Quote from: MaidofOrleans on August 15, 2013, 04:46:21 PM
The kid was young and stupid and thought she was doing good. I see it all the time and I was the same at her age. Sending her to prison for life doesn't do any more than end another life and waste more tax payer money. This vindictive justice system does no good.
I agree that Manning shouldn't spend his life in prison, but he did commit a crime that could have had repercussions. As someone who is younger than him, I am very aware of this fact. The act of releasing classified documents without approval is potentially dangerous. It's not what he released, but what could have been released. What if he released something that caused the death of American soldiers? That's why these laws exist. The vigilante whistleblower is not a good turn of events for classified material; however, I disagree with the severity of the charges and the use of the Espionage Act in this particular case. I think we should be willing to judge people on a case by case basis.
Having said that, I think this case raises an interesting point. Manning didn't have bad intentions and wanted to release information that he thought was important to be made public. In a case like this, it would be good if there was a system in place for him to address his concerns through the system itself. This way information that is classified can be treated carefully and we can release classified documents that aren't a threat. I guess, I would argue we should extend the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to classified documents and create a obudsman or security panel who can privately assess whether this document can be made public. Okay, this is just off the top of my head and would need to be structured in a more organized fashion, but this would be better than having someone with the potential to send anything to anyone. That's my problem with Wikileaks. It's not that they haven't released decent information and that Manning hurt the US in his actions. It's the potential possibility that important classified material can easily be published and cause damage. It's about preventing this fact through rules and unfortunately Manning broke them. Still, I agree that he wasn't a bad guy and there is room for him to learn and for us to reform our system to ensure whistleblowers can keep up transparency of our agencies.
Quote from: Katelyn on August 15, 2013, 06:58:31 PM
Well, I think one may have more sympathy with her after reading this
It's not about having sympathy for him. I do feel bad that someone so young is in such a situation. But the fact is that his GID and sexuality doesn't have anything to do with the leaks. It would be like me robbing a bank and realsing the money to charities while claiming my actions were due to a hyper masculine society. Honestly, I don't buy that. He was trying to get himself sympathy. Nothing wrong with that. We would all do the same if we faced such severe penalties.
Again, nothing against him. I don't think all the information that he released was bad nor do I think he had bad intentions. Plus, I agree that the American people deserve as much transparency as possible and should have had access to that information. I just think the vigilante system is dangerous and we need to reform our whistleblower practices within the military to preclude the need of such an act. Manning should face some penalty for breaking the law, but I don't agree with the severity of his situation and I believe we can learn from this situation.
Quote from: Katelyn on August 15, 2013, 06:58:31 PM
Also, there was no filter because that was the job of Wikileaks and the five newspapers that released the information.
That's my main issue with all of this. Isn't it better for us to have a system for whistleblowing classified material rather than releasing it at a whim to whoever may get their hands on it. Think about it, there is a lot of classified info that would be detrimental if it were released. I think this is a risky practice and I hope the government will take action to create a better method to allow transparency in a more secure and legal fashion.
P.S. Why is everyone referring to him as she? I thought he identified as male despite having gone through GID. I'm pretty sure he ultimately decided on living as a gay male and rejected identifying as transgender after a period of confusion. Has something changed?
