Bradley Manning to Be Sentenced Wednesday Morning

We'll find out how much of his life Pfc. Bradley Manning will be allowed to keep as his own tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Eastern time. Via Reuters:

Bradley Manning, the soldier convicted of giving classified U.S. files to WikiLeaks, will be told at 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday how much of his life will be spent in a military prison, a U.S. Army spokesman said on Tuesday.

The judge, Colonel Denise Lind, began deliberating Manning's sentence on Tuesday and later told the court that sentencing would take place at 10 a.m., the spokesman said.

Manning, a 25-year-old private first class, could face as up to 90 years in prison for giving more than 700,000 classified files, battlefield videos and diplomatic cables to the pro-transparency website. Prosecutors asked for 60 years, while the defense asked the judge not to rob him of his youth.

We will be passing along information tomorrow as soon as it's available.

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Comments

[Hugh Akston]

The future will judge us very harshly for sentencing a man to decades of imprisonment for the crime of publishing information.

At least I hope to Galt they will.

[Paul.]

The future will judge us very harshly

So I’m going to get the judgement other people deserve?

[Episiarch]

Well, you get the government other people deserve, why not the judgement too?

[datcv]

He didn’t just publish information! He embarrassed Goddess Clinton by showing what an untrustworthy cunt she is! That will not be punished lightly!

[Nazdrakke]

Really interested to see the final number, I admit. Military judges can be surprisingly merciful (for a given value of merciful) at times.

[RandomJackass]

If Manning gets 60 years, then every “anonymous source” to the NY Times from the Bush and Obama administrations should get the same.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I would give him ten years, with credit for time served. But then again, I just pulled that figure out of my ass. I’m not a professional justice meter.

[darius404]

I just pulled that figure out of my ass. I’m not a professional justice meter.

You’re not? How do you think the professionals do it?

[califernian]

i would give him 0 fucking years and a fucking commendation

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

Time served and Obama’s Nobel prize. That’s what I’d give him. Oh and a hearty thank you for giving us just a glimpse into how corrupt and mendacious our leaders have become. And maybe 10 million for all of his troubles.

That’s about right.

[wareagle]

he’s going to get a long stretch and it’s his own fault. Manning is not Edward Snowden; he willingly signed up to join the club and to abide by its rules. Then he broke those rules. Were he a civilian contractor, I would hope the judge would look more harshly on the govt than on the defendant. But Manning willingly broke his club’s rules and the club does not like that.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Really? He swore an oath to protect and uphold “the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Seems to me that he shined a light on some of those domestic enemies.

[wareagle]

one of the club’s rules is you don’t do what he did. I didn’t draft those rules; they were in place before Manning agreed to abide by them. Part of the oath is you don’t reveal stuff like that. Right or wrong, it is what it is.

[John C. Randolph]

The club’s rules don’t trump the constitution. Manning did our country and the world a great service, at a terrible personal cost. I hope president Paul will pardon him.

-jcr

[PH2050]

That UCMJ will fuck you every time.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

…such as?

Snowden, definitely agree — what he did was patriotic.

I don’t see how the same applies to the data-dumping Manning engaged in, which was at a minimum negligent and a breach of contract besides.

[PapayaSF]

The “not Snowden” aspect is crucial. Snowden has been very careful about what he has revealed, while Manning dumped 700,000 documents he couldn’t possibly have all read. So I have little sympathy for him.

[califernian]

Since the government shouldn’t be allowed to keep any secrets from the people, he did nothing wrong, everything right, defended the constitution as he took an oath to do and everyone of the gangsters going after him is a fascist scumbag.

[PapayaSF]

Eh, all governments (and pretty much every organization and individual) has to keep some secrets.

[NSA Luther]

Bradley Manning? He wasn’t working alone.

[jesse.in.mb]

You’d be more interesting as DCI Luther.

[Zakalwe]

That show should have been better than it was. I quit with a few episodes left.

[jesse.in.mb]

Season 1 was good. Season 2 was a standalone that didn’t quite work. Season 3 tried to capture S1, but didn’t quite get it although they closed the show out nicely with the last episode.

I agree though that it had quite a bit of unachieved potential.

[Zakalwe]

Yeah, I didn’t finish S2. Maybe I’ll give it another go after I watch half a dozen other shows. Haven’t even done Breaking Bad yet.

[jesse.in.mb]

Can’t bring myself to do Breaking Bad. There are just too many episodes at this point. I’m working on Orphan Black, which has been enjoyable so far, and I need to finish Vikings.

[Anders]

– Did he actually divulge information that compromised national security – names, operational details, etc. Or did he not? Can’t find an answer to this. And yes 700 000 TS docs sounds like a lot but FFS TS is thrown around like Jaeger at a brothel.

– Why were his superiors not tried? They gave this clown TS clearance and he smuggled out the data on a fake Shakira disc using a fucking disc writer? The writer shouldn’t be in computers that access that kind of data but hey it was a warzone so they probably had to buy the equipment at the Iraqi Best Buy.