The Common Ills: Realities including the WikiLeak leaker's identity is not known

Friday, August 06, 2010

Realities including the WikiLeak leaker's identity is not known

And here's where we gripe. It is now known that 2 US service members died in a bombing on Monday. (A third was wounded.) And yet where is that covered?

It probably won't be because it's factual.

Fact, Barack gave a speech in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday. Fact, the news of the deaths would have hurt the wave of Operation Happy Talk Barack was attempting to launch. Fact, late Thursday evening the US military finally gets around to announcing both deats. Fact, the White House knew on Monday about the deaths. Fact, the White House spun Barack's speech and 'success' in Iraq while staying silent about the two deaths.

Those are facts.

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Pinocchio Obama" from March 4, 2008. Opinion, based on the public record, Obama is far less than straightfoward (generous), he lies a lot (blunt).

But we don't get reality, do we. We get Justin Raimondo nursing his hatred towards Hillary Clinton. Justin, you don't know s**t about Hillary, you never have, you know how to hate her and that's about all you know. I'm getting really damn tired of her being the dart board that allows everyone else to scurry under their rocks and hide.

The State Dept isn't running Iraq and the militarization of the State Dept is being done by employees no one bothers to name. Hillary isn't over Iraq. She's never been over Iraq. I'm sorry that you're not only out of the loop but unable to process what you see before your eyes. Even Joe Biden, who is the White House point person, is not over Iraq in the administration. You should pay attention to who goes in and out of Iraq without the TV network crews. You'll soon notice the NSC. But only if you pay attention.

Paying attention would also prevent the crap -- and it is crap -- "libbyliberal" posts. Most of the time the bad posts go up at Corrente and we just laugh from a distance as libbyliberal plays catch up with all that happened before his/her birth (which was apparently a month ago). The bungling of facts never fails to provide amusement. But there's nothing amusing about allowing libbyliberal to share these low-fact posts at World Can't Wait. See if you can spot the problem in less than five seconds:

What was private first class Bradley Manning thinking? That a release of thousands and thousands of documents proving overwhelming U.S. war criminal activity and what should be a horrifying video of army soldiers callously treating innocent foreign civilians like targets in a video game (apparently S.O.P.) would break the moral coma that America exists in? That the blowback from the perpetrators of evil would not reach Orwellian dimensions of crazymaking projection of their own crimes onto the whistleblowers?

No one knows that Bradley Manning released a thing. No one knows. Is it that hard to grasp?

How stupid are we? And how stupid is World Can't Wait to post this crap?

Basic facts on Bradley Manning. Monday April 5th, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7th, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Philip Shenon (Daily Beast) reported last month that the US government is attempting to track down WikiLeaks' Julian Assange. This month, the military charged Manning. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported last month that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." Manning has been convicted in the public square despite the fact that he's been convicted in no state and has made no public statements -- despite any claims otherwise, he has made no public statements. Manning is now in Virginia, under military lock and key and still not allowed to speak to the press. The Bradley Manning Support Network is organizing a rally for this Sunday (at noon) outside the Quantico Marine Corps Base when Bradley's being held.

Basic facts on WikiLeaks Iraq assault video: WikiLeaks does not know who released it to them.

Have you missed that? I don't know how you could. Julian Assange has repeatedly stated that. But maybe facts just don't matter to you?

Bradley may be the one who released it. He may not be. He may have released other things, he may not have. He may not have released anything.

No one knows. No one's heard his side of the story.

And his legal defense isn't even known.

His legal team may assert he didn't do anything. It's really not helping Bradley for idiots like libbyliberal to go around calling him the leaker.

NO ONE KNOWS WHO LEAKED.

Bradley's facing up to 52 years if found guilty of what he's currently charged with.

This is nothing to play with. This isn't a f**king game.

When Wen Ho Lee was railroaded by the New York Times and others, we were rightly outraged (libbyliberal will be outraged in four or so years when he/she discovers who Wen Ho Lee was). We're not supposed to do that. We're supposed to be better than that.

But because it's so much easier or pleasing or both to just call Bradley the leaker, we do that. It needs to stop. He has never told his side of the story.

