Too Often Forgotten: An Amazingly Long List of What We Know Thanks to Private Manning

[morningfog]

The debate in the media, and in political, circles over Edward Snowden--Right or Wrong--often doubles back on references to Pfc. Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday. Too often (that is, most of the time), the value and import of the Manning/WikiLeaks disclosures are ignored or dismissed, just as Snowden's NSA scoops are often derided as "nothing new."

So for those who either suffer from memory loss or ignorance on this particular score, here is a partial accounting of some of the important revelations in the Manning leak, drawn from my book--with Kevin Gosztola--on the Manning case, Truth and Consequences (the e-book just now updated to include the trial, the verdict, this week's sentencing and reactions).

The revelations below were compiled for the book in March 2011--many others followed, including the important Gitmo files (see my piece about them). So even this accounting below is far from complete.

And let's not forget what started it all: the "Collateral Murder" video.

First, just a very partial list from "Cablegate" (keep in mind, this does not include many other bombshells that caused a stir in smaller nations abroad):

-Yemeni president lied to his own people, claiming his military carried out air strikes on militants actually done by U.S. All part of giving U.S. full rein in country against terrorists.

-Details on Vatican hiding big sex abuse cases in Ireland.

-U.S. tried to get Spain to curb its probes of Gitmo torture and rendition.

-Egyptian torturers trained by FBI—although allegedly to teach the human rights issues.

-State Dept memo: U.S.-backed 2009 coup in Honduras was 'illegal and unconstitutional.'”

-Cables on Tunisia appear to help spark revolt in that country. The country's ruling elite described as “The Family,” with Mafia-like skimming throughout the economy. The country's First Lady may have made massive profits off a private school.

-U.S. knew all about massive corruption in Tunisia back in 2006 but went on supporting the government anyway, making it the pillar of its North Africa policy.

-Cables showed the UK promised in 2009 to protect U.S interests in the official Chilcot inquiry on the start of the Iraq war.

-U.S. pressured the European Union to accept GM — genetic modification, that is.

-Washington was misled by our own diplomats on Russia-Georgia showdown.

-Extremely important historical document finally released in full: Ambassador April Glaspie's cable from Iraq in 1990 on meeting with Saddam Hussein before Kuwait invasion.

-The UK sidestepped a ban on housing cluster bombs. Officials concealed from Parliament how the U.S. is allowed to bring weapons on to British soil in defiance of treaty.

-New York Times: “From hundreds of diplomatic cables, Afghanistan emerges as a looking-glass land where bribery, extortion and embezzlement are the norm and the honest man is a distinct outlier.”

-Afghan vice president left country with $52 million “in cash.”

-Shocking levels of U.S. spying at the United Nations (beyond what was commonly assumed) and intense use of diplomats abroad in intelligence-gathering roles.

-Potential environmental disaster kept secret by the U.S. when a large consignment of highly enriched uranium in Libya came close to cracking open and leaking radioactive material into the atmosphere.

-U.S. used threats, spying, and more to try to get its way at last year's crucial climate conference in Copenhagen.

-Hundreds of cables detail U.S. use of diplomats as “sales” agents, more than previously thought, centering on jet rivalry of Boeing vs. Airbus. Hints of corruption and bribes.

-Millions in U.S. military aid for fighting Pakistani insurgents went to other gov't uses (or stolen) instead.

-Israel wanted to bring Gaza to the ”brink of collapse.”

-The U.S. secret services used Turkey as a base to transport terrorism suspects as part of its extraordinary rendition program.

-As protests spread in Egypt, cables revealed that strong man Suleiman was at center of government's torture programs, causing severe backlash for Mubarak after he named Suleiman vice president during the revolt. Other cables revealed or confirmed widespread Mubarak regime corruption, police abuses and torture, and claims of massive Mubarak famiiy fortune, significantly influencing media coverage and U.S. response.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175879/too-often-forgotten-amazingly-long-list-what-we-know-thanks-private-manning#

It goes on and on. The list is so massive, the illegal or improper acts done by our government so extensive, the big dump was warranted. The entire cache needed dissemination so that it could be sifted through carefully to uncover the lies and abuses. Manning was and is a whistle-blower.

