High v. low-level leaking July 21, 2012
Posted by rogerhollander in Civil Liberties, Criminal Justice.Tags: bradlel manning, Bush torture, court martial, Criminal Justice, glenn greenwald, john kiriakou, kevin gosztola, national security, roger hollander, torture, whistle-blowers, whistleblowers, wikileaks
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Friday, Jul 20, 2012 07:18 AM EST, www.salon.com
Today brings more high-level classified disclosures from an administration fixated on punishing whistleblowers
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, after a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case went on recess for the day. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)(Credit: AP)
The Obama administration’s war on whistlebowers continues unabated this week on two fronts. First, several hearings were held in the court-martial prosecution of Bradley Manning, during which military prosecutors argued that evidence that Manning’s alleged leaks did no harm to national security, as well as evidence of his inhumane pre-trial detention conditions, should both be completely suppressed (in contrast to most American media outlets, which have ignored the proceedings entirely, Firedoglake’s superb young writer, Kevin Gosztola, is providing typically comprehensive coverage). Meanwhile, in a federal court in Virginia this morning, former CIA official John Kiriakou is seeking dismissal of most of the criminal charges brought against him by the DOJ for allegedly leaking details of the Bush era torture program; Kiriakou is claiming he is the victim of vindictive prosecution (as former NSA official Thomas Drake, who himself was prosecuted (unsuccessfully) by the Obama DOJ for whistleblowing, put it this morning: “Commit torture: receive exec branch/DoJ protection. Whistleblow on torture w/lawful disclosures: become criminal defendant like John Kiriakou” [Twitter typos corrected]).
But the worst part of this whistleblower war, beyond the obvious threats it poses to transparency and a free press, is how purely selective it is. Just as Lynndie England went to prison for her detainee abuse while Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and John Yoo went on lucrative book tours for theirs, it is only low- to mid-level leakers who are punished by the Obama DOJ, and then only for the crime of embarrassing the U.S. Government rather than glorifying it. High-level Obama administration leakers disclose classified information at will, without the slightest fear of punishment. One can pick up a newspaper or listen to a television news broadcast almost every day and find examples of leaks from Obama’s high-level officials far more serious than those allegedly committed by the Bradley Mannings and Thomas Drakes of the world. From today’s New York Times article on Syria:
In Washington, a senior American official who is tracking Syria closely said Thursday that American intelligence reports had concluded that Syrian forces were moving some parts of their chemical weapons arsenal to safeguard it from falling into rebel hands, not to use it. “They’re moving it to defend it in some of the most contested areas,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified intelligence reports.
Quoting classified American intelligence reports on Syria to The New York Times is a more serious leak than any of those serving as the basis for the multiple espionage prosecutions brought by the Obama DOJ. The difference is that this is a “senior official” rather than a low-level one, and it’s not done with the intent to expose high-level corruption, deceit or illegality. Therefore, like all the other high-level crimes shielded from accountability by the Obama administration, it will be protected. Therein lies the clear lesson about the real purpose of the Obama war on whistleblowers.
* * * * *
New York Times columnist David Brooks carefully cultivates a centrist demeanor on domestic political questions, but on foreign policy, the former Weekly Standard writer and full-fledged Iraq War advocate is as neoconservative as it gets. Today, following in the footsteps of the progressive Center for American Progress, Brooks devotes his column to hailing the grand success of President Obama’s foreign policy. Entitled “Where Obama Shines,” the column argues: “it should be noted that Barack Obama has been a good foreign policy president.” Deeming this record “impressive,” he gushes: “Obama has moved more aggressively both to defeat enemies and to champion democracy. He has demonstrated that talk of American decline is hooey. The U.S. is still responsible for maintaining global order, for keeping people, goods and ideas moving freely.” Brooks concludes:
And, partly as a result of his efforts, the world of foreign affairs is relatively uncontentious right now. Foreign policy is not a hot campaign issue. Mitt Romney is having a great deal of trouble identifying profound disagreements. If that’s not a sign of success, I don’t know what is.
Again we see a prime legacy of the Obama presidency: the transformation of what had been contentious disputes into harmonious bipartisan consensus. And we also see again that one of the biggest myths of American political discourse is that bipartisanship is so terribly and tragically rare.
Glenn Greenwald (email: GGreenwald@salon.com) is a former Constitutional and civil rights litigator and is the author of three New York Times Bestselling books: two on the Bush administration’s executive power and foreign policy abuses, and his latest book, With Liberty and Justice for Some, an indictment of America’s two-tiered system of justice. Greenwald was named by The Atlantic as one of the 25 most influential political commentators in the nation. He is the recipient of the first annual I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and is the winner of the 2010 Online Journalism Association Award for his investigative work on the arrest and oppressive detention of Bradley Manning.
