"There have been multiple instances in which Wikileaks has been dangerously reckless. After being criticized for releasing the social security numbers of U.S. soldiers, Assange told the New Yorker that this was acceptable “collateral damage, and acknowledged that despite Wikileaks’ “harm-minimization policy” there may be “blood on our hands.”
Other leaks were far more dangerous; they included technical details of a device designed to disarm roadside explosives (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. An even more disturbing leak included the names of Afghan informants who gave U.S. or Afghan forces information about the Taliban, and a Taliban spokesman acknowledged that it had used these cables to hunt people down. "
Pre-2003 Version of U.S. Soldier's Creed
(Introduced in the wake of the My Lai Massacre)
I am an American Soldier.
I am a member of the United States Army – a protector of the greatest nation on earth.
Because I am proud of the uniform I wear, I will always act in ways creditable to the military service and the nation it is sworn to guard.
I am proud of my own organization. I will do all I can to make it the finest unit in the Army.
I will be loyal to those under whom I serve. I will do my full part to carry out orders and instructions given to me or my unit.
As a soldier, I realize that I am a member of a time-honored profession—that I am doing my share to keep alive the principles of freedom for which my country stands.
No matter what the situation I am in, I will never do anything, for pleasure, profit, or personal safety, which will disgrace my uniform, my unit, or my country.
I will use every means I have, even beyond the line of duty, to restrain my Army comrades from actions disgraceful to themselves and to the uniform.
I am proud of my country and its flag.
I will try to make the people of this nation proud of the service I represent, for I am an American Soldier.
Post-2003 Version of U.S. Soldier's Creed
(Introduced on the direction of Donald Rummsfield)
(Based upon "The Warrior Ethos")
I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier.
Listed by alleged code violation
The charges can be broken down as follows:
- UCMJ 104 (Aiding the enemy): 1 count. This charge carries a potential death penalty.
- UCMJ 92 (Failure to obey a lawful order or regulation): 9 counts. Mostly related to computers.
- Army Regulation 25-2, para. 4-6(k): Forbids transferring classified info to non-secure systems
- Army Regulation 25-2, para. 4-5(a)(3): Modifying or installing unauthorized software to a system, using it for 'unintended' purposes.
- Army Regulation 25-2, para. 4-5(a)(4): Circumventing security mechanisms
- Army Regulation 380-5: Improper storage of Classified Information
- UCMJ 134 (General article): 24 counts. Most of these counts incorporate civilian statutes from the United States Code:
- : Embezzlement and Theft of Public Money, Property or Records. The government has claimed that various sets of records that Manning transferred were 'things of value' and has thus charged him under this statute.
- : This is part of the Espionage Act. The law forbids 'unauthorized persons' from taking 'national defense' information and either 'retaining' it or delivering it to 'persons not entitled to receive it'. The terminology is rather complicated and often contested in court. 793(e) exists because the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 modified the original 1917 Espionage Act, partly because of the Alger Hiss/Pumpkin papers case. It is also the same law used against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the Pentagon papers case.
- 1 & 2: These are from the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. 1030(a)(1) is sometimes called the 'Computer Espionage' law as it borrows much of its language from the Espionage Act. It was modified by the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which added it to the 'Federal Crimes of Terrorism' list, as well as making it prosecutable under RICO (Racketeering) law.[6]
Total number of counts: 34
So, all of you military vets tell me this:
How long do Courts Martial typically take to convene and reach a verdict....?
Why is Sgt Richards attempting to claim his revoked entitlements package, exactly...?
He's a disgrace to the uniform, his country and the human race.
He should be in The Hague, not before a board.
Jay Dub, I didn't call you a liar, I questioned your memory and common sense.
This has been a staged show trial from the very beginning and the statements and disclosures made by Assange, Manning, Snowden and Greenwald all reveal them to be parts of the same modified limited hangout operation to create a body of legal precedent on the books establishing in the minds of the American people and world opinion that Osama Bin Laden led some concrete-specific entity called Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda is solely and wholly responsible for carrying out 9/11.
Because that's what the legal textbooks now state for history and will do forever more - this is now unchallenged and admitted truth by a self-confessed Benedict Arnold.