[Kolesar]

1. You ought to put author Greg Mitchell's name in there prominently

There is a thought that people become different people over time. Hopefully, Manning will get clemency from some chief executive some day.

[Kolesar]

3. And Assange is eating dinner off a paper plate sitting behind a piece of presswood furniture

It's Ground-Hog Day!

[morningfog]

4. She does not belong there. She deserves our thanks.

She is a hero.

[enough]

6. +1 thanks (nt)

[burnodo]

5. Why do you have a Bernie Sanders avatar?

misdirection? misinformation?

[progressoid]

14. No shit.

That avatar seems a bit wrong.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

17. Exactly.

[NYC_SKP]

40. It's part of the schtick.

And it ain't working.

[sabrina 1]

12. Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Condie and Wofowitz and Ledeen and Gonzalez and

the rest of the cabal of War Criminals are not in jail. That is what has been highlighted by the Manning sentencing around the world today. We are reminded that the US no longer abides by the Rule of Law, here or anywhere else.

Manning is a hero and deserves a medal. And one day, when the Rule of Law is restored that is what will happen.

America has too many secrets, secret courts, secret extraordinary renditions, secret warrants, secret kill lists, secret 'terror' lists, secret Corporations who write laws across the country.

Thanks to the Whistle Blowers like Chelsea Manning and Snowden and Assange we know a few of those secrets now and what we have learned, while often suspected, is confirmed.

There will be more Whistle Blowers, just as the torture of Manning didn't deter the next Whistle Blower, the treatment of Journalists and of Snowden may only encourage the next.

We don't have many heroes, certainly not in Public Office, but these people are heroes and eventually their contributions will begin the process of restoring the Rule of Law to this country.

[HardTimes99]

18. This is an important enough post that I hope you will consider making it an

OP of its own.

150 years later, few people other than professional historians remember James Buchanan but many people remember John Brown. I foresee a similar fate for Manning's reputation with the passage of time. That is no consolation to her, of course, and only small consolation to me.

I'm not sure the Rule of Law will ever be restored. IMHO, the U.S. became a rogue nation on March 20, 2003 and has done nothing since to rehabilitate itself. The Bush Junta deserves to have the principles first articulated at Nuremberg applied to it but I have serious doubts you or I shall ever see that happen. So we must take our consolation from the verdict of history and I trust it will be exceedingly kind to Manning.

[Swagman]

20. Fascism has succeeded. Nuremberg will be regarded as an oddity.

[HardTimes99]

22. If fascism had "succeeded," I wager you and I would be having this

conversation orally behind barbed wire and not in print\electronically.

Don't get me wrong. I think America is a very sick society in desperate need of some outside intervention. But I don't think the ailment is "fascism," properly speaking. We still have a nominal two-party system here, for example. Only one of those two parties is openly fascistic. The other party still pays at least lip service to the values of liberal humanism.

[Swagman]

19. and the murderers roam free because for some inexplicable

reason some people are more outraged by the messenger than the message.

[rhett o rick]

36. And your friends Bush and company walk free. Whose side are you on? Obviously not the 99%. nm

[Go Vols]

38. #4

At Sat Aug 24, 2013, 12:15 AM an alert was sent on the following post:

And your friends Bush and company walk free. Whose side are you on? Obviously not the 99%. nm
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3524721

REASON FOR ALERT:

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)

ALERTER'S COMMENTS:

Personal attacks

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sat Aug 24, 2013, 12:19 AM, and the Jury voted 1-5 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: I agree.
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT and said: Over the top.
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: I don't see the "personal attack". Dumb alert.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: DontTreadOnMe gives it hard,expect to get same.
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[bhikkhu]

39. Hopefully not for very long

I'm a firm supporter of the president, but I really hope he takes a good long look at that Nobel Peace Prize, and pardons Pvt Manning before he leaves office. Not doing so would put a pretty strong tarnish on his legacy.