Lawyer: Treatment of Bradley Manning ‘Should Shock the Conscience’ of the Court July 20, 2012
Posted by rogerhollander in Civil Liberties, Constitution, Criminal Justice.Tags: bradley manning, court martial, david coombs, justice, roger hollander, torture, wikileaks
3 comments
Published on Thursday, July 19, 2012 by Common Dreams
The mistreatment Bradley Manning experienced at the US Marine Corps Brig in Quantico, Virginia “should shock the conscience of this court,” Manning’s lawyer said Thursday at a pre-trial hearing.
(photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) 24-year-old Manning, who faces 22 charges, was held in solitary confinement from July 2010 to April 2011.
David Coombs, Manning’s lawyer, said Manning’s treatment was “unlawful,” and that the blanket he had there was basically “a large piece of sand paper.”
On Thursday the judge also denied a request from the defense to have United Nations torture investigator Juan Mendez testify, saying it was irrelevant as Mendez had not visited Manning at Quantico. Mendez had, in fact, attempted to but was refused an unmonitored visit. In a 14-month investigation into the Manning, Mendez accused the U.S. government of harsh treatment of Bradley Manning that may amount to torture
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Canada Orders US War Resister (and New Mother) Deported January 16, 2009
Posted by rogerhollander in Canada, Iraq and Afghanistan, War.Tags: Ann Wright, bush government, Canada, canada refugee, canadian government, canadian parliament, corey glass, court martial, Iraq, Iraq war, jeremy hinzman, Kimberly Rivera, refugee, robin long, roger hollander, Stephen Harper, war resister, war resister deported, war resisters support
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16 January 2009, www.truthout.org
The Canadian government has ordered the deportation of Kimberly Rivera, the first US woman Iraq war veteran resister to go to Canada, and four other US war resisters. Rivera, her husband and three children, including a newborn daughter, must depart Canada by January 27 or be deported. Rivera now lives in Toronto with her husband Mario, son Christian (six years), daughter Rebecca (four years), and newborn Canadian daughter Katie (six weeks).
Rivera served in the US Army in Iraq in 2006, but refused a second tour in Iraq in 2007 and instead took her family to Canada. Her first tour in Iraq convinced Rivera that the war was immoral and that she could not participate in it.
Rivera’s Pre-Removal Risk assessment application and request to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds were denied by the conservative Stephen Harper government, although the Canadian government refused to join the Bush coalition of the willing and join in on the war in Iraq. The Canadian military’s participation in the war in Afghanistan has been controversial as Canadian casualties rise.
The War Resisters Support Campaign in Canada believes the Canadian Immigration Minister’s decision to deport Rivera and four other US war resisters is based on the need to have the deportations completed before the Canadian Parliament returns in late January. The Parliament adopted a resolution in June 2008 that recommended to the Harper government that “conscientious objectors” to wars that are not authorized by the United Nations be allowed to apply for permanent residence status in Canada.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has said that the refugee claims of war resisters are “bogus” and that he “has no sympathy for them.” Kenney has made it clear that his government intends to go against the will of Parliament and the will of Canadians.
If Rivera and the other US war resisters are deported to the United States or return voluntarily, they will face a military court-martial. Robin Long, the only other US soldier to be deported from Canada, was court-martialed in 2008 at Fort Carson, Colorado, and received a 15-month prison sentence and a dishonorable discharge, the longest sentence given to a war resister during the Iraq war.
Other US war resisters in Canada face deportation even earlier than Rivera. Chris Teske has a deportation date of January 20, Patrick Hart, his wife Jill and their son on January 29 and Dean Walcott on January 30.
Several other war resisters in Canada are appealing negative decisions in Canadian Federal Court. The court has stayed the removal orders of war resisters Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman and Matt Lowell. The Hart family faces deportation January 29 and will ask the court for a similar stay.
Corey Glass has since been granted a new application to stay on Humanitarian & Compassionate grounds. Jeremy Hinzman’s appeal date for his negative decision has been set for February 10 and Matt Lowell is waiting to hear whether his appeal will be heard.
There are several Canadian groups actively opposing the government’s actions. For further information on those efforts, contact the War Resisters Support Campaign.
by: Ann Wright, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
A brave soldier of freedom, tortured by the ghouls of war.
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Obama’s prisoner we should remember. One word from the White House, not needing any congressional input, would automatically improve his treatment.
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Obama is the Ghoul in Chief. His breath is rot, his words, polished vomit, his vision, shifting curtains of blood.
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I voted for Obama and I really want to know what’s up with him on this. Will he give us a statement? This cannot happen in this country and us turn a blind eye. The killing of Journalists by Americans cannot happen without our outcry. The killing of Pat Tillman by his own troop cannot happen without Outcry. Pres. Obama….Whats up???
