WikiLeaks cables: Bradley Manning faces 52 years in jail

[Joanne98]

Bradley Manning, a US army intelligence analyst, is suspected of leaking more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks

Bradley Manning will wake up tomorrow, at a military base in Virginia, to his 189th day in custody for the alleged leak of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

Manning, 23, a US army intelligence analyst brought up in the Oklahoma Bible belt and west Wales, is locked up with about half a dozen others in the marine-run facility in Quantico. He has had access to TV news and briefings from his lawyer, but little can have prepared him for the fury of the government he served about the impact of the cables leak.

Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, said it "tore at the fabric of government" and pledged "aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information". Republicans branded it terrorism.

Manning faces a court martial and up to 52 years in prison for his alleged role in copying the diplomatic cables, as well as the leak of military logs about incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq and a classified military video which showed a crew of an American Apache helicopter gunning down a group of men who they thought had a rocket launcher. They turned out to include Reuters staff with a TV camera.

He is said by friends to be on antidepressants and only a limited list of visitors are able to see him, yet one who saw him in recent weeks told the Guardian he was "doing surprisingly well, he is in high spirits".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/30/wikileaks-cables-bradley-manning

[MineralMan]

1. The UCMJ is pretty clear on disclosing classified materials.

He knew what the UCMJ said, too. There's no way to work with classified materials without signing a document laying out those rules and the punishment for breaking them.

If he, indeed, did take and give that classified information to someone, he's going to spend a long time in prison. It is that simple. I hope it was worth it to him. Somehow, I doubt he'll think it was after a while.

I'm not just guessing about those laws in the UCMJ. I spent most of my time in the USAF handling classified materials, and remember what I signed. It was made very clear to all of us what the penalties were for disclosing classified material.

[truedelphi]

2. Ellsberg was able to beat the rap that his efforts exposed him to -

But he did so in part because we still had a free press. (I mean, in this day and age, can you even imagine 17+ newspapers in the USA willing to face the wrath of the Federal Government to print out the next segment of the Pentagon Papers?)

Had he been court martialed, I doubt he'd have been set free.

In a just world, those sitting in jail awaiting maximum sentencing would Bush/Cheney and all the other people behind the war in Iraq. (They can have Di Feinstein, as far as I am concerned. no one should be able to vote in a war, and then profit to the tune of $ 27 million bucks just weeks later.)

And Brad MAnning's efforts would not e3en be needed.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. A brave young man.

Let us send him all the positive energy we can.

I do not know what else to do.

Any ideas???