Ho wait, He is an idiot now, right like Manning, who wanted to avenge his homosexuality, or Assange who is an egomaniac.
That or you're taking ad nominem attacks at face value, and are willing to close your eyes on this matter because it suit your view of the world.
Yeah he look like an idiot, but I guarantee that you'll look like an idiot too if the DoD decide to make you look like one, he may even be one, given that he seems to support those practices and be a big mouthed idiot rather than an human right activist.
Let's be clear about this. The DoD had nothing to do with making him look like an idiot. They basically fought to stop him looking like an idiot.
He was the man who came forwards and said that Zubaydah was waterboarded once, for a few seconds, then spilled all sorts of important secrets. He made a strong case that torture worked on national TV, multiple times.
He was lying in all of those cases. This was revealed when the administration finally released
memos concerning the torture, and then only after immunity was granted to those involved. This forced him to
recant and admit he was making shit up.These are not ad-hom attacks. These are examples of him being flippant and self promoting over more serious concerns, such as national security. The
charges brought are entirely plausible in this context and extremely serious.
What matter is that this is an nth attack on whistle-blower by Obama's administration who seems to be dead set on prosecuting anyone who talk to the media about American abuse.
This man is not a whistleblower. He revealed classified information about security agents, not abuse. He
defended abuse. Whistle blowers expose illegal activity, not legal activity that depends on secrecy for people to stay alive and effective in their work.
This is why, despite deep sympathy for Bradley Manning, I do feel he needs to be prosecuted. I want to see him treated leniently and humanely, but he broke the law in a manner that was irresponsible and dangerous. Had he only leaked material that showed illegal (or even arguably legal) acts that would be one thing. Indiscriminate leaking of classified material is quite another.
You have a strong point about Obama and whistle blower protection. But this isn't one of those cases and neither is Manning.