WikiLeaks: Bradley Manning's motives are no defence, judge rules

[BainsBane]

104. If it has been a series of cables on that topic specifically

that would be another matter. That is the salient point. He wasn't exposing a particular wrongdoing. He was dumping hundreds of thousands of documents and providing them to a website whose founder believes that America has no right to state secrets at all. But that isn't what Manning did. Moreover, I doubt he even knew what he was dumping. There were enormous numbers of documents released. He couldn't possibly had read them all before downloading them.

There is no way you could have read all those cables. There aren't enough hours in the day. That some of the cables turned out to be useful doesn't justify a wholesale dump. It's a simple mathematical probability. Only so many will result in the loss of life, and some will produce information the public should know. The key difference between Manning and Ellsberg is the broad, undifferentiated nature of the documents comprising the Wikileaks dump. Nice effort to defend the boy by referencing child trafficking, but the argument doesn't hold water because most of the documents release did not deal with that.

You're right that I haven't spent time reading about Manning's motives. ( I clicked on several of your posts and saw no links. I only saw your attempt to paint anyone who doesn't see Manning as a hero as being a right wing troll.) But I don't know why you think anyone should believe whatever justification he claims. He is charged with treason. He's going to say whatever he thinks helps him. I suppose I could believe Cheney and Libby too, but I don't. Speaking of which, you didn't answer the question about those two: Do you also stand with Cheney and Libby on their release of the CIA agent's name? Why should Manning be held in higher esteem?

Manning's actions strike me as those of a child without the mental maturity to consider the consequences of his actions. But he was over 18 and will be tried as an adult. Manning deserves a fair trial like every other citizen, and I hope he receives one. But he doesn't get my sympathy or admiration.