Audit trails in information systems are very strong. The systems log exactly who, what, where when and how information is accessed. A large part of the court trial will be validating if those audit trails systems conclusively prove that Manning accessed the data or not. I strongly suspect they will.
If found guilty, the guy may be hailed as a hero by some, but they are going to have to cheer very loudly indeed to be heard inside his cell in Leavenworth.
I give the guy a 1 in 100 chance of being released before he dies of old age in jail. Real world examples of this:
Well, I was careful to write down "Court Martial Specialist David Coombs"... though if that's not the same as a lawyer then I didn't know that fact.
Which is also why I made it a point to say this is all outside my areas of experience. So far everything I've seen and read could be called an "extended rumor", so I have to wonder where the truth is.
And frankly, until all of the facts come together in one place people need to stop spouting opinions about the whole thing. 99 of 100 posts or comments I see on the whole thing state a definite opinion... about something they don't know the facts of yet. Maybe it's an internet thing. I don't know...
One thing's for sure, the Nobel Peace Price loves political prisoners. If Libya successfully joins Tunisia and Egypt among the liberated, and PFC Manning is found guilty and imprisoned, he should have a lock on the 2011 Peace Prize.
Been reading a lot more today. One part of which was the history behind Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the infamous "Pentagon Papers" in 1971. They were politically embarassing and proved that president Johnson had outright lied about many parts of the Vietnam war, to the public and to Congress. Nixon's "Watergate Scandal" was a direct result of his men breaking into an office to find more information on Ellsberg.
Still, I'm of two minds about what Manning is accused of. Maybe it's criminal what he's accused of, maybe it isn't - but I'm not the judge so for now I can put my opinion on hold. So far as I can tell it's currently unknown if he actually "leaked" these files, despite the fact that he's been in solitary confinement and a stifling "protective watch" for over 9 months now. He was charged with a crime in July of 2010, but they don't actually expect to put the guy on trial until September of 2011. (!?)
"Collateral Murder" Videokelloggs2066March 6 2011, 21:40:14 UTC
It's my understanding that Manning either edited the video, or it was edited by WikiLeaks in order to cast American Troops in a bad light. Here is a video examining "Collateral Murder
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Re: "Collateral Murder" VideokoakakoMarch 6 2011, 23:11:47 UTC
Honestly, I don't see them in a "bad light". Maybe some people had a problem with a couple of the things they said, but come on - we're talking about combat, here. Beyond that I would have to KNOW proper procedure for what they were doing before I could comment on it. Which is only a part of what I find annoying about people commenting on something they know nothing about
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Re: "Collateral Murder" VideokoakakoMarch 7 2011, 04:31:37 UTC
Have read/seen a LOT more details regarding that video today. It's entirely possible that they were acting improperly, though many people hold the opinion that the soldiers were placed in a position that forced them to act improperly. Any way you look at it, it's much more complicated than the common response of "that's just war
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Audit trails in information systems are very strong. The systems log exactly who, what, where when and how information is accessed. A large part of the court trial will be validating if those audit trails systems conclusively prove that Manning accessed the data or not. I strongly suspect they will.
If found guilty, the guy may be hailed as a hero by some, but they are going to have to cheer very loudly indeed to be heard inside his cell in Leavenworth.
I give the guy a 1 in 100 chance of being released before he dies of old age in jail. Real world examples of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrich_Ames
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Which is also why I made it a point to say this is all outside my areas of experience. So far everything I've seen and read could be called an "extended rumor", so I have to wonder where the truth is.
And frankly, until all of the facts come together in one place people need to stop spouting opinions about the whole thing. 99 of 100 posts or comments I see on the whole thing state a definite opinion... about something they don't know the facts of yet. Maybe it's an internet thing. I don't know...
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The trial will confirm if he did violate the law.
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Still, I'm of two minds about what Manning is accused of. Maybe it's criminal what he's accused of, maybe it isn't - but I'm not the judge so for now I can put my opinion on hold. So far as I can tell it's currently unknown if he actually "leaked" these files, despite the fact that he's been in solitary confinement and a stifling "protective watch" for over 9 months now. He was charged with a crime in July of 2010, but they don't actually expect to put the guy on trial until September of 2011. (!?)
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