Bradley Manning’s conviction is more conclusive evidence that the US government is illegitimate. Manning’s “trial” was equivalent to Joseph Stalin’s “trial” of Nikolai Bukharin. It did not take place in a real court with a real jury. The military officer who served as a “judge” was not impartial. Manning was convicted for obeying the US Military Code and doing his sworn duty to report war crimes. There is no difference between Manning’s “conviction” and the “conviction” of Bukharin as a capitalist spy. Both trials were political trials.
The absurdity and injustice of these two convictions tells you all you need to know about the governments behind the convictions. The governments are tyrannical. Imagine the US government accusing Manning of aiding the enemy when the US government itself is supporting al Qaeda’s attempt to overthrow the Syrian government! And Bloomberg reports that al Qaeda backers in Afghanistan are receiving US military contracts!
Americans are a gullible people. They do not understand that the “justice system” is corrupted. Prosecutors and judges have no interest in innocence or guilt. For them conviction alone is the mark of career success. The more people a prosecutor can put in prison, the more successful his career. The more judges bend justice to serve the success of the government’s case, the greater the probability of promotion to higher judicial office. American “justice” has degenerated. Willingness to corrupt the law has become the highest qualification for appointment to a judgeship or as a US attorney.
If Manning had been permitted a real trial, possibly jurors might have weighed the evidence. Did Manning obey the Military Code or disobey it? Did Manning serve the public interest or harm it? But, of course, nothing relevant was part of the trial. In American courts today, exculpatory evidence is not allowed into the courtroom.
If a poor person steals a loaf of bread, the government can turn the case into an act of terrorist sabotage. That’s more or less what the government did to Bradley Manning.
Copyright © 2013 Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.
What is messed up about all of this is that the materials which show illegal activities, or to hide embarrassment cannot (by law) be classified nor treated as such because doing so is (in itself) a felony:
Title 18 US Code contains the law. Executive order 13526 declares that crimes and embarrassing material CANNOT be classified:
Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations.
(a) In no case shall information be classified, continue to be
maintained as classified, or fail to be declassified in order to:
(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
(2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency;
… or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.” it is a felony to attempt to use the classification system to hide a crime or protect the powerful from embarrassment. Such material remains unclassified even after being stamped.
Citation: Congressional Research Service: Classified Information Policy and Executive Order 13526
Link: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/R41528.pdf
Found on page 12 of the Congressional report.
Now here’s the question:
If Bradley Manning just got 90 years in jail, and Snowden is a “traitor” and wanted for treason… or violations of the espionage act by the American Government… the real question is whether they actually committed any crimes?
According to actual law – neither committed any crimes. If they are exposing information that shows violations of law, then it would be a felony to uphold the basis of classified information as a reason for those individuals to be punished. Neither actually stole classified information if the law states that classified information that reveals illegal activities or is classified to cover up or hide embarrassment is no longer classified by default, regardless of what any agency wants to stamp it as. This includes the #NSA and any other government branch.
For the government to insist the materials were classified and illegally stolen is a farce at best, since those documents cannot be classified by law. But since that is exactly the defense and justification from the US Government against Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden being sought (and in Bradly Manning’s case convicted) concerning “classified information” and the Espionage Act… then that means the government must be committing and upholding multiple felonies in order to retain their assertion and charges.
In the case of the government, it is guilty of committing a felony within the US and also breaching international law, which makes the “classified information” stance null and void, and thus negates the charges against Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden.
However, neither will actually see those charges dropped. Because unfortunately the law only counts when it’s not being applied to the Government.
Careful, the doublethink coming up is pretty intense:
So what this boils down to is the criminals (government agencies and military) upon being caught red-handed, have decided to charge the defendants for breaking the law in order to find out the government was breaking the law, but the law itself is only able to be upheld under the assumption that the criminals weren’t breaking the law, but they are prosecuting as though the government and agencies are not committing felonies by classifying the information to cover it up. And whenever anyone brings up the fact that the information (by law) couldn’t have any classification and thus the entire premise of charging Bradley Manning and Snowden becomes null and void because what they did ceased being a felony or treason the moment the classified information was shown to expose illegal acts or that they were classified in order to cover up embarrassment, etc. -
But then the Government says “This is about them, not us – and had they not stolen that information, you’d never know we were (hypothetically) breaking the law, and since this hasn’t been decided in a court of law yet (officially), you must make the information about us clearly committing a string of felonies, plus breaking a laundry list of International Laws, inadmissible in this courtroom proceeding, which means it isn’t official that they revealed our wrongdoing and thus the documents remain classified which means they are felons and can be tried under the Espionage Act”
In short… even though the entire world knows they (our government) broke the law on a laundry list of accounts wordwide and locally, we have to (by technicality and legalese) pretend nobody knows, and since nobody knows what we all clearly know, the classification of the documents stands, and is not a felony, and thus Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are the criminals.
Essentially… the entire position of the Government… whether we’re talking about the NSA, CIA, FBI, Presidential Administration, Branches of Military, etc… is simply using Doublethink logic and making clearly visible and known information inadmissible on a whim simply because they said so.
That’s the definition of Doublethink – Pointing so something that is clearly one thing and insisting it is not the truth.
Just thought I’d share the irony. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been summoned for re-education and I’d hate to keep Big Brother waiting.