Words.....there are none

[Dennis in MA]

He was tried for crimes that allowed up to the death penalty. He/she will now be free. Weren't these people just screaming about Russian leaks and the death of democracy?

Shhhh. It's different when Obama does it. He could single-handedly rape and murder an entire village and there would be people in DC, NYC and Atlanta going on the air to tell you how this was a great day for America.

Hell, Ron Stupid Paul thought this was a wonderful idea. WTF,R?

EDIT:

On the plus side, seems like the .gov payment for his whore-moan therapy and future work is now DOA. It may have been cheaper for him to stay in prison as a woman than have to go figure out how to pay for all of this.

 

[GM-GUY]

When I was in (USAF Intel, mid 80's) NO WAY would any of these jokers rated a clearance. When they got PC and had to have diversity FIRST, security and skills second - what do you expect to happen?

I saw a bit on Caroline Kennedy ending her time as Ambassador to Japan. If I remember her confirmation hearings, never took Asian studies in college, didn't speak the language and HAD NEVER BEEN TO JAPAN. Perfect - you are now ambassador.

 

[Admin]

Hilary got nothing, Petreus got a pee pee slap, the sailor who took pics of a restricted area on a submarine got shafted. Different spanks for different ranks.

That is the part that drives me nuts. Zero consistency in action from our .gov.

 

[SpaceCritter]

Zero consistency in action from our .gov.

Actually, it's VERY consistent.

 

[amm5061]

That is the part that drives me nuts. Zero consistency in action from our .gov.

It's about what I expected, to be honest. Chelsea had the gender identity issues going for him/her, so that clearly makes him/her a protected person in the eyes of democrats. And obviously Queen Hillary could never be allowed to be subjected to this shit. Patreus I'm actually surprised they didn't shaft harder, being a white male.

As for the submarine guy, he was obviously a nobody, so why would they care? Shaft that one hard! And Snowden embarrassed ol' Barry pretty damn good. I'm actually surprised they didn't try to drone him, though I'm only assuming they didn't and not that we just didn't hear about their failed attempts.

 

[not new guy]

When I was in (USAF Intel, mid 80's) NO WAY would any of these jokers rated a clearance. When they got PC and had to have diversity FIRST, security and skills second - what do you expect to happen?

I would speculate that it's more about the massive need for bodies to fill these tech and other roles responsible for spying on the US citizenry. Snowden was working as a contractor through Booz. In other words, the .gov can't spy on us with their own in-house staff - the job is too big and they don't have enough bodies - so they sub it all out to third party firms. That level of removal is one part of the problem, but the other is finding enough bodies who qualify under the necessary BI standards. At some point they have to lower the bar to ensure that the roles can be staffed.

 

[bigblue]

Heros stay and fight. Cowards run to any country that will take them and spill U.S. secrets. He's no hero to me and should be sitting in jail....

Bullshit. Had Snowden stayed, he would have committed suicide by shooting himself in the back of the head six times while watching kiddie porn in a kindergarten classroom then hung himself from a bridge.

He fled because he wanted to live, I have no problem with that.


Bradley is an unstable mental case and a traitor. We have the death penalty for treason to deter others. If you commute the sentence of this traitor, you encourage others to follow in his footsteps. The case was open and shut, hang him. Hang Hitlery, Petraeus, and anyone else who gives comfort to the enemy by releasing classified documents. Make the oath mean something.

$0.02

 

[ISOTOX]

It will never be able to go anywhere and show it's face. What's left of it's life will be lonely and desperate. Then it will kill itself.

Sooner than latter I hope.....Wonder if it will get full military honors when buried.

 

[mark056]

When I was in (USAF Intel, mid 80's) NO WAY would any of these jokers rated a clearance. When they got PC and had to have diversity FIRST, security and skills second - what do you expect to happen?

I saw a bit on Caroline Kennedy ending her time as Ambassador to Japan. If I remember her confirmation hearings, never took Asian studies in college, didn't speak the language and HAD NEVER BEEN TO JAPAN. Perfect - you are now ambassador.

The intell community of today is not the intell community of the 80's and even then (I was there then and now up to 2015) there were plenty of people who slipped through the cracks. The main issue is this: the intelligence community draws its members from society as as whole which is a microcosm of society as a whole. The military intelligence community especially has to draw on what it can recruit. Overall standards are lower for enlistment. BI's are done by civilian contractors too, with heavy caseloads. What would have been lifestyle disqualified then, aren't today.

I'd point out that time frame had some pretty spectacular espionage cases: John Walker, Hall, Aldrich Ames... there is no monopoly on treason today and the 80's were no golden age in that regard either.

 

[Dennis in MA]

When I was in (USAF Intel, mid 80's) NO WAY would any of these jokers rated a clearance. When they got PC and had to have diversity FIRST, security and skills second - what do you expect to happen?

I saw a bit on Caroline Kennedy ending her time as Ambassador to Japan. If I remember her confirmation hearings, never took Asian studies in college, didn't speak the language and HAD NEVER BEEN TO JAPAN. Perfect - you are now ambassador.

To be fair, remember that a Mick that spoke neither Italian nor Polish was assigned as Ambassador to the Vatican back in the Clinton Era.

That Mick was Ray Flynn. Remember him complaining the job was bankrupting him about a year after the posting. Turns out you have to pay for a lot of that stuff yourself. Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Thanks, Clinton.

 

[Lank]

I am not sure Mr. Manning will live a very productive life when he is freed- his only hope for employment is becoming an MSNBC analyst.

 

[MAGA99]

I am not sure Mr. Manning will live a very productive life when he is freed- his only hope for employment is becoming an MSNBC analyst.

No way, too honest for that.

 

[JohnZ]

Obozo probably meant to pardon chelsea clinton and missed the "one of these chelseas is not like the others" skit on sesame st when he was picking up his nobel prize. Honest mistake. Could happen to anyone.

