Whistle-blower Pvt. Bradley Manning has been in military prison awaiting trial for more than 800 days (180 days is usually considered maximum) for his “crime” of leaking military documents. None of the documents was classified although the one, a video nicknamed “Collateral Murder,” was found near classified material.

“Collateral Murder” evidently was embarrassing, since it showed soldiers casually talking about and then murdering unarmed civilians from inside the safe cockpit of an Apache helicopter; two children also were injured. Upon court review, these soldiers were (suspiciously) found not guilty.

Bradley Manning was charged with endangering lives of U.S. soldiers but no actual deaths have been linked to him. More likely, the documents he released were simply embarrassing to a government (and military) seeking to hide its own atrocities behind a facade of humanitarianism.

There are 2 lessons from the Manning case: Don’t cross the U.S. military, and, if you do, when accused of committing a crime, guilt is unrelated to punishment. There is nothing but official shame to be found in the Manning case and, I suspect, in the “Collateral Murder” case as well.

I don’t know about you, but I find Manning’s arrest wrong and hope for his release ASAP!

Jim Leonard

Davis

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