with all the uproar about JULIAN ASSANGE and WIKILEAKS, the elephant in the room is-BRADLEY MANNING, the private who supposedly leaked all the info and damning footage.
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Private First Class- Bradley E. Manning (born 17 December 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was arrested and charged with the unauthorized use and disclosure of U.S. classified information. He has been held in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico since sometime in May 2010. He faces a court-martial sometime in 2011.
Manning was an intelligence analyst assigned to a support battalion with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Contingency Operating Station Hammer, Iraq. Agents of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command arrested Manning based on information received from federal authorities provided by an American informant, Adrian Lamo, in whom Manning had previously confided. Lamo said that Manning claimed, via instant messaging, to be the person who had leaked the "Collateral Murder" video of a helicopter airstrike on July 12, 2007, in Baghdad.
Bradley Manning was born in Crescent, Oklahoma to an American father and a Welsh mother. His parents had met when his father was stationed at Cawdor Barracks in Wales. Manning spent his early childhood in Oklahoma. When he was thirteen, following his parents' divorce, he moved with his mother to Haverfordwest, Wales. He had trouble fitting in at school in what former acquaintances have described as a troubled childhood.
According to some childhood friends, he first expressed interest in joining the U.S. military while he was in elementary school.
Manning dropped out of school at 16, returned to the United States, and enlisted in the Army at 18, becoming an intelligence analyst deployed in support of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Contingency Operating Station Hammer in Iraq.
Manning felt isolated in the Army, reportedly based on the difficulties of being homosexual under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Before being arrested, Manning had been twice reprimanded, once for assaulting a fellow soldier, and was demoted from Specialist to Private First Class. Manning has also stated that he was vehemently opposed to the occupation of iraq and couldn't justify with american troops were there in the first place.
While stationed in Iraq, Manning had access to SIPRNET from his workstation, from where it is alleged the leaked documents originated.
According to chat logs, Manning brought in CD-RWs containing music, which were subsequently erased and rewritten with the leaked documents. In online discussions with Adrian Lamo, Manning claimed responsibility for leaking the "Collateral Murder" video, a video of the Granai airstrike and approximately 250,000 individual cables, to the whistleblower website Wikileaks.
Manning expressed disillusionment with American foreign policy, opining that the diplomatic documents expose "almost criminal political back dealings" and expressed a wish that the release of the videos would cause large-scale scandals and lead to "worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms."
Manning has been considered a "person of interest" in the Army's criminal investigation into the leak of over 90,000 documents to Wikileaks pertaining to the War in Afghanistan as well.
Wikileaks have refused to identify Manning as the source of the leaks, but claim that their effort to arrange for Manning's legal defense was rebuffed, a claim the military has denied. As of 8 December 2010, Wikileaks had not yet followed through on a pledge to contribute to Manning's legal defense.
Manning has selected former military attorney David Coombs to lead his defense team.
Manning has been held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico
in solitary confinement since sometime in May 2010.
It has been reported by friends and supporters that he is not permitted to exercise and that his mental and physical health are deteriorating.
check out the mainstream hypocrisy surrounding this issue-
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