Why not give PFC Bradley Manning the same justice the left is calling for, for the perpetrators in the stolen voicemail scandal in the UK?

Surely that's only fair? Jail time is the least he should expect?

So when is it "whistleblowing" and when is it "disgusting breaches of trust and privacy"? (when schadenfreude reaches 11 on the leftie schadenfreude scale of 10)

Will there be public meetings to defend Rupert Murdoch from those calling for a limitation of free speech? Let us know when the meeting will be, I imagine it will be along the lines described in this missive.

(just like all the marches and protests against the government sending "refugees" to overseas detention camps .. oh wait, hypocrisy alert coming in ..)

Stuart Rees,

Why should we be concerned with Justice?

Why should we be concerned with the State?

Sir, If we had a definition of the terms above probably Bradley Manning would not be languishing into a cell at the mercy of potential assassins.

I normally don't post in topics when I would merely agree, but this is too important to not say anything;

Bradley Manning has probably done every one of us lazy sods a massive favor by protecting democratic transparency in the USA and arguably around the world by highlighting what his country is doing- and is actually being punished for upholding parts of the first amendment.

If anything the least we should do is rethink our voting habits to support parties that support Manning (and Assange)'s plight (as when you think about it- for a party to NOT support these men, then you should be very afraid of their agenda- let alone that they would have something to hide to be so afraid of leaks and transparency).

We could also make as much song and dance about his plight as we did about Major Mori (who merely did his job at expense of looking bad to his employers), and David Hicks, Corby, The Bali Nine (who unlike Manning and Assange, were busted doing the WRONG thing for personal gain or glory; rather than try to do something good for the likes of us).
If anything they deserve more praise than all of them combined.

Alternatively, Manning never did such a thing, and is completely innocent and still shouldn't be in prison anyway.

No one has any concerns about Bradley Manning's efforts to open up the hidden Machiavellian thinking of successive US governments, for years engaged in deception and misrepresentation. The concerns for any person would be the obvious fate of this young soldier, knowing as the world does the depravity Americans are capable of in 2011.

No imagination is required to understand that he would be deprived of any concerns for his welfare, his mental state would be stressed beyond belief with any number of US-developed torture methods being tried out daily. This is what the US has become, hardly likely to change its philosophies for a Private First Class.

The comment referring to Daniel Ellsberg is worthy of note, a man that the majority of Americans, the non-Fox News viewers, that is, see as a latter day hero and rightly so. Different story for a man wearing a uniform, regarded as a ‘do what you’re told’ product and not required to have any thoughts that are independent of the US Army manual.

So even though his treatment and incarceration cannot be sheeted home to Julian Assange, one would like to think that some fleeting thoughts are spared for his source of the leaks that have made him a household name.

Like the injustice handed out to David Hicks, now the revenues from Hick’s book now being pursued by the petty-minded Australian government as he tells the real story.
Colonel Morris Davis, the former Chief prosecutor of military Commissions at Guantanamo was told to move the case against Hicks to the top of the list following a phone call made one day after US officials met with the ambassador to Australia, where Hicks' case and its impact on Howard's re-election campaign was discussed, according to a secret State Department document. Makes you proud to be an Australian when the election prospects of a weak Prime Minister control justice and fair play for an Australian in a foreign country.

So no on e can hold out any prospects for justice for Bradley Manning, sadly, the US now being a morally bankrupt country.

Bradley, the son I never had, exposed more war crimes than I ever will and has done more to stop the death machine of the US military than I have since I returned scared in mind and body from Vietnam 42 years ago. If he was my son he would have not gone in the military, I would have cut his trigger fingers off. But anyway, Bradley was soldier in the US Army, not a marine in the Marine Corps. You can't tell the difference if one of them is aiming a weapon at you, but there is a difference.

No, come now, *U.ncle S.atan* has to torture the %$^* out of him to turn him into a crazy head to the extent that no one will take him seriously anymore and as a serious DETERRENT against anyone else game to lift the lid on the "apple pie and cream" to reveal the " ... wretched hive of scum and villainy ... " underneath.

The U.S. government made 6 mistakes. So far, the U.S. Army...

A. ... ignored Manning’s disqualifying shortcomings during basic training;
B. ... then promoted him multiple times, finally to Private First Class (E-4);
C. ... deployed him to a far-flung, desolate outpost in a war zone;
D. ... failed to enforce standard technical security measures;
E. ... allowed peers and superiors to repeatedly torment and beat him; and
F. ... ignored his reports of war crimes.

The extent of Manning’s guilt and innocence have yet to be proven. The world still doesn’t know...

1. ... whether Manning will plead guilty or innocent;
2. ... what exactly he did (if anything);
3. ... what the damages are (if any);
4. ... who was hurt (if anyone);
5. ... what his defense is;
6. ... why U.S. Marine Corps prison officials refused to let him have confidential visits with either U.S. Congressional Representative Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) or United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur For Torture Juan Mendez; and
7. ... how nearly one year of inhumane pre-trial detainment affect this case.

Everyone — on all sides — should stop declaring various levels of guilt, innocence, heroism, or treason until after the 7 facts above are well known and fully understood.

That’s a long way off yet. The crimes allegedly occurred in 2010; the trial starts in 2011; when it ends in 2012, Manning will have spent nearly 2 years in prison.

I believe that *Kofi Annan* on behalf of the U.N. and the majority of "the good people of the world" (for want of a better term) made it quite clear at the year 2000 Human Rights conference that any individual in the world is quite free to be a self appointed *Human Rights Volunteer* at any time and to blow the whistle on potential Human Right's abusers as and when "we" please.

..

Of course, with events such as *Bush Turkey's* invasion of Iraq and the ongoing use of Uranium235 Enrichment Waste Munitions (amongst other nefarious past times), it is quite clear that U.ncle S.atan does not accept the U.N.'s jurisdiction in cases such as this, as it appears to value other "principles" more highly than "Human Rights."

..

However, as one diplomat said to me whilst in Geneva, it is not that "everyone" accepts that *U.ncle S.atan* should be free to do as it pleases and hold itself above international law with contempt and flagrant disregard, it is just that they believe that the alternatives to U.ncle S.atan are worse. .. How would you be, for instance, if the *Butchers of Beijing* were regulating your "life?"

..

I am sure that giving the historical issues at play, that *Obama* would be getting a number of the same comments that *Colin Powell* received and the fact that it doesn't appear to be being covered in Australia is a powerful motive i.m.o. for a wide ranging inquiry into the media, not just a limited grab for any direct "hacking" akin to that which recently occurred overseas.

..

In fact, I would likely argue that the coverage pre the invasion of Iraq was on balance so distorted because of its refusal to report something of both sides of the situation as to constitute an "incitement to war."