 

[lowbuckbob]

"Worst President in history" continues to live up to his name. Look for Hillary to get pardoned when he walks out the door...

 

[Dennis in MA]

You mean AS, not WHEN. Trump won't pardon Clinton. Nor will he bother prosecuting, so it's moot.

 

[drgrant]

Hopefully the scumbag Mumia isn't one of then

LOL... that'd be a shitstorm of epic proportions, considering that Mumia isn't in a federal prison. I don't think the president can wipe the slate clean on state charges.

-Mike

 

[drgrant]

Heros stay and fight. Cowards run to any country that will take them and spill U.S. secrets. He's no hero to me and should be sitting in jail....

Fight what? A battle where he's going to get shot directly in the forehead? That's not very smart, is it? You mean secrets- that are only dangerous because they're 110% embarrassing to the US intelligence community?


-Mike

 

[drgrant]

That is the part that drives me nuts. Zero consistency in action from our .gov.

Another friend of mine said exactly the same thing- that he would not have had problems with snowden or this dude on the submarine getting the shaft, IF the law was actually applied equally to the hoi polloi types and the average service member. At least at that point you could argue at least the system is consistent in how it considers offenses, but what we live in now is a farce.

-Mike

 

[Bonesinium]

Manning wasn't convicted of treason or aiding the enemy. His leaks led to no deaths. He definitely committed crimes, but I just don't see them warranting the level of punishment some of you seem to be calling for. Even the 35 years seemed too severe.

What was the worst thing he leaked? Honest question.

 

[Picton]

Manning wasn't convicted of treason or aiding the enemy. His leaks led to no deaths. He definitely committed crimes, but I just don't see them warranting the level of punishment some of you seem to be calling for. Even the 35 years seemed too severe.

What was the worst thing he leaked? Honest question.

I THINK (based on what I recall from like 7 years ago) the most serious allegations had to do with him disclosing the identities of foreign nationals we were using as HUMINT assets and translators. The thought was that AQ could use his leaked material to decode our government's coded references to those assets, who'd then get beheaded along with their families.

Not sure that ever actually happened, but it was a YUGE scramble at the time for the State and Defense folks to figure out how to protect those guys tout suite, and there's significant doubt they were ever able to.

That, plus some sources-and-methods stuff that required the .mil to change some SOPs rapidly. Other than that, I think most of it was contact reports, AARs, etc.

At the time, I thought 35 years was too much. I haven't seen anything that's changed my mind there.

 

[Laura]

Bullshit. Had Snowden stayed, he would have committed suicide by shooting himself in the back of the head six times

I would have done it for him...as a federal employee, you take an oath to this country that's supposed to mean something....spilling confidential info all over the world as a bargaining chip isn't the act of a hero. Even as a contractor, you're supposed to have some ethics, which clearly he has none. China didn't take him because he had nothing to offer, yapping at mouth over all at that point.

 

[browncoat]

I would have done it for him...as a federal employee, you take an oath to this country that's supposed to mean something....spilling confidential info all over the world as a bargaining chip isn't the act of a hero. Even as a contractor, you're supposed to have some ethics, which clearly he has none. China didn't take him because he had nothing to offer, yapping at mouth over all at that point.

Ethics... look at the programs he exposed and tell me our government has any.

 

[browncoat]

Also that's not why China didn't take him. China is not interested in cultivating the tension or ideas Russia is. Russia wants people to see them as a beacon of freedom opposing the US. China doesn't like the US, but they don't want tension or the appearance of freedom

 

[browncoat]

For example, this video would not have been shot in China


https://youtu.be/NNFlAzVhSVw

 

[bigblue]

I would have done it for him...as a federal employee, you take an oath to this country that's supposed to mean something....spilling confidential info all over the world as a bargaining chip isn't the act of a hero. Even as a contractor, you're supposed to have some ethics, which clearly he has none. China didn't take him because he had nothing to offer, yapping at mouth over all at that point.

Post office?

 

[not new guy]

I would have done it for him...as a federal employee, you take an oath to this country that's supposed to mean something....spilling confidential info all over the world as a bargaining chip isn't the act of a hero. Even as a contractor, you're supposed to have some ethics, which clearly he has none. China didn't take him because he had nothing to offer, yapping at mouth over all at that point.

Wow. So the stupid oath means more than all of the freedoms, liberties and privacy of every man woman and child in this country? And you'd kill him for violating it, assuming he even took it as a contractor? And what's this bargaining chip bullshit?

You're a real patriot, huh?

 

[Bonesinium]

Assassinate someone for stealing classified info?
Violating the rights of all Americans and having it lied about to Congress is upholding an oath?

And she talks about having ethics. How rich.

 

[browncoat]

Wow. So the stupid oath means more than all of the freedoms, liberties and privacy of every man woman and child in this country? And you'd kill him for violating it, assuming he even took it as a contractor? And what's this bargaining chip bullshit?

You're a real patriot, huh?

I would say it's the attitude of people like Laura that is dooming us all to a police state,but the truth is that the majority of people don't care at all, and that is what is dooming us.

 

[Bonesinium]

I would say it's the attitude of people like Laura that is dooming us all to a police state,but the truth is that the majority of people don't care at all, and that is what is dooming us.

I disagree. It's not that the majority of people don't care, though probably true as well, but that the majority of those in positions of power don't care while having way too much power.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

I am not sure Mr. Manning will live a very productive life when he is freed- his only hope for employment is becoming an MSNBC analyst.

It is politically incorrect to refer to it as "Mr." even though it still has its junk.

As to Snowden - he deserves a pardon and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Clapper should be indicted for lying to congress (he could have simply answered "I will not discuss classified material in a public forum").