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If I recall correctly, Obama has already delcared Bradley Manning guilty. This was before any charges were brought.
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Look what they did to the guys who protested Vietnam – They were accused of mutiny!! They were held at the Presidio in San Francisco.
Watch ‘Sir no Sir” If you threaten the 1% – They bring hell down on your head – Bradley will be remembered some day as the hero he is, just like the guys held at the Presidio are recognized as the heroes they are.
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Until Obama’s zionist masters are brought to trial, don’t expect anything to get any better. Zionist crimes agains the American People go back a way’s, for example:
remember the USS Liberty and the many US soldiers who died on it by Israeli air attack in June 1967! It was done to hide Israel’s attack plans on the neighboring countries who had no soldiers in position to attack Israel!
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Not only did Obama declare Bradley Manning “guilty,” also he was asked about the treatment he was receiving before he was transferred from Quantico:
President Obama tells us that he’s asked the Pentagon whether the conditions of confinement of Bradley Manning,
the soldier charged with leaking state secrets, “are appropriate and
are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…
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G_Orez
there’s more:
After State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley criticized Manning’s conditions of confinement, the White House forced him to resign. Crowley had said the restrictions were “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/i…
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I remember that as well.
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They hate our freedom
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Oblahblah already made a statement over a year ago. He declared Bradley Manning guilty.
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I’m a veteran and retired superior court judge from NH. Manning’s pre-trial imprisonment and torture are aimed at getting him to plead guilty to lesser charges. So far, he has managed to withstand his abusers and force this thing to the show trial that it is bound to be. No doubt, in the interest of “national security” (which has nothing to do with the security of the people of the US and everything to do with the military industrial complex), the evidence that would help Manning and enlighten the rest of us will be excluded by the court. Only if we have a judge with the integrity and courage of Judge William Byrne, who freed Daniel Ellsberg, will justice be done for Manning and the people of the US and the world. We should all do our best to be there for this young Manning and show the world and Manning where we stand!
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Absolutely Correct ArtBrennan..America really must get calmly to common ground on this one.. everyone cannot be a movie star !! At least theymust control their individual egos and get the job done UNITE WITH CALM LOVING STRENGTH .This is the force that changes the status quo.Not the screaming.!
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No it would not shock me. Some of our servicemen are nothing more than thugs in uniform that follow orders and act in a predictable way. As military service turns more and more to the political right you will see more and more behavior that would shock ordinary Americans, such as Manning. He made an oath to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and he meant it as few are prepared to do. In the service to your country, you might be placed in a position to sacrifice your life but you may also be asked to sacrifice less — such as a career or your freedom. Bradley Manning knows what I am talking about. Giving your life may be an act of physical courage. His sacrifice was one of moral courage which I believe is much more rare in today’s military or among our elected officials. We need more Bradley Mannings, especially in high places.
You have my life-long salute sir.Full disclosure: former LCDR, USN
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Under the Uniform Military Code of Justice, and the Geneva Convention, a soldier is required to report acts of war crimes.
Bradley Manning was doing his duty as a soldier and should be given a medal and a promotion, not drumhead justice.
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Sickening.
It is for actions such as these that I hate the U.S. military.
We could slash their budget by half and still be the strongest in the world, while having hundreds of billions of dollars more to spend on the good things, such as infrastructure and helping the less fortunate and therefore making America a MUCH better place.
Why are such a high percentage of American citizens so cowardly that they think if we slash the military budget by half, we would not be safe??
Those who don’t want to substantially cut the military budget and foreign bases are a bunch of cowards and bullies.
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Sadly, show trials are nothing new. In the CCCP, people were often tortured to the point of confessing to anything they were accused of. Then they were allowed to “confess” to their crimes in show trials, implicating anyone they were told to, with the promise that if they didn’t, the torture chambers awaited them.
I don’t think Bradley has the chance of a snowball in a blast furnace, unless they cook up a deal to use him to get Julian.
Next, it will be Room 101.
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Mr. Manning: A very brave, patriotic and honorable soldier, being made an example, by an evil, cowardly, kangaroo government court, to discourage any other brave, patriotic and honorable soldiers from following in his footsteps.
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Yes the Nazis like to torture people.
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US torture.
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That latest decision from the judge doesn’t bode well, but I’m miserably not surprised. Every veteran I’ve ever talked to about this case knows Manning doesn’t stand a chance, and unfortunately some have no sympathy. They think he should have waited till he got out to do any leaking. One laughed at the level of information. He’d been privy to Top Security info, and was amazed at the tame stuff that Manning leaked. Well, let’s push that idea further, my man. What have you got? Any possibility you could do something with it? Ahhh, he wasn’t the type to do any such thing as to save some of that info and get himself martyred.
