President Richard Nixon tried to use the Espionage Act to put the leaker of the Pentagon Papers -- about the planning of the Vietnam War -- behind bars. With a guilty verdict against Manning, Obama has now prevailed where Nixon failed.
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| Daniel Ellsberg |
This injustice -- more than his withdrawal from two wars, and more than his largely futile struggle to make the United States into a more socially equitable country -- will define Obama's presidency in the long term.
...Leaks are necessary for the fight against abuses of power. Manning's leaks uncovered war crimes, albeit ones that have remained unpunished. His leaks revealed, at an early juncture, the disorientation of the US's Afghanistan operations. And the cables from US embassies, far from being high-level gossip, showed how eagerly those in power deceived their own people.
Obama must pardon Manning so that more whistleblowers do not find themselves compelled to seek refuge in the even darker realm of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Political lawbreakers like Nixon and Iran-Contra conspirators like former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane were pardoned. After all, there's honor among thieves.
Now it's also time to pardon someone willing to call a thief a thief.
4 comments:
I can just imagine the uproar if he tried that...they would hang him:P though I totally believe that Manning deserves to be set free,...I also know that many folks in america, including dems have been soo brainwashed that they feel manning is a traitor and he endangered other soldiers. Its a load of crap but unfortunately for the likes of such a militaristic country, they are inflexible about military procedures and protocol. He like Snowden is a whistleblower...the footage that Manning released to wikileaks was brutal. I think CBC did a doc on this but I bet many americans have not seen this footage, and Im not sure if they would believe it anyhow.
Don't forget that Dubya commuted Scooter Libby's prison sentence when he was the fall guy for Dickhead Cheny, KKKarl Rove et. al. who outed Valerie Plame, an actual undercover operative of the CIA working to prevent nuclear proliferation.
So'me folks think it was to get even with her husband, Joe Wilson for blowing the "yellowcake" fantasy. Or perhaps it was a genuine two for one win win for the Bu$hies. I suspect she stopped Dickhead from smuggling nukes into Iraq to justify the war. At any rate their outing of her put foreign nationals at risk who had dealt with her operating under her cover as an "energy consultant.
Deb, Koot, my guess is that Obama will pardon Manning as he leaves the White House. That way the Repugs won't be able to make it an election issue against his successor. By then Manning will have served enough time that most people will think he's not getting off lightly.
I hope he is pardoned sooner than that but I've never been on the Obama being "Hope and Change" band wagon so it probably will happen only on his way out.
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