[Blue_Tires]

7. I tried to start a couple discussions back then on

Hilary spying/bugging on almost everyone at the U.N., but they all dropped like a stone...

[RC]

9. Worshiping/denigrating the person, is more important than what they did or are doing.

This is DU, after all.

[Laelth]

8. k&r for the truth. n/t

-Laelth

[Celefin]

10. Every country needs a Manning

Or several... the sooner the better. Especially my ex-love, moral-high-ground EU.

Whatever number of people gets 'hurt' (literally or as usual mainly embarrassed) by revelations like the above pales into insignificance compared to the number of people hurt by these classified ongoings.

The traitors are those who are responsible for and cover up this shit and those who defend the cover-up.

[HardTimes99]

21. France had its Manning\Snowden back in 1898 during 'L'affaire Dreyfus' when

the French writer Emile Zola published his highly influential "J'accuse" letter. Zola actually had to flee to England for a year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27accuse

N.B. The 'EU' is not a country.

[Celefin]

25. Thanks, interesting read.

Hope we don't have to wait another 115 years then :b

And you are of course right that I should have said 'the countries comprising the EU'... or more to the point 'those EU-countries that always try to take the moral high ground as opposed to the usually quiet EU members... but I guess at this point it gets confusing, heh. That's why I used 'EU'
Cheers.

[HardTimes99]

27. No worries. We actually only had to wait about 50 (since Ellsberg

leaked the Pentagon Papers) or taking a still-more expansive view of leaking, 10 years (since Joe Wilson blew the whistle on the Bush Junta's war crimes). The human spirit to tell the truth cannot be easily extinguished by mere tyrants.

[myrna minx]

11. K&R thanks for posting. n/t

[Octafish]

13. Gee. All that is un-Constitutional lawbreaking by the US Government...

...on behalf of favored corporations and individuals, of course.

Oh, well. Too bad, so sad. Money trumps peace.

[xchrom]

15. du rec.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

16. Wow! Thanks for posting.

[MjolnirTime]

23. I bet Manning would take it all back now.

[MsPithy]

26. Can't let you get away with that shit.

You are attempting to minimize her heroism, by implying she would not follow her moral code if she knew there would be consequences.

Bullshit.

They tortured her for years to get her to falsely implicate Assange, and she wouldn't cave.

She is a stone-cold hero. Get used to it.

[MjolnirTime]

28. She already said she wouldn't have done it if she knew the consequences on everyone else

It was part of her apology.

Maybe the code of doing no harm to the public at large weighs heavier in her mind now than the code of informing the public of government secrets.

Hindsight is 20/20.

[ConcernedCanuk]

30. umm - sometimes people being tortured say anything to stop the suffering.

.
.
.

I suspect there were threats of harm to herself, friends or family if she did not "tow the line".

"Maybe the code of doing no harm to the public at large weighs heavier in her mind now than the code of informing the public of government secrets. "

I think you got that one backwards.

It's these "government secrets" that are causing the harm, breaking down the very fabric of a decent society,

as well as destroying any trust and respect that may be left in the World toward the USA.

Be aware, I have nothing against the citizens of the USA per se, but USA's government I definitely have issues with.

As I do with my own government and our HarperSlut.

CC

[MsPithy]

32. Do you have a link to the harm caused by the Manning leaks?

[MsPithy]

37. Still waiting for the link to evidence of harm caused by

the Manning leaks.

[davekriss]

31. "She is a stone-cold hero"

Amen to that, sister!

[morningfog]

33. I bet you are wrong, as per usual.

[burnodo]

34. +1

[KG]

41. well, bye!

come back soon!

[niyad]

24. k and r for this imporant reminder

[Luminous Animal]

29. Kudos for the Nations Greg Mitchell for sticking with this story from the beginning.

[felix_numinous]

35. K&R