7 ms·
This is a pretty balanced verdict, in my opinion. It upholds the law without further perpetuating the reputation of the US government as a body that will cry "
by breckinloggins 13y ago
This is a pretty balanced verdict, in my opinion. It upholds the law without further perpetuating the reputation of the US government as a body that will cry "enemy combatant!" and "terrorism!" at every political opportunity.
Not that that still doesn't happen, of course.
- mtgx 13y agoBut doesn't the Espionage charge achieve kind of the same thing? Was he really spying for anyone? He wasn't. So I still don't see this as a fair verdict.
- Jtsummers 13y agoEspionage is not just spying for someone, it's the act of obtaining the information illicitly, which he did.
- ceejayoz 13y agoHe took classified data outside his purview and provided it to folks without access, which seems like pretty clear espionage. You don't have to be working for a particular foreign government to be performing espionage.
- guelo 13y agoHe was spying on the American government for the American people.
- phaus 13y agoIt's pretty much impossible for any judge or jury to find him not guilty of all charges when he leaked over 700000 documents that had absolutely nothing to do with anything illegal that the government was doing. If he had only stolen and leaked incriminating information, his case would have been much stronger.
- foobarqux 13y ago> If he had only stolen and leaked incriminating information, his case would have been much stronger. I don't think that's true under USC and even less likely to be true under UCMJ
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoI'm waiting to see how he is sentenced. According to the article he could be sentenced to practically nothing, or he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
- Fuzzwah 13y agoHe could face 136 years in prison.... but avoided the charge which has a life sentence.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoRight, the distinction is lost on me.
- kintamanimatt 13y agoYou could, in theory, have 136 one year sentences to be served concurrently. I'm not saying this will be the case, but not every sentence is served sequentially. Also, life imprisonment is a single sentence that means the rest of your life in jail, or until paroled. I believe you can have a life sentence and other fixed term sentences too. You can also have a total of 136 years in jail (no concurrent sentences) which is effectively the same thing as a life sentence.
- MisterBastahrd 13y agoLet's say you're sentenced to 125 years in prison, but they're five 25 year concurrent prison terms. The most you'll spend in prison is 25 years, and that includes the time you've already spent.
- anigbrowl 13y agoMy bet is he'll get a moderate sentence (8-15 year) that Obama will commute or pardon on departure from office.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- SwellJoe 13y agoManning is a whistleblower, not a spy. He has been convicted of spying for revealing crimes committed and perpetuated and covered up by the US government. The cries of "espionage!" are just as disingenuous as the cries of "enemy combatant!" or "terrorism!".
- MysticFear 13y agoManning isn't a whistleblower. He just mass stole information and released it. Couldn't even known or read everything.
- ThomPete 13y agoSo all the government need to do is to prove that someone accidentally got more than the main part of the documentation they want to leak and they are not whistleblowers anymore? What a peculiar logic.
- mbreese 13y agoWithin reason, yes. If they were leaking things indiscriminately, then they shouldn't be considered a whistleblower, even if some of their leaked information was about something that the public had a legitimate interest in knowing. These aren't black and white issues, so think more in terms of what a "reasonable" person would consider. If your goal is to expose a particular program - then you should be leaking only things relevant to that program. Throwing in diplomatic cables between embassies because you can just isn't relevant. And it weakens your argument for whistleblower protection.
- ThomPete 13y agoHow fortunate that those allowing the crimes can set up the rules for how they can be judged.
- sliverstorm 13y agoSo what you are saying is "how unfortunate that the 'reasonable person' clause is used in law"?