Bradley Manning: Hero of Traitor

If you don't know who Bradley Manning is, you probably need help reading this blog. He was charged with 22 offenses including the communication of national defense information and aiding the enemy. The 5 foot 2 inch Manning gave the information to WikiLeaks and they posted hundreds of thousands of these classified documents and video online. The material included a July 12, 2007 video of a Baghdad airstrike and an airstrike in Granai, Afghanistan. There were also about 250 thousand sensitive diplomatic cables  and half a million army reports which came to be known as the Iraqi and Afhan War logs. Little Manning has the distinction to having leaked the largest number of restricted documents ever to the public. 



In July of 2010, Manning was incarcerated at the Marine Corps Brig in Quantico, Virginia, then in April 2011, he was transferred to Fort Leavenworth. In Quantico, he was considered a danger to himself and held in Prevention of Injury (POI) status, but that status was removed upon his transfer.

In February of this year, he pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him--this could carry a sentence up to 20 years. The latest trial began on June 3, 2013 and ended yesterday, July 30th. 

Just a tidbit on Manning's history. He was born in Crescent, Oklahoma on December 17, 1987 to Susan nee Fox, and Brian Manning. His mother is from Wales, father from OK. Brian met Susan when he was stationed in Cawder Barracks, in Wales and in 1976 Bradley's sister was born.

Father worked in IT and traveled a lot, mother had poor health and eventually picked up the bottle. The family returned to the USA in 1979, moving to California first, then to Crescent. They kept pigs and chickens, (from whom Bradley evidently learned a great deal), and had an above-ground swimming pool, according to Wikipedia. 

Bradley did well in school, especially with computers, and won local science fairs and even a state-wide quiz bowl. He was a chip off of dad's shoulder when it came to digital science.

His parents divorced and Manning lived with mother, and in November 2001, they left the US and returned to Wales to be with her family in Haverfordwest. In school, he was frequently bullied for being an effeminate runt with an American accent. 

In 2005, Bradley returned to the USA;  he had moved in with his father, who was then living with his second wife and her child, and he worked as a software developer, but had weird moments when he would just sit and stare into the jasmine of his mind, his boss alluded to in an interview with The Washington Post. By this time, Manning was living the life of a full-blown gay man.

Manning didn't get along with his step-mother and threatened her with a knife, which got him canned from their home. He drove to Tulsa with a friend and they landed jobs at a pizza joint. 

In August 2008, Manning enlisted and went through basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, but after 6 weeks was discharged due to bullying, it is alleged, others saw it as a mental breakdown. But the decision to discharge him was revoked and he was sent to Fort Huachuca, in Arizona. He received training as an intelligence analyst and got a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance. This is how he was able to access the information he gave up to WikiLeaks. 

Yesterday Manning was convicted on 5 counts of espionage, theft, and other military infractions. He was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, which would be a life sentence. (It's also a capital offense but the prosecution did not go for the death penalty.)

Sentencing begins today. At worst, Manning could get 136 years imprisonment. That would make him a very old man by the time he would get out, if medical science finds a way to delay death. But he will probably not get all those years--I suspect he'll get maybe 20 and be out in six months if liberals get their way.

Some see Manning as a hero, which I can understand because I worked in the area of mental health and liberalism is undoubtedly a mental disorder. I see Manning as a traitor--he gave away information that is clearly damaging to our country. I thought it was terrible when our guys accidentally killed an innocent journalist and others, but it was not our intention. If absence of intention got Manning out of aiding the enemy, it certainly should be applied to the helicopter crew who fired upon the reporter and the van. 

Manning is probably not evil, nor did he have evil intentions, but he has to pay for his gross stupidity and his obvious need to become famous. It has to show other America-haters that blowing the whistle isn't always the right thing to do--sometimes it just puts our military in danger. 

Clearly the issues about what Manning did involve our Constitution and they are abstract. I'm not an expert on the greatest national document to ever exist, but I think national security has to trump leaks of information that would otherwise be seen as free speech. Otherwise there would be no need for security clearances, which is, in effect, a promise to keep the secrets you are privy to. Snowden, you're next.

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