[ExI] Manning and Assange

[Keith Henson]

On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 5:00 AM,  "spike" <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>
>>... On Behalf Of Kelly Anderson
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Manning and Assange
>
> On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 9:45 PM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>>... Because of what Manning did, you can watch it yourself and decide if
>> the gunship engaged in a war crime and make the judgment if Manning
>> was obligated to make it public since people far up the chain were
>> trying to keep what he thought of as a war crime under wraps.
>
>>...OK, so I have a question. It's a real question.
>
>>...Because of the stuff Manning has released, has any one of the alleged
> "war criminals" shown acting in these videos/documents been brought up on
> charges that they would not have otherwise faced in any case? -Kelly
> _______________________________________________

> Ja, and the next questions: if they were trying to keep that under wraps,
> why was it on a system that could be easily compromised with a disk burner?
> What happened to the people who posted it to that system?  If that video was
> classified, why isn't it properly marked?
>
> Note to Kelly: if the video was on an unsecured network, Manning didn't
> release it.  He only forwarded it to WikiLeaks, who forwarded it to the
> world.  If it isn't specifically marked as classified, it isn't classified.
> If it is specifically marked classified, I don't understand how the markings
> were removed and how it got onto an unsecured system and why whoever put it
> there isn't in the brig too.
>
> Note to self: there are so many unexplainables here, I need to stop posting
> on the subject until I hear something that sounds understandable.

There are times you just can't evade Godwin's law.

There is wide agreement that the Nazies committed war crimes, a mess
of them were found guilty and executed at the Nuremberg trials.

Let me answer Spike's question with a question.

Germany prosecuted how many war crimes in WWII?

The US *has* persecuted war crimes prosecutions, but only when they
came to worldwide attention and it's been a long time now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre

"The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of between 347
and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by
United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion,
20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of
the victims were women, children, infants, and elderly people. Some of
the bodies were later found to be mutilated[2] and many women
allegedly raped prior to the killings.[3] While 26 U.S. soldiers were
initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Mỹ Lai,
only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie
Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was
originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half
years under house arrest.

"The incident prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge
in 1969. The massacre also increased domestic opposition to the U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam War. Three U.S. servicemen who had tried to
halt the massacre and protect the wounded were initially denounced by
several U.S. Congressmen as traitors in an attempt to cover up the
massacre. They received hate mail and death threats and found
mutilated animals on their doorsteps. "

[Sounds like scientologists]

"The three were later widely praised and decorated by the army for
their heroic actions."

Not likely to happen to Bradley Manning, but there is president.

"The fact that the massacre was successfully covered up for 18 months
was seen as a prime example of the Pentagon's "Culture of Concealment"
and of the lack of integrity that permeated the Defense
establishment."

Note that I have not watched "collateral murder."  There are different
opinions as to it being a crime or just an unfortunate accident.  Of
course one could make a case that the US had no justification for
being there in the first place.  How many "weapons of mass
destruction" did we find?

There is an event where really clasified secret material was released
June 1 of this year.  Far as I know, there is no investigation is
being held into who decided that bragging rights were more important
than a "top secret" classification.  But what would I know?

"This account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the
Iranian nuclear program  is based on interviews over the past 18
months with current and former American, European and Israeli
officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside
experts. None would allow their names to be used because the effort
remains highly classified, and parts of it continue to this day. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=1

(This article is adapted from “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret
Wars and Surprising Use of American Power,” to be published by Crown
on Tuesday.)

It's an interesting question as to why some leaks are rewarded and
some are punished.

Keith

> spike