That's what Assange, Manning, Wikileaks and the "defence" have conceded and admitted to in court proceedings and that's now the established and uncontested legal position regarding 9/11, Bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
Nice work, fucktards.
You're screwed history.
Y'all bin took...
Ya bin HAD...
Did none of you even query why a boot Private First Class should have total, unsupervised and unrestricted access to Terrabytes of Top Secret material that had absolutely nothing to do with his job....?
"I can tell you that a guy we served was court martialed, discharged, and remanded to civilian authorities for federal charges in less than 72 hours."
EXACTLY....
Military Justice is incredibly swift and there is NO whistleblower defence.
He disclosed MASSES of TOP SECRET military material to a foreign national in a time of war.
He admits that he did it.
There is no wiggle room here - if his defence is that of being a whistleblower, then he had no defence and that was obvious from the moment he was detained by MPs.
Were he already sentenced and confined to the Federal Stockade 3 years ago, I would be the first in line demanding a pardon and executive clemency for his actions, provided he did not consciously put innocent lives in jeopardy, which he clearly did, because he didn't in any way filter or self-censor his stolen classified material.
He just sent it to a weird Australian man he had never met and didn't know.
Assange proceeded to publish online the Social Security numbers of currently-deployed US Servicemen, which directly endangered 30,000 plus soldiers, veterans and their next of kin, as well as a complete list of global installations the US military considers "vital" to protecting US interests, and by extension, lives - there can be no POSSIBLE excuse, justification or public interest in disclosing the names and social security details of 30,000 CURRENTLY DEPLOYED servicemen. But he did.
"Sgt Robert Richards is just NOW going in front of a board to clear his name and keep his benefits from him and 8 Marines taking a piss on the Taliban (that was late 2011/ early 2012 in Helmand)."
The video went viral in January of 2012 - ISAF Launched an immediate investigation, having identified the War Criminals responsible on April 19th 2012.
The situation was extremely embarrassing for DoD since In the intervening period since the incident in 2011, Richards was nominated for a Bronze Star with a V for his noteworthy performance in Afghanistan.
This award had been recommended for upgrade to a Silver Star, and was sitting at MARCENT awaiting final approval when the video purporting to depict Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters appeared on the Internet in January 2011. This was a REAL mess and a total disgrace to all concerned even despite this PR quagmire, On August 27, 2012 the U.S. Marine Corps announced that three of the incident involved Marines received non-judicial administrative punishments.
The three Marines who received non-judicial punishments were all members of Third Battalion, Second Marine Regiment (3/2) or served in units that were attached to 3/2 during their deployment. The battalion is based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Shortly after the video appeared online, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos initiated a criminal investigation to authenticate the video.
He also commissioned a command investigation by a three-star general to determine what factors may have led to the recording of the video. Both investigations were concluded in March. Based on the information gleaned from the command investigation Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration who was the general officer who determined the punishments announced on August 27, 2012. ordered a further inquiry was ordered into possible misconduct by members of the unit involved in the incident beyond those depicted in the video. That investigation was completed in June.
"Sgt Robert Richards is just NOW going in front of a board to clear his name and keep his benefits from him and 8 Marines taking a piss on the Taliban (that was late 2011/ early 2012 in Helmand)."
The video went viral in January of 2012 - ISAF Launched an immediate investigation, having identified the War Criminals responsible on April 19th 2012.
The situation was extremely embarrassing for DoD since In the intervening period since the incident in 2011, Richards was nominated for a Bronze Star with a V for his noteworthy performance in Afghanistan.
This award had been recommended for upgrade to a Silver Star, and was sitting at MARCENT awaiting final approval when the video purporting to depict Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters appeared on the Internet in January 2011. This was a REAL mess and a total disgrace to all concerned even despite this PR quagmire, On August 27, 2012 the U.S. Marine Corps announced that three of the incident involved Marines received non-judicial administrative punishments.
The three Marines who received non-judicial punishments were all members of Third Battalion, Second Marine Regiment (3/2) or served in units that were attached to 3/2 during their deployment. The battalion is based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Shortly after the video appeared online, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos initiated a criminal investigation to authenticate the video.
