Pfc. Bradley Manning, the queer suspected source of all those Wikileaks docs, might have trafficked some 90,000 classified items on Lady Gaga CDs so people would like him.
With a drag queen boyfriend Tyler Watkins, Manning wasn’t having much fun under the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law, some of his friends tell the Times. He grew up isolated, preferring “hacking computer games rather than playing them.” He would act out. Moving to Wales with his mother, he was teased in school; classmates suspected he was gay. Says one former peer, who was openly gay in high school: “It was probably the worst experience anybody could go through. Being different like me, or Bradley, in the middle of nowhere is like going back in time to the Dark Ages.” Moving back to Oklahoma, Manning was kicked out of his father’s house when he found out his son was gay.
Manning met Watkins while enlisted.
Before being deployed to Iraq, Private Manning met Tyler Watkins, who described himself on his blog as a classical musician, singer and drag queen. A friend said the two had little in common, but Private Manning fell head over heels. Mr. Watkins, who did not respond to interview requests for this article, was a student at Brandeis University. On trips to visit him here in Cambridge, Private Manning got to know many in Mr. Watkins’ wide network of friends, including some who were part of this university town’s tight-knit hacker community.
Friends said Private Manning found the atmosphere here to be everything the Army was not: openly accepting of his geeky side, his liberal political opinions, his relationship with Mr. Watkins and his ambition to do something that would get attention.
And now Manning sits, on suicide watch, in a prison in Virginia.
How about we take this to the next level?
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PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Sorry there are thousands of Gay teens who go thru the same shit this jerk did. They didn’t singlehandly do tremendous damage to all Gay and Lesbian soldiers by putting their lives in danger by leaking sensitive information to the enemyand giving the frightwing lunatics fodder for their “reasons” why Gays should not be allowed to serve in the military…..
For some reason the mainscream media hasn’t really picked up the Gay aspect of this story…….would be nice if Queerty buried it also. I don’t want this little dick to cause any more harm to the Gay community than his actions already have……….
Cam
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: said..
Sorry there are thousands of Gay teens who go thru the same shit this jerk did. They didn’t singlehandly do tremendous damage to all Gay and Lesbian soldiers by putting their lives in danger by leaking sensitive information to the enemyand giving the frightwing lunatics fodder for their “reasons” why Gays should not be allowed to serve in the military…..
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Yes, this kid broke his oath and is being rightfully courtmartialed….however…..
The Pentagon has been all over TV claiming that what this guy did will harm soldiers. What I find facinating however, is that buried in some of those 90,000 pages was information that that Pentagon KNOWS that some of the hundreds of millions of dollars we give to Pakistan was being directly funnelled to the Taliban. I would argue back that anybody in the Pentagon who knew that U.S. tax dollars were being directly funnelled to the Taliban and did nothing about it, didn’t call on Congress to stem the flow, or publiclly let Pakistan know to knock it off are diectly responsible for the death of any soldier killed by a bomb that was made with that money.
So again, who put our soldiers in more danger, this kid who broke his oath and released pages of old data letting the public know that the Pentagon knows our money is being used to support the Taliban…
Or a Pentagon that is aware of our money going to the Taliban to build bombs and support them and did nothing?
Secret/TopSecret etc… classifications are supposed to be used only to protect secrets vital to our security. It Is NOT supposed to be used to hide information only because it is embarassing to the military.
GOProud Tea Party Homocon
I blame the liberal media for screwing up this kid. If you listen to constant demonization of the War on Terror and our troops, you might think it is OK to betray your own country and your fellow soldiers. You have to completely lose the sense of reality to do what he did. Now he is going to pay for it and rightly so.
Jimmy Fury
“Worst experience anybody could go through.”
Being picked on in highschool? Really? I’m pretty sure there are worse things… like rape, being beaten into a coma, getting shot by your own father, watching your boyfriend die while you wait 3 days for an ambulance that won’t come because you literally live on the wrong side of the tracks, being raped by a gang soldiers and not being able to report it because you’ll be ostracized and probably murdered if you say a word…
Pretty sure that’s all a lot worse.
Is this seriously their best play for sympathy? Like he’s the only person who ever grew up openly gay in a backwater town?
I did. I was teased in high school. All my friends in high school were teased too and some of them are now decorated soldiers.
Devon
You want to make sure the soldiers’ lives aren’t in danger? Pull out of Afghanistan and bring them home, right now.
Cam
@GOProud Tea Party Homocon: said…
I blame the liberal media for screwing up this kid. If you listen to constant demonization of the War on Terror and our troops, you might think it is OK to betray your own country and your fellow soldiers. You have to completely lose the sense of reality to do what he did. Now he is going to pay for it and rightly so.
