Replies

A whistleblower is somebody that sees something wrong or illegal and reports it to the appropriate authorities, despite likely repercussions. Usually in the federal government one is expected to seek protection from Congress for misdeeds of the executive. In practice, whistleblowing is a much muddier ordeal.

Bradley Manning, an E-5 in the Army, was mad about the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy because he is a homosexual. His response wasn't to advocate, protest, march, write his congressman, or get kicked out of the Army. His response was to download every bit of classified material he could get his hands on, regardless of its content, and give it to a foreign party. He did this to cause as much damage as possible, not to highlight any wrongdoing.

The first problem here is that there is no way an E-5 needs access to most of the material he released, among which was diplomatic traffic. The people that set his access to such material need to be relieved of their jobs, permanently.

The second is that if Manning had just waiting 18 months he could have skipped his hissy fit and I am sure he would have never divulged that material.

The third is the huge question of how a barely in the closet homosexual got a security clearance for that material. It seems under DADT the investigators must have been told to not dig into that type of information.

Not a whistleblower. Just a blower.