He also commissioned a command investigation by a three-star general to determine what factors may have led to the recording of the video. Both investigations were concluded in March. Based on the information gleaned from the command investigation Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration who was the general officer who determined the punishments announced on August 27, 2012. ordered a further inquiry was ordered into possible misconduct by members of the unit involved in the incident beyond those depicted in the video. That investigation was completed in June.
"Sgt. Richards was recommended for a Medical Board in the fall of 2012. His findings came back in January, 2013 deeming him 100% disabled and recommended for full medical retirement."
This is 100% Disability from a VSI (Very Serious Injury) sustained in the line in 2010.
"To the amazement of those same medical professionals, Cpl Richards returned to full duty with 1st Battalion 6th Marines within 6 months of his initial injury.
Denied full-duty status by medical authorities at Camp Lejeune, Rob headed back to National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and successfully persuaded the staff there to return him to full-duty.
Once he was removed from limited duty, in October of 2010, Rob re-enlisted in order to deploy with 3/2 and soon received orders to be transferred to 3/2."
"In March 2011, Rob deployed to Musa Qala, Afghanistan with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines' Scout Sniper Platoon as the Team Leader of Team 4."
His Article 32 Hearing this week is to ensure he continues to receive veterans benefits over and above the blanket medical waiver and disability allowance he will recieve now, for life, thanks to the medical boards' ruling.
He gets to keep his socialised healthcare for life and living allowance.
He MAY not get to keep his army pension or ribbons....
He should consider himself VERY lucky..... Very lucky INDEED.....
Erik K. Patterson, a limited hangout is when you admit to something bad in order to conceal something far worse, for the purposes of damage limitation and PR. Like when the CIA admitted they had been trying to kill Castro for years.
A modified hangout is where you disclose something or admit to something misleading in order to throw people off the scent of the true scandal, like the GOP persecuting the Clintons over Whitewater to derail ongoing revelations concerning Mena and Iran Contra and bind Bill and Hillary to them in shared self-interest. A distortion of truth, with heavy spinning applied before knocking back the accusation.
Which is what they told Congrss and the American people in 1974.
And indeed, it was true that ongoing research had stopped altogether and began to dry up just a short while into the history of the program.
But it wasn't because the techniques they applied did not work.
It was because as soon as they were ready to go operational and be used and taught in the field, they no longer required any further research.
In this instance, "Manning" is a traitor and a disgrace to his country and his people.
But not because he pretend to leak things which look like secrets but aren't to a creepy Australian who pretends they are important and damaging and in the public's interest to know....
Because he is ostensibly an insider and an Enemy of the State (whilst actually nothing of the kind), who by his feigned dissent cements in stone the official conspiracy theory of 9/11 for future generations as yet unborn.
The Archeologists of the Year 3175 won't be able to spot so easily that he's just completely full of shit.
"Manning was arrested on May 27, 2010, and transferred four days later to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.
He was charged with several offences in July 2010, replaced by 22 charges in March 2011, including violations of Articles 92 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and of the Espionage Act. The most serious charge is "aiding the enemy," a capital offense.
Prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty, but if convicted he would face life imprisonment."
"There have been multiple instances in which Wikileaks has been dangerously reckless. After being criticized for releasing the social security numbers of U.S. soldiers, Assange told the New Yorker that this was acceptable “collateral damage, and acknowledged that despite Wikileaks’ “harm-minimization policy” there may be “blood on our hands.”
Other leaks were far more dangerous; they included technical details of a device designed to disarm roadside explosives (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. An even more disturbing leak included the names of Afghan informants who gave U.S. or Afghan forces information about the Taliban, and a Taliban spokesman acknowledged that it had used these cables to hunt people down.
Assange has been called out by more genuine, liberal, pro-transparency groups such as Amnesty International, the Open Society Institute, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Assange’s response was to demand that the groups criticizing him help him remove names from documents (even this was after they had been posted online in unredacted form!) and accuse the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission of being a U.S. government stooge. In reality, the AIHRC is a well-respected NGO that has made far more important contributions to transparency than Wikileaks has. The AIHRC can boast of exposing the torture of Afghan detainees and forcing positive change. Yet it is Assange who enjoys celebrity status, while those who fought for more meaningful transparency remain unsung. And a few more of them would be alive today, if it were not for WikiLeaks."