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And whom do you blame for the Pentagon knowing that huge sums of our money, given in foreign aid to Pakistan was being funnelled to the Taliban and not doing anything about it as was shown in the leaked docs? I would say that this kid isn’t the only one who may have lost their sense of reality. I was supportive of going into Afghanistan, but when I hear shit that like…well again, any of our soldiers killed with weapons purchased with that money…those lives are on their heads.
mulletkitty
One person’s gay traitor is another’s anti-govt-propaganda hero.
Dawson
I love how the “family first” crowd doesn’t say anything when yet another asshole disowns their child just because they are gay.
Dawson
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: You see your problem is you believe for a second that what we actually do has ANY BEARING AT ALL on the way we are perceived by the “lunatic fringe.” Oh, and this guy didn’t give information to the enemy unless the media and the American people are suddenly the enemy. Its not like he sent these Lady Gaga CDs to Osama.
Dawson
@GOProud Tea Party Homocon: Blah blah blah truth hurts blah blah blah. Please go don a uniform and fight GW Bush’s war. I will fight a war for no other man, and this war was never about the American people it was about the American president. Until you are over there fighting, shut the fuck up. You want to a see a media that tarnished the war effort and the troops look at Vietnam. That mostly conservative media caused those men (women were hardly soldiers at the time) to come home to angry crowds that spit at them instead of saluting them.
B
No. 2 · Cam wrote, “So again, who put our soldiers in more danger, this kid who broke his oath and released pages of old data letting the public know that the Pentagon knows our money is being used to support the Taliban… Or a Pentagon that is aware of our money going to the Taliban to build bombs and support them and did nothing? Secret/TopSecret etc… classifications are supposed to be used only to protect secrets vital to our security. It Is NOT supposed to be used to hide information only because it is embarassing to the military.”
Well, if you discover that money is being channeled to the Taliban, there may be a legitimate reason to keep that secret – so you can trace how it is getting there, and use that information for legitimate military purposes – to disrupt the Taliban’s operations. Also, if a spy or informer told you about it, it might be necessary to keep that secret to protect the spy or informant for being caught – if word gets out that we don’t protect such sources, nobody will tell us anything.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Dawson: Maybe no one informed you that “WWW” stands for World Wide Web……….am fairly certain those pages went somewhat beyond the media and the American people……….
Bill Perdue
When heroes like PFC Bradely Manning risk their lives to oppose the war we should back them as much as we can.
PFC Bradley Manning is the real hero here. He’s joined by hundreds of other antiwar GI, sailors, air crew and marines who put their lives, freedom and careers on the line to oppose Obama’s war machine. According to reports PFC Manning was “arrested and detained in Kuwait. He appears to have been denied access to independent counsel and held incommunicado outside the country. [T]he heavy-handed tactics which are being applied against him are mystifying displays of asymmetrical legal warfare.” america blog
PFC Bradley Manning stands accused of leaking this must see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25EWUUBjPMo&feat… of Iraqis and journalists being murdered during US military operations. They’re going to try to crucify him with the help of islamophobic racists, homohaters and pro war chickenhawks like Dick Cheney – “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.” They’re all braying in support of the legal lynching of PFC Bradley Manning
We cannot allow that to happen. This is a perfect time to unite the antiwar and GLBT movements in an effort to Free PFC Manning. We should do what we can to build large LGBT contingents at antiwar actions, involve the antiwar movement in our work and tie it together with a campaign to free a PFC Bradley Manning.
With unemployment steady and holding at around 8 1/2 million or about 16-17% (BLS U6 index) more and more people are going to forced to enlist against their better judgment. The antiwar movement and LGBT movements should spread the word that that’s a very bad idea. Our rallying cry should be Don’t enlist and don’t fight in the Clinton-Bush-Obama wars to make the world safe for BP and Haliburton.
biguy
This kid got used by a bunch of people who remain free while he is not. He will probably remain incarcerated for many years, if he is let out at all. If the Cambridge crowd truly cared about him they wouldn’t have spilled all that shit on WikiLeaks until he had been at least able to go AWOL somewhere in Europe where they could scoop him up. Would it have been such a big deal to hold off until Manning visited the bf again?
Perhaps Manning was just thinking all along how to snag 90K documents and unveil the hypocrisy of the war effort for the public’s benefit. More likely he was just an isolated kid who was manipulated by a group of people to achieve their desired ends.
For those who say they would never fight another man’s war, how do you justify risking life in prison over disseminating a bunch of documents, which may or may not have the ultimate effect you desire?
Robert
This was little more than a kid on a power trip.
From the New York Times (a left-wing paper):
And as he faces the possibility of a lifetime in prison, some of Private Manning’s remarks now seem somewhat prophetic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/us/09manning.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
“I wouldn’t mind going to prison for the rest of my life, or being executed so much,” he wrote, “if it wasn’t for the possibility of having pictures of me plastered all over the world press.”
