• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

US Army intelligence analyst arrested in Wikileaks leak

jamesrage

DP Veteran
Joined
Jul 31, 2005
Messages
36,705
Reaction score
17,867
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Slightly Conservative
If he is guilty hopefully they throw the book at him.


US Army intelligence analyst arrested in Wikileaks leak - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US Army intelligence analyst has been arrested in connection with the leak of classified US military combat video to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com reported.

Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division, the technology magazine said on its website late Sunday.

Wired said Manning was arrested at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Baghdad, and was being held in Kuwait. He has not been formally charged.

Manning was turned in late last month after boasting to a former computer hacker in an online conversation that he had leaked video of a 2007 US military helicopter strike to Wikileaks, Wired said.

WikiLeaks released video in April of the Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad which killed two employees of the Reuters news agency and a number of other people.

Wikileaks said at the time that it had obtained the video "from a number of military whistleblowers" but did not provide any further information about how it got a hold of the footage, which it posted at Wikileaks.org and on YouTube.

Manning reportedly said he had leaked other material to Wikileaks, including separate video of a 2009 air strike in Afghanistan, a classified Army document evaluating Wikileaks as a security threat and 260,000 classified US diplomatic cables.
 
If he is guilty hopefully they throw the book at him.


US Army intelligence analyst arrested in Wikileaks leak - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US Army intelligence analyst has been arrested in connection with the leak of classified US military combat video to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com reported.

Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division, the technology magazine said on its website late Sunday.

Wired said Manning was arrested at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Baghdad, and was being held in Kuwait. He has not been formally charged.

Manning was turned in late last month after boasting to a former computer hacker in an online conversation that he had leaked video of a 2007 US military helicopter strike to Wikileaks, Wired said.

WikiLeaks released video in April of the Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad which killed two employees of the Reuters news agency and a number of other people.

Wikileaks said at the time that it had obtained the video "from a number of military whistleblowers" but did not provide any further information about how it got a hold of the footage, which it posted at Wikileaks.org and on YouTube.

Manning reportedly said he had leaked other material to Wikileaks, including separate video of a 2009 air strike in Afghanistan, a classified Army document evaluating Wikileaks as a security threat and 260,000 classified US diplomatic cables.

Certain information I agree should be kept secret, but I have little trust in our government that they will tell us what they are up to.

I mean, just look at the history of the CIA. The fact that they keep information secret for so long is not reassuring... How the hell are we supposed to know what our government is doing in our name?
 
Last edited:
Certain information I agree should be kept secret, but I have little trust in our government that they will tell us what they are up to.

I mean, just look at the history of the CIA. The fact that they keep information secret for so long is not reassuring... How the hell are we supposed to know what our government is doing in our name?

I understand where you are coming from, but people who work with classified information, it is not their job to determine whether something should be classified. It is their job, and they agreed to it, to keep classified information classified. Some one who leaks has to be prosecuted, if for no other reason than to send the message that if you leak, you will be punished.
 
I understand where you are coming from, but people who work with classified information, it is not their job to determine whether something should be classified. It is their job, and they agreed to it, to keep classified information classified. Some one who leaks has to be prosecuted, if for no other reason than to send the message that if you leak, you will be punished.

Oh, I agree... I just find it worrisom that so much that our government does is considered "classified". National Security reasons is one thing, but protecting someone's ass for doing immoral things is not right. Again... just look at the history of the CIA.
 
Manning was turned in late last month after boasting to a former computer hacker in an online conversation that he had leaked video of a 2007 US military helicopter strike to Wikileaks, Wired said.

How noble of his 'hacker friend' - I think this calls for a presidential pardon, honestly, of this hacker's crimes (the one who turned him in).

Bravo
 
Certain information I agree should be kept secret, but I have little trust in our government that they will tell us what they are up to.

I mean, just look at the history of the CIA. The fact that they keep information secret for so long is not reassuring... How the hell are we supposed to know what our government is doing in our name?

Why do we have to know what they're doing in our name all the time?
No country out there in the world indulges all details to their public - it's absurd.
 
