Scooter Libby v. Bradley Manning

From CounterPunch:

Libby and fellow war plotters Karl Rove and Richard Armitage, not satisfied by their success in making war, wanted to punish their Washington enemies. They leaked Plame’s name to the mischievous columnist Robert Novak — to punish her husband, Wilson. Novak’s story ended her CIA career, and exposed her agents and contacts.

A jury later convicted Libby of obstruction of justice and perjury around the case. A judge sentenced him to 30 months in prison, and fined him $250,000. Bush, months later, commuted his term. But no one got charged with plotting to distribute false information to lure the public to war. The New York Times had even helped the campaign by publishing the lies as news stories on its front page.

And

These documents exposed not secrets vital to our enemy, but lies, corruption and crimes by US officials and those of other countries. Manning’s defense team stresses that what Wikileaks published wasn’t or shouldn’t have been secret.

Manning did however embarrass US officials by exposing their illegal, stupid, selfish and downright inane activities. If he illegally distributed those documents, why doesn’t the Justice Department charge the New York Times and other newspapers that gleefully distributed this supposedly classified (mortifying) material?

More here.

As the essay observes, Manning is now facing life in prison for treason, and has already spent months behind bars in solitary confinement, often in forced nudity, ostensibly to keep him from committing suicide--of course, nudity isn't really part of traditional jailhouse suicide watches, so, you know, it's obviously bullshit, and really designed just to punish and humiliate him. And do keep in mind that this is the Obama administration doing all this. Some "change."

So. Let's look at how the federal government, spanning two administrations, one from each party, deals with people who leak classified information. Libby leaks info that blows a CIA agent's cover, wasting, no doubt, millions of dollars in terms of training and the immediate end to ongoing intelligence operations run by said agent, not to mention the destruction of her personal career, all for the purpose of punishing a political enemy who had done nothing more than tell the American public the truth about how the Bush administration was lying in order to justify the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Libby is essentially slapped on the wrist and then pardoned. Manning, on the other hand, leaks information about US massacres and other American war crimes and is essentially thrown into a hole for months, naked, and is now up on charges that will probably result in him spending the rest of his life in prison. There will be no pardon because the Obama administration is leading the charge on this.

Obviously, there is no justice here, in both cases. I'd be outraged, but I long ago gave up hope for there being any justice at all concerning our endeavors in Iraq. That is, US national security is now, and probably has been for a very long time, a criminal enterprise, not subject to the rule of law, totally managed by the whims of the Commander-in-Chief. At this point, it's pretty easy to argue that, in this realm, war and defense, Obama is as much of a criminal as his predecessor.

Of course, neither will ever be made to pay for their crimes.

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