Anyone that’s had experience with “Generation Y,” the kids that grew up as computer nerds/geeks capable of hacking just about anything, Manning fits the profile of a “misfit”-type who did this more for a “power-trip ego boost” than morals. If it were just about morals, he could have leaked this without getting caught. Instead he kept telling people he did it, and now he’s in jail. Maybe he will go to prison for a very long time; I suspect he will come to regret it.
Robert
There are a lot of things disturbing here, but part of the problem stems from:
1. improper motivation: Bradley Manning joined the military to get $$$ for college, not because he wanted to serve.
2. being kicked out of home/lack of family support (because he was gay). Bradley wasn’t raised properly and didn’t develop proper emotions and feelings of attachment, loyalty, honor, etc.
3. Bradley may become the poster boy for DADT. Obama has been dithering/sitting on the fence when it comes to gay rights; this doesn’t help.
4. Why was someone this young put in charge of so much important information?
5. Pentagon war machine…when we consider that Pat Tillman was gunned down by “friendly” fire and his death covered up, or we see U.S. military helicopters used to fire on reporters, somethings’ f’ked up.
6. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I see Bradley Manning in the Tehran Times, being used as anti-American propaganda. Yes, the saem nation that hangs teenage boys for being gay.
7. #13 “Anti-war” message by Bill Purdue: The TRUTH is often in the center. Far-left fairy tales by people like Bill Purdue just exemplify self-hate. Hating oneself for being an American is like hating oneself for being gay. The US tried a policy of “disengagement” from Afghanistan from 1992 to 2001; the result was 9-11. It didn’t work.
There’s also a reason many people are “fearful” of Islam. Unlike Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, etc. Islam has a long tradition of forcing conversions (“convert or die, infidel!). Christianity had a bad track record 500 years ago (the Inquisition, for example) but today Islam is the biggest threat to personal liberty on this planet. Don’t believe me? Try being gay in Saudi Arabia, let me know how that turns out.
Sarah
From what I’ve heard from friends in the military, Manning is going to be put in front of a firing squad.
GOProud Tea Party Homocon
@Bill Perdue: Are you off your meds, bro?
Bill Perdue
@GOProud Tea Party Homocon: I’m not your bro, Shicklegruber.
@Robert: Tell us, Robert, how much do you get paid at Langley to smear real heroes like Bradley Manning and defend the murder of muslim and Arab civilians to steal their oil and resources by traitors like the ones who lied to us to invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan.
Republican Senator CHARLES HAGEL: “People say we’re not fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about America’s national interest. What the hell do you think they’re talking about? We’re not there for figs.” (Speaking at Catholic University, Sept. 24, 2007)
Former Federal Reserve Chairman ALAN GREENSPAN, in his book The Age of Turbulence; Adventures in a New World: “I’m saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: The Iraq war is largely about oil.”
Democratic Senator JOHN TESTER: “We’re still fighting a war in Iraq and people who are honest about it will admit we’re there over oil.” (Associated Press, Sept. 24, 2007)
General JOHN ABIZAID, retired commander of CENTCOM: “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that.” (Speaking at Stanford University, Oct. 13, 2007)
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Bill Perdue: He is a traitor plain and simple. He took an oath and violated it. No one forced him to enlist, he knew full well what he was agreeing to. I don’t give a rats ass about being against the war. I too think this war is now nothing but a massive clusterfuck. But leaking classified documents to the enemy is not the way to protest the war. His actions endangered fellow soldiers including Gay and Lesbian soldiers. And his actions add fuel to the fire that Gays are unfit to serve in the military. When tens of thousands of them serve valiently and with honor and the respect of their peers. Get off your freaking soapbox for a while and look at the facts…………
Bill Perdue
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: TYhe only traitors in this case are Clinton, Bush and Obama and the racists who support their wars to steal oil.
Climb up out of the sewer of war for oil some time and smell the napalm.
Cam
@B: said…
“Well, if you discover that money is being channeled to the Taliban, there may be a legitimate reason to keep that secret – so you can trace how it is getting there, and use that information for legitimate military purposes – to disrupt the Taliban’s operations. ”
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The reports didn’t say they didn’t know who was doing it. It very clearly spelled out that it was “Pakistan”. Not some shadowy person etc… but that the govt. was funnelling the money directly. The only reason not to publicly go after them is that it would be embarassing that one of our “Allies” was supporting the Taliban with our own money and it might make people question the wisdom of staying there. Again, the numbers of soldiers killed with equipment the Taliban purchsed with U.S. money, money that the Pentagon knew was being given to them…those deaths are on their heads and are their fault.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Bill Perdue: I have unequvicably stated I am against this war. We never should have gone into Iraq and totally blew the mission in Afghanstian. Simply read and understand my previous posts. His actions endangered fellow soldiers including our own. There is no excuse for that. His actions will do nothing to end this clusterfuck only make it more difficult for our soldiers……………
GOProud Tea Party Homocon
@Bill Perdue: U mad, bro?