Why do we have to know what they're doing in our name all the time?
No country out there in the world indulges all details to their public - it's absurd.

But sadly there are governments in the world that do DISCLOSE things when they say they will. Unlike the US that continues to delay and delay.
 
But sadly there are governments in the world that do DISCLOSE things when they say they will. Unlike the US that continues to delay and delay.

It's sad that there are government that do disclose. . .
But it's bad when we delay on the path to disclosure?

Remember the scene from MIB where Kay explains to Edwards that "A person is smart. People are dumb."

If, by all means, you feel you are a smart person and somehow privy to this information - then that's your opinion.
But when speaking of the mass number of people that will know - along with you knowing - it's better that you just don't know certain things. You're thinking of yourself when you should be thinking of you AND everyone else in the entire world.
 
Why do we have to know what they're doing in our name all the time?
No country out there in the world indulges all details to their public - it's absurd.

I'd like to know when our government is torturing prisoners, or drugging people, or sending covert soliders into areas we should not be in, or intervening in other nation's affairs,.... I could go on, but I hope you get my point.

If we knew about these things, I doubt they would have happened in the first place. Now that these things are out in the public after the fact, our reputation has been tainted.
 
Last edited:
Classified information has its purpose, but it all to often used for cover-ups rather than protecting the nation. While I agree with the man's choice, he is not above the law. I'd convict him, but give him a light sentence given the circumstances.
 
Classified information has its purpose, but it all to often used for cover-ups rather than protecting the nation. While I agree with the man's choice, he is not above the law. I'd convict him, but give him a light sentence given the circumstances.

I'd charge him with being a traitor and execute him. Seeing as his actions gave "aide and comfort" to the enemy.
 
Seriously, **** this guy.

Even if you're someone who wants to justify the leaking of these videos as some sort of plan for the greater good, there is absolutely no excuse for leaking (or attempting to leak) 260,000 classified diplomatic cables. That is absolutely mindblowing, and would do serious damage to our diplomatic relationships around the world. It would probably be the most damaging leak in the nation's history.
 
I'd like to know when our government is torturing prisoners, or drugging people, or sending covert soliders into areas we should not be in, or intervening in other nation's affairs,.... I could go on, but I hope you get my point.

If we knew about these things, I doubt they would have happened in the first place. Now that these things are out in the public after the fact, our reputation has been tainted.

Just because you *want* to know doesn't mean you *should* know. Our enemies *want* to know these things, as well, so they can use them against us which is EXACTLY why it's classified!

So - risk my husband's life to satisfy your curiosity. Nope, sorry, your curiosity defintely doesn't mean crap to me in contrast.
 
I'd charge him with being a traitor and execute him. Seeing as his actions gave "aide and comfort" to the enemy.

I agree with charging him as a traitor, but I'm not in favor of his execution.

Life in prison would be enough, to me.
 
Just because you *want* to know doesn't mean you *should* know. Our enemies *want* to know these things, as well, so they can use them against us which is EXACTLY why it's classified!

So - risk my husband's life to satisfy your curiosity. Nope, sorry, your curiosity defintely doesn't mean crap to me in contrast.

If we had a truely transparent government, this crap I listed wouldn't happen in the first place. Just because we don't hear about it doesn't make it right.

And I'm not talking about secret military technology or even this tape of the killings this guy released (he should not have leaked that video)... I'm talking about intentional immoral actions done by our government in our name.

I'm getting off the main topic here though...

This guy should be put on trial and if convicted, put in prison. The video does nothing but give propaganda to our enemies.

As for the diplomatic cables leaked, I'd have to read them before making a comment on it. If there is evidence of misconduct in these messages, I would say I'm glad he leaked them. However if the information is sensitive and contains no wrong doings, I'd absolutely be again his leaking the information.
 
If we had a truely transparent government, this crap I listed wouldn't happen in the first place. Just because we don't hear about it doesn't make it right.

And I'm not talking about secret military technology or even this tape of the killings this guy released (he should not have leaked that video)... I'm talking about intentional immoral actions done by our government in our name.

I'm getting off the main topic here though...

