Obama on Manning: “He Broke the Law.” So Much for that Trial?

[Demeter]

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/04/22/obama-on-manning-he-broke-the-law-so-much-for-that-trial/

President Barack Obama made stunning accusations about accused Wikileaks whistleblower PFC Bradley Manning, directly asserting that Manning “broke the law.” Apparently the President of the United States of America and a self-described Constitutional scholar does not care that Manning has yet to be tried or convicted for any crime.

In a discussion yesterday with Logan Price, a Bradley Manning supporter who was part of a group of activists who sang a song during the President’s San Francisco fundraiser, President Obama flatly stated that Bradley Manning “dumped” documents and that “he broke the law.” A rough transcript follows, provided by UK Friends of Bradley Manning:

OBAMA: So people can have philosophical views but I can’t conduct diplomacy on an open source … That’s not how the world works.

And if you’re in the military… And I have to abide by certain rules of classified information. If I were to release material I weren’t allowed to, I’d be breaking the law.

We’re a nation of laws! We don’t let individuals make their own decisions about how the laws operate. He broke the law.



OBAMA: What he did was he dumped…



OBAMA: No it wasn’t the same thing. Ellsberg’s material wasn’t classified in the same way.

This is the President of the United States speaking about a US military soldier detained for almost a year on charges of leaking classified (but not top secret, the level of files released by Ellsberg) documents. Manning’s lawyer is considering considered (corrected: his transfer made the writ moot) filing a writ of habeus corpus for the length of time and totality of abuse suffered by Manning while in military custody.

President Obama has already made up his mind. He thinks Manning “broke the law.” It’s no wonder he considered Manning’s abuse to “meet our basic standards” when he thinks Manning is already guilty...This is vile...As a reminder: the Pentagon plans to hold Manning indefinitely. Might as well, since they think he’s guilty already.

[RandomThoughts]

1. The claim to be able to judge.

Many people in prison did not break the law, nor were prosecuted with due process, nor with the rights all citizens are guaranteed.

Don't know much about that manning guy, but that is a desperate reach by some writer of an article to try and justify there position.

I am due beer and travel money and many experiences, and did not break laws, or even if someone made that accusation, they would have to do it using smear, and distortion, from unjust data collection against the rights of citizens, creating far worse situations for society.


So someone saying someone broke a law is a joke in worse then anarchy reverse justice system.


Or many people in the current reverse justice anarchy system, are tried to be punished for upholding and defending the law, and those that can not accept the truth of the broken system have to think they are criminal to justify there own actions and existence outside of justice and compassion.



Function not data, not about a person in the article, the writer of the article, the thing that chose to post the article, or any other thing related to such a posting or writing.

[jaxx]

2. FDL may lose their minds over this.

What's left of them.....

[nuxvomica]

3. I reminds me of the brou-ha-ha over Nixon and Manson

Before Charles Manson's trial was over, Nixon declared him guilty and it was a big deal. Nixon took a lot of criticism for it, especially when Manson showed the newspaper headline to the jury. This is not a good thing for a president to do, especially one who's a lawyer.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Rec. Kangaroo court to follow Kangaroo detention.

Looks like Obama's committed to this moronic position. So .... it will likely be a matter of how much pressure can be brought internationally to get Manning free.

[Scuba]

5. It's called "command influence". How is some officer serving under...

...the Commander in Chief (that means everyone serving in the US Military) supposed to find Manning innocent when the COMMANDER IN CHIEF says he "committed a crime"?


It's inexcusable for a Constitutional scholar serving as President of the US to make such an error.


Besides, Manning is a patriot and a hero. He should be decorated for his courageous actions.

[Demeter]

7. Maybe, If the Situation Becomes a Complete Mess

Manning goes free by default and collects damages....?

Maybe in some other world...

[Demeter]

6. Glenn Greenwald: What Obama's Reckless Treatment of Bradley Manning Reveals About Our "Nation of Law

http://www.alternet.org/story/150722/glenn_greenwald%3A_what_obama%27s_reckless_treatment_of_bradley_manning_reveals_about_our_%22nation_of_laws%22?akid=6881.227380.HOoYc9&rd=1&t=20

Obama invoked America's status as a "nation of laws" to justify Manning's punishment; this is a President who has embraced much of the lawlessness of the Bush administration....After the speech, one of the protesters, Logan Price, approached Obama and questioned him. Obama's responses are revealing on multiple levels. First, Obama said this when justifying Manning's treatment (video and transcript are here):

We're a nation of laws. We don't let individuals make their own decisions about how the laws operate. He broke the law.

The impropriety of Obama's public pre-trial declaration of Manning's guilt ("He broke the law") is both gross and manifest. How can Manning possibly expect to receive a fair hearing from military officers when their Commander-in-Chief has already decreed his guilt?

................

It may be that Obama spoke extemporaneously and without sufficient forethought, but it is -- at best -- reckless in the extreme for him to go around decreeing people guilty who have not been tried: especially members of the military who are under his command and who will be adjudged by other members of the military under his command. Moreover, as a self-proclaimed Constitutional Law professor, he ought to have an instinctive aversion when speaking as a public official to assuming someone's guilt who has been convicted of nothing. It's little wonder that he's so comfortable with Manning's punitive detention since he already perceives Manning as a convicted criminal. "Sentence first - verdict afterward," said the Red Queen to Alice in Wonderland.

But even more fascinating is Obama's invocation of America's status as a "nation of laws" to justify why Manning must be punished. That would be a very moving homage to the sanctity of the rule of law -- if not for the fact that the person invoking it is the same one who has repeatedly engaged in the most extraordinary efforts to shield Bush officials from judicial scrutiny, investigation, and prosecution of every kind for their war crimes and surveillance felonies. Indeed, the Orwellian platitude used by Obama to justify that immunity -- Look Forward, Not Backward -- is one of the greatest expressions of presidential lawlessness since Richard Nixon told David Frost that "it's not illegal if the President does it."

But it's long been clear that this is Obama's understanding of "a nation of laws": the most powerful political and financial elites who commit the most egregious crimes are to be shielded from the consequences of their lawbreaking -- see his vote in favor of retroactive telecom immunity, his protection of Bush war criminals, and the way in which Wall Street executives were permitted to plunder with impunity -- while the most powerless figures (such as a 23-year-old Army Private and a slew of other low-level whistleblowers) who expose the corruption and criminality of those elites are to be mercilessly punished. And, of course, our nation's lowest persona non grata group -- accused Muslim Terrorists -- are simply to be encaged for life without any charges. Merciless, due-process-free punishment is for the powerless; full-scale immunity is for the powerful. "Nation of laws" indeed.