David
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: One argument against gays in the military used to be that we’re subject to blackmail.
Duh.
Of course, no one really wanted to contemplate removing the need to hide one’s sexual orientation.
Ya, in civilian life, when I had to apply for a Top Secret security clearance in 1981, the Feds were more concerned that I might have a secret that somebody might use to blackmail me with, than who I slept with.
Actually, the military is harming itself by creating a vulnerability among a % of all of its people.
This kid wasn’t free to speak candidly about himself as were his co-workers, which creates other problems.
Ugh.
I’d like to see the Federal Gov’t work a deal with the Wikipedia people where
–Wikisecrets turns over 1/3 of their current stash of US military secrets now;
–the kid gets asylum in a Scandanavian country;
–Wikisecrets turns over another 1/3 of their secrets when the kid is in Scandanavia
–Wikisecrets turns over the rest of the secrets in a few years.
That keeps the secrets secret,
it gets the kid into a more receptive environment where he can contribute to society,
it saves American taxpayers $$$ warehousing the kid in a prison,
it saves Wikisecrets a nasty confrontation with the US military.
B
No. 22 · Cam wrote, “The reports didn’t say they didn’t know who was doing it. It very clearly spelled out that it was “Pakistan”. Not some shadowy person etc… but that the govt. was funnelling the money directly.”
Sigh. Governments don’t funnel money to peons. If we are able to trace how Pakistan (which really may mean some elements in Pakistan’s government regardless of official policy) are funding the Taliban, that information just might be useful in targeting high-level Taliban/Al Qaida types to be attacked via Predator drones. Targeting them may do us more good than telling Pakistan’s government what is going on so they can arrest a few misguided/malicious officials.
Don’t forget too that the documents you saw may give only a partial picture of what is going on. What looks innocuous to you might be very useful to the Taliban given what they know about their own operations.
BTW, while it was some time ago (before they had a problem with the Taliban), I have talked to officials in Pakistan’s government – the ones I met were quite nice. The country has, however, had a history of corruption problems. It’s something they will eventually have to resolve, but you shouldn’t assume that just because someone in the government does something, that is in accord with the country’s official policy.
Bill Perdue
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: hysterically claimed that “His (Manning’s) actions endangered fellow soldiers including Gay and Lesbian soldiers.”
That’s just bullshit. Daniel Ellsberg and others have compared Manning’s arrest with Ellsberg’s own trial after releasing the Pentagon Papers after the Vietnam War. Ellsberg stated in an interview that “if (Bradley Manning) has done what he is alleged to have done, I congratulate him. He has used his opportunities very well. He has upheld his oath of office to support the Constitution. … Wikileaks “is serving our democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations, which are not laws in most cases, in this country. … any serious risk to that national security is extremely low. There may be 260,000 diplomatic cables. It’s very hard to think of any of that which could be plausibly described as a national security risk. Will it embarrass diplomatic relationships? Sure, very likely—all to the good of our democratic functioning … [Wikileaks] has not yet put out anything that hurt anybody’s national security.” wiki
Then, from the closet, comes this crap. “And his actions add fuel to the fire that Gays are unfit to serve in the military.” Who cares. GLBT folks should not enlist to commit murder to make profits for oil companies.
Don’t Enlist.
Don’t Fight.
Don’t Translate.
If you’re in the military, Get Out.
Queer Supremacist
@Bill Perdue: Oil companies have done more for gay people than you ever have, Ernst Rohm.
Bill Perdue
@Queer Supremacist: QSKAPO, I’m usre the peole of the Gulfof Mexico and Arabia think you’re a loser nut case for thinking so.
Eric Gordon
@Plays well with others: That’s ridiculous. Manning didn’t “didn’t singlehandly do tremendous damage to all Gay and Lesbians”.
If he is the person who assisted Wikileaks, then I applaud him. His was an act of great courage, as are the acts of all US soldiers who resist the US military. And while I believe that the act of leaking the documents says nothing whatsoever about his gayness, it certainly says a great deal in favor of his integrity (if he did it).
The majority of US citizens want to US out of Afghanistan, the GREAT majority of Afghans do, the CIA itself admits that the number of al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan may be as low as 50. Just because the US has the power to project its might across globe in Afghanistan doesn’t mean that it should be doing so.
@Dawson: “Please go don a uniform and fight GW Bush’s war”. It is Obama’s war now. He is the Commander in Chief, and the moment he took office and started hedging on time schedules to leave Iraq, the moment he started portraying the idea that reclassifying combat troops into “transitional troops” (who will still engage in combat) was the same as withdrawing them — it became his war. He is an imperialist plain and simple.
Tim Hothersall
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: There is no proof yet that Brad leaked these documents and; Whether he did or whether he didn’t no person should ever be put in prison for document offences.