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“But it will be transformed. All the present systems will be transformed. People are not fools. I remember your President Lincoln saying that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Their common sense, their instinct for decency and justice, will bring them together. Don’t scoff! It has happened before. It can happen again, on a much larger scale. And when it does, the rulers of society, with all their wealth, with all their armies, will be helpless to prevent it. Their servants will refuse to serve, their soldiers will disobey orders.”
from Howard Zinn’s play Marx in Soho
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Hey, he’s guilty right? Didn’t the “Commander In Chief” say so? Obama could order him killed tomorrow!. He could order him tied to a big goddam stake out in the middle of a field and damn-well drone-hit!, So Manning better shut up and take what’s coming to him! Obama’s being kind, generous and lenient toward Manning and he’s not even grateful!
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I doubt that Bradley Manning was “tortured” or even came close to torture. I am sure he was on a very close suicide watch.
Torture: that was left up the those in the previous “torture kept us safe” team (read: Bush-Cheney-Yoo-Addington-Gonzales-Rice-Rumsfeld-Bybee, and a few others).
— Dan Francis (Watertown, NY – near Fort Drum) and former Marine Corps interrogator (1stLt., USMC (Ret.)
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Are you kidding? You are kidding, right? They were using classic no-touch torture techniques on him. Drugging him (on “antidepressants” they said vaguely, many of which now are combined with neuroleptics, just like they gave the dissidents of yore in the USSR). Solitary. Waking him constantly “to see if he was OK”). Making him strip naked and stand to attention for all to see. Calling it suicide watch even though the prison psych experts reported that he wasn’t suicidal.
I guess you’re one of those “no blood, no blame” types, or you’d better get better at your irony act, because it’s not coming through with any force, and many on these threads couldn’t see irony even if it were fashioned by Mark Twain.
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You should see what they do to a normal regular person in the military if they are on ‘profile’ as a suicide watch. It’s called LOS (line of sight). You are placed somewhere where someone can watch you at any time, this could be in a really noisy game room (so you can’t sleep) or at a lone desk in a lone room with nothing to look at or read and no place to rest (so you can’t sleep) or in a janitor’s closet in a dilapidated building at the unused end of a military base with an armed guard standing outside (I guess so the can shoot you if you decide to try to kill yourself). THIS is what the call suicide prevention in the military. If you ain’t useful, you are as good as dead to the MIC. It’s all collateral damage and you know how much we care about that.
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No country ever hold political prisoners. Always there are some other “charges” used to cover the panic of corrupt authorities at having their crimes outed. And torture . . The mere idea is impossible in the USSA.
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You obviously don’t understand psychological torture. As I understand, Bradley Manning was keot confined in a cell, naked, under a bright light, for 23 hours a day. At “night” he was awoken every 20 mins or so to be asked if he was ok.
If you don’t think experiencing those conditions, for 11 months nonstop, is torture, I’d suggest you give it a try.
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It’s always heartwarming to see a Judge … a man who has dedicated his life to justice … stand up for what’s right and demonstrate his personal honor and integrity in what is probably the most important case he will ever try.
All those in the legal profession no doubt respect him for the jurist and man he is. His parents, wife and children should be proud of him. I’m sure he is just a reflection of the men and women of quality and honor who sit on the bench across this proud land.
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Army Col. Denise Lind,
presiding over a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade, agreed with
prosecutors that the extent of any damage is irrelevant to the 22
charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning. http://www.newstimes.com/news/…
This particular man is a she…
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“This particular man is a she…”
My error. Too bad, I hoped the female professionals would improve the profession. I was naive.
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Come join Courage to Resist and Bradley Manning Support Committee to protest Obama at Fox Theater this coming Monday, July 23rd at 3 PM. It’s right near 19th St. BART Station.
“They hide the truth from the American people, protect corporate criminals and punish the truth tellers. And will continue their assault on demopcracy here and around the world until the American people stop them.”
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Is it not about time for citizens to arrest these satanic people whom think they have a right to treat people any way they like ?who really are these people? the President was voted by the people for the people!! all that progresive rhetoric Ha! to really enslave a nation? it is the most shameful constant invasion on the collective soul of humanity..Get smart now OWS its surely time to retaliate ..the Law is manipulated to suit those disgusting people whom you voted in to lead you to a happier expression and born human right dignity and freedom to love ..grow and have education .. health care across the board not enslave you to fear and mistreatment ..That has you yelling on the streets.you are the power!! Bradley is the unfortunate soul to show you just how twisted your government,police force and military relly are.Bradley will be free..tou could always storm the Pentegon? The White House? after all .
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Obama: The New Manchurian Candidate???
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The West invented torture! It started in Western Europe. Secret trials in ancient Germany were of the type that people had no right to confront accusers and would always be found guilty and executed often in the most brutal manner. A little history.
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