still rot in jail – as I predicted he would … and think he should.
Meanwhile, the irony is not lost on me that his acquittal on aiding the enemy might just make it easier for the government to secure Snowden’s extradition from Russia. After all, this acquittal (coupled with Attorney General Eric Holder’s public declaration last week that, just as it was in Manning’s case, the United States will not seek the death penalty for Snowden) undermines the claim that no leaker can get a fair trial in the United States.
Never mind the brazen hypocrisy inherent in Snowden making this claim from Russia; or for that matter, Julian Assange making it from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he’s hiding-out from unimpeachable Swedish justice stemming from allegations of rape and sexual assault. Which, incidentally, means that news organizations quoting Assange on democratic freedoms is rather like churches quoting a pedophile priest on religious virtues.
At any rate, I shall end by reiterating my informed belief that it’s only a matter of time before Snowden follows Bradley into the American criminal-justice inferno:
Putin does not have, and never had, any intention of granting Snowden (permanent) political asylum. Not least because, far from regarding Snowden as the hero he fancies himself, I suspect Putin sees him as a traitorous rat. After all, Putin is a former KGB spy who prides loyalty to country above all else…
So, besides being perceived as a traitor to his country, Snowden personifies this kind of geeky spycraft for which Putin cannot disguise his contempt. And as much as he is undoubtedly reveling in the humiliation Snowden has caused, Putin fully appreciates what special punishment he’d want to mete out to any Russian spy who does to him and Russia what Snowden has done to Obama and the United States.
Not to mention the resentment Putin must be harboring over Snowden ending up in Russia only after his preferred Chinese spymasters extracted all they wanted out of and from him. But who can blame this self-important smart ass for wanting to be exiled in Westernized Hong Kong instead of Sovietized Moscow…?
Putin clearly has no use for Snowden…
There seems little doubt that Putin will eventually hand Snowden over to his “American partner.” And I assure you, he has every intention of doing so well ahead of the Opening Ceremony for his Olympic Games. What’s more, he has probably already indicated as much to Obama.
(“Boycott Olympics Over Snowden? Don’t Be Stupid!” The iPINIONS Journal, July 18, 2013)
Stay tuned….
In the meantime, I cannot overstate how patently absurd it is that leaks by these two nincompoops are inciting so much hand-wringing. After all, nobody can deny that the government uses its surveillance programs solely to keep the American people safe. By contrast, tech companies use their far more intrusive surveillance programs just to sell the American people stuff. Yet nobody seems the least bit concerned about that.
Of course, as soon as another 9/11 hits (and it will) most Snowden-loving, NSA critics will be questioning why the government did not do even more intrusive eavesdropping and surveillance to prevent it.
Related commentaries:
Ignorance prevails…
Another sign…
Boycott Olympics…