This guy should be put on trial and if convicted, put in prison. The video does nothing but give propaganda to our enemies.

As for the diplomatic cables leaked, I'd have to read them before making a comment on it. If there is evidence of misconduct in these messages, I would say I'm glad he leaked them. However if the information is sensitive and contains no wrong doings, I'd absolutely be again his leaking the information.

Well - who's to be the judge, then?

They're called whistleblowers.

When something happens in govenrment and it's suppose to be kept hush-hush but it's *wrong* as in it violates the constitution, goes against current law or is immoral then the person who calls attention to it, leaks it or otherwise blows the whistle on it is actually protected after doing so under the whistleblower act of 1989. . . and other various acts and attempts to protect those who try to keep Washington balanced.

True, there should be less wrong-doing going on. But, it seems that 8 or 16 years isn't very long in politics - and often a secret wrong is found and then rooted out by opposition down the road. No matter how 'transparent' a government is suppose to be there will always be someone doing something that they shouldn't be doing.
 
The Specialist needs to be punished, not because of what he leaked but because of the fact that he leaked something marked classified. Its not up to him to decide what should be and shouldn't be classified or what deserves to be and what doesn't deserve to be classified. If you let him off the hook because you think what he leaked should have been public or didnt deserve to be classified, you'd be encouraging potential leakers, who may leak something important, and redefining the role of soldiers in that position.
 
Life is precious, he no longer deserves his.

I'm not sure simply releasing classified information should be a capital offense. I'd be more inclined to agree with it being so if the information released led to the deaths of soldiers, but it doesn't seem that this was the case here.
 
It's sad that there are government that do disclose. . .
But it's bad when we delay on the path to disclosure?

Remember the scene from MIB where Kay explains to Edwards that "A person is smart. People are dumb."

If, by all means, you feel you are a smart person and somehow privy to this information - then that's your opinion.
But when speaking of the mass number of people that will know - along with you knowing - it's better that you just don't know certain things. You're thinking of yourself when you should be thinking of you AND everyone else in the entire world.
Good thing I have proven myself worth of keeping secrets. But really after reading the article and learning what the thread was all about. I do believe he should be punished but I think on a more serious note about transparency is that if a weapon is more then 30 years old it should probably be disclosed regardless if it worked or not. That doesn't mean I am in favor of disclosing things that help others realize what our strategy is. But I'd like to know more on black projects that are old and decisions that were made by Allen Dulles and James Angleton. You know that James Angleton got a word named after him because he was practically paranoid?

Also what does your husband do for the government?
 
Look, there are legitimate reasons to whistleblow. And you know what? There are protections within our law that every single solitary government employee is made aware of and given training or information on in some way shape or form during their tenure with the government, if not multiple times. If you see something being done that is truly and utterly illegal and you blow the whistle you're likely going to be okay regarding the law or at least have a firm foothold.

However, on the flip side of that, to be able to rightfully and truthfully garauntee that such protection is provided instances where leaks are made that are NOT found to be illegal or to the standarded required for leaking then punishment must be metted out to its fullest available means. This by its nature helps assure that only the most obviously wrong practices are the ones most likely to be legitiamtely leaked rather than people leaking for the notoriety or to "get back at" the government.

This guy was not trying to do some noble deed. He was bragging about his work, he was seemingly enjoying the thrill and of being a rebel, of simply screwing the system for the sake of screwing it. He did nothing that was protected it seems under the whisteblower protection act.

Throw the book at him.
 
Good thing I have proven myself worth of keeping secrets. But really after reading the article and learning what the thread was all about. I do believe he should be punished but I think on a more serious note about transparency is that if a weapon is more then 30 years old it should probably be disclosed regardless if it worked or not. That doesn't mean I am in favor of disclosing things that help others realize what our strategy is. But I'd like to know more on black projects that are old and decisions that were made by Allen Dulles and James Angleton. You know that James Angleton got a word named after him because he was practically paranoid?

Also what does your husband do for the government?

Right now he connects the dots for those who come home injured. . . helps them readjust to routine, secure medical appointments and travel time, etc.
 
Back
Top Bottom