The only information out there is information from the prosecution. Barbara Starr (CNN) dug a little deeper and I went back and forth with a CNN friend who wanted Starr's report highlighted here. Nope. The bulk of it was based upon a CONVICTED FELON's allegations. Adrian Lamo is a convicted felon. Since when are they trusted witnesses? Does no one understand how a defense works? Are we all in service of the prosecution?

Starr did speak to a few of Bradley Mannings old friends and neighbors. And that section was strong and worth applauding. But I am not linking to reports based on the word of a convicted felon.

Bradley has not spoken about the charges. He has never spoken. He is under lock and key currently. The prosecution has been happy to try the case in the press. And the Convicted Felon will be their star witness.

If Bradley's innocent and/or if his defense is that he's innocent, they should be able to put the ravings of a convicted felon into perspective fairly quick.

And the left shouldn't be doing the prosecution's job and trying the case for them and convicting Bradley for them.

Add in that the US justice system is based on the presumption of innocent until proven guilty.

How has Bradley been proven guilty?

By the never ending press releases and interviews of the Convicted Felon?

Grasp that if the government had a strong case, they would have clamped down on Adrian Lamo a long time ago. If they had a strong case, they would have asked him -- and he's entered into some sort of an arrangement with them in the last months (a murky relationship that may come out in court) allowing them to have further control over him -- to stop talking or issued a gag order. They haven't. Because for some stupid reason, the press runs with Lamo as a voice of truth and prints his every utterance as truth. (Starr didn't take it as truth and was very clear in her report that allegations were allegations.)

It's appalling that at World Can't Wait, which supposedly supports the leaker whomever he or she is, they've got a piece that convicts Bradley as the leaker.

Based on what?

The press clippings of a convicted felon.

I'm not in the mood for the garbage and World Can't Wait better get their act together on this. Bradley hasn't spoken. It is not fair -- in any sense of the term -- to refer to him as the leaker.

That wasn't what I intended to write about this morning. But I wrote on the two and then deleted it and planned to dictate an entry and came back to these topics, so it is what it is.

TV notes. On PBS' Washington Week, Joan Biskupic (USA Today), Gloria Borger (CNN) and Eamon Javers (CNBC) join Gwen around the table. Gwen now has a weekly column at Washington Week and the current one is "What's to Celebrate, Mr. President?" This week, Bonnie Erbe will sit down with a number of female panelist on the latest broadcast of PBS' To The Contrary to discuss the week's events. Need To Know is PBS' new program covering current events. This week's hour long broadcast (Fridays on most PBS stations -- but check local listings) features a discussion on WikiLeaks, the Gulf Disaster, prison reform and more. And turning to broadcast TV, Sunday CBS' 60 Minutes offers:

The Cost of Dying
Many Americans spend their last days in an intensive care unit, subjected to uncomfortable machines or surgeries to prolong their lives at enormous cost. Steve Kroft reports. | Watch Video

The Patriarch
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the 300 million-member Orthodox Christian Church, feels "crucified" living in Turkey under a government he says would like to see his nearly 2,000-year-old Patriarchate die out. Bob Simon reports. | Watch Video

Chef Jose Andres
Pioneering Chef Jose Andres takes Anderson Cooper's taste buds on a savory tour of his culinary laboratory, featuring his avant-garde cooking technique, molecular gastronomy. | Watch Video

60 Minutes, Sunday, August 8, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Radio. Today on The Diane Rehm Show (airs on most NPR stations and streams live online beginning at 10:00 am EST), guest host Susan Page is joined the first hour (domestic news roundup) by Stephen Dinan (Washington Times), E.J. Dionne (Washington Post) and Margaret Talev (McClatchy Newspapers). For the second hour (international), she's joined by James Kitfield (National Journal), Elise Labot (CNN) and Jonathan S. Landay (McClatchy Newspapers).

The Senate Democratic Policy Committee. The DPC video page has new videos on small business. We'll note Senator Dick Durbin on teachers' jobs.

And Senator Patty Murray on job growth.

The Dry Land is playing in three cities currently: Los Angeles, New York and Dallas. The Ryan Piers Williams directed film stars America Ferrera, Ryan O'Nan, Wilmer Valderrama, Melissa Leo and Jason Ritter.