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Tomgram: Peter Van Buren, The Manning Trial Began on 9/11
(TomDispatch) – Close your eyes for a moment, think about recent events, and you could easily believe yourself in a Seinfeldian Bizarro World. Now, open them and, for a second, everything looks almost familiar… and then you notice that a dissident is fleeing a harsh and draconian power, known for its global surveillance practices, use of torture, assassination campaigns, and secret prisons, and has found a haven in a heartless world in… hmmm… Russia. That dissident, of course, is Edward Snowden, just granted a year’s temporary asylum in Russia, a.k.a. the defender of human rights and freedom 2013, and so has been released from a Washington-imposed imprisonment in Moscow’s international air terminal and the threat of far worse.
How we lost our Constitution somewhere in Iraq and came back without it to Try Manning
On July 30, 1778, the Continental Congress created the first whistleblower protection law, stating “that it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds, or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states.”
Two hundred thirty-five years later, on July 30, 2013, Bradley Manning was found guilty on 20 of the 22 charges for which he was prosecuted, specifically for “espionage” and for videos of war atrocities he released, but not for “aiding the enemy.”
Days after the verdict, with sentencing hearings in which Manning could receive 136 years of prison time ongoing, the pundits have had their say. The problem is that they missed the most chilling aspect of the Manning case: the way it ushered us, almost unnoticed, into post-Constitutional America.
Peter Van Buren’s article is well worth reading and keeping. Between the every increasing corporate economic assaults and government civil liberties destruction on the people, we’re losing faster and faster.
Found the last part of this particularly egregious (perhaps because I didn’t previously know that this was allowed in the kangaroo courtroom):
Would be like a civilian prosecutor continuously referring to a defendant in a simple assault trial as a stone-cold killer.
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President Obama freezes relationship with Russia’s Putin at a most crucial moment in his presidency. Key foreign policy issues are at stake on Syria, ME peace talks, Iran uranium enrichment, and START negotiations. Obama thinks he is tough? Does he lend his ear to new assistent Susan Rice? This will be an embarassment to John Kerry who is doing an immense job to gain achievements on a broad range of issues. Who is responsible to send McCain and Graham on a fool’s errand? This effort was counterproductive to the stance taken by Kerry a few days earlier. The promise by Obama to work closely with Putin during his second term can be put on ice … return of cold war dogma. Putin will not take this snub lightly, it will be personal. Putin could send Medvedev to the G20 summit and avoid meeting Obama fully. Putin was not willing to offer whistleblower Snowden to the pyre of DC mania in the US. I’ll give Putin credit for that. [Not for many troubling domestic issues within Russia, which would have been a better argument – Oui]
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Would you say that the reset with Russia is now over?
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I expect the American people will realize the present situation of expanded surveillance under the Patriot Act breaches the US Constitution. Obama may try to manage the damage, but with the flight of Snowden he has lost all control. How the White House has handled the issue will get more criticism, hurt Obama’s popularity rating and challenges the Democrats in the midterm-election of 2014.