Free Republic

The Bradley Manning trial has begun, and the tale of how a weirdo tried to bring down the government – and how the government bit back – is fascinating. For liberals, it’s one political paradox after another. First, there’s the problem of little Bradley. On paper he ought to be a liberal’s pin-up – a gay soldier driven by his conscience to share the secrets of the military-industrial complex with the world. The defence’s tale of how he came to be disillusioned with the Iraq War is believable and symapthetic. Manning was ordered to investigate a roadside bombing in 2009...

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange feels vindicated at the moment that his source, Bradley Manning, goes on trial for handing over hundreds of thousands of pages of sensitive material. The US government eschewed a plea bargain (and Manning’s guilty plea to lesser charges) in order to try Manning for “aiding the enemy.” The prosecution made its opening argument yesterday: In an hour-long opening statement for the prosecution on Monday, Captain Joe Morrow told the court martial that the US army private had been motivated by a craving for “notoriety” that had led him to disregard his extensive training and to...

The website for "Campaign for Liberty", an organization started by "Republican" anti-Israel Presidential candidate Ron Paul, has, since late 2008, been featuring a page offering the opportunity to purchase the notorious forged anti-Semitic book The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. As word spreads of this, inevitably Paul's campaign will take down the page and claim the situation was a mere innocent mistake with which Paul (who of course hopes to lend his managerial skills to the entire nation) had nothing to do, a la the controversy over his newsletters in the 1990s. This of course despite the fact...

As if there are any more reasons to show that Ron Paul should not be the GOP Presidential candidate, there is this bit from 2008 in which Paul endorses four(!) candidates for President, including the Marxist whack-job Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader. How unhinged to you have to be, intellectually, to endorse not only four people, but four whom also hold diametrically opposing views on the role of government. This alone shows that Ron Paul is not a serious thinker. In fact it shows him to be a reactionary flame thrower, willing to completely abandon principles when he doesn't get...

Former congressman and libertarian icon Ron Paul tweeted a startling reaction to the death of SEAL sniper Chris Kyle on Monday: Chris Kyle's death seems to confirm that "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn't make sense

While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, comparing it to the Tea Party movement. "In many ways, I identify with both groups," Paul said. Both groups are fed up with problems in Washington and "the two-party-system," Paul said while speaking at an insurance company in Des Moines. Praising the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement is an unusual move for a Republican presidential candidate, but Ron Paul is, of course, an unusual Republican presidential candidate. He jumped to first place in the Iowa caucus polls partly because of support from people...

Former congressman and libertarian icon Ron Paul tweeted a startling reaction to the death of SEAL sniper Chris Kyle on Monday: 'Chris Kyle's death seems to confirm that "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn't make sense'

Via Mediaite, the same bit jumped out at me as jumped out at Ace:Borger: “These things are pretty incendiary.” Paul: “That’s because of people like you.”Really? Only liberal/media types should find the newsletters offensive? He can’t mean that because he keeps saying that he disavows the content. I think he means that the newsletters are water under bridge which everyone rightly should, and would, never mention again if not for the media repeatedly bringing them up. Which is interesting for a few reasons. One: Every other candidate’s dirty laundry has been aired and re-aired over the past few months and...

Speaking at a campaign rally on October 28, Ron Paul offered another erratic speech on foreign policy and, disturbingly, referred to whistleblowers such as Wikileaks as “true patriots” and “political heroes.” In remarks against “government secrecy,” Paul suggested the following: What about giving immunity to the whistleblowers? They’re the ones who need immunity. We have a few brave souls, especially in the foreign policy area — it came up in Vietnam, it’s come up more recently, Wikileaks … technically yes, they’re breaking a rule, but what is the government doing? They’re breaking the law. If we have an American citizen...

This clip has been making the rounds last night and today, but it’s not new — it’s actually from a clip featured by Wikileaks, for obvious reasons, last January. Still, it’s not as if the parameters of the Bradley Manning case have changed significantly in the last eleven months, or at least not in any way that mitigates Manning’s alleged crimes. The enlisted soldier transmitted a vast trove of classified government communications, primarily diplomatic cables but also some internal military information, and sent it to Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. Jazz Shaw has a good update on the case...

As homosexual Army soldier Bradley Manning’s treason trial continues at Fort Meade, Maryland, the support he has received from Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been curiously ignored by the major media, now touting Paul as someone who could win the January 3 Iowa Republican Caucuses. Paul has called Manning, a crossdresser with acknowledged mental problems, a “hero” and “patriot” for stealing government secrets and providing them to WikiLeaks.

Iowa caucus voters pay close attention. Do you really want to vote for a man who would join with the son of executed Communist spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to declare the traitorous Bradley Manning a “hero” a “patriot” and a “whistle blower?” Paul, who switched parties from Libertarian to Republican because he knows he could never get elected wearing his true colors, declared Army soldier Bradley Manning, the person who purposely gave WikiLeaks thousands of sensitive secret documents about how America conducts war operations, a hero and a patriot! Robert Meeropol whose parents were fried in Sing Sing’s electric...

FORT MEADE, Md. -- Pfc. Bradley Manning went on trial Monday for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, including sensitive information prosecutors said fell into enemy hands. Manning, a 25-year-old former intelligence analyst from Oklahoma, has admitted to giving troves of information to WikiLeaks, but military prosecutors want to prove Manning he aided the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence. They said they will present evidence that former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden asked for and received information WikiLeaks published. "This is a case of about what happens when arrogance meets access to...

(photo with article) By recently admitting he was the source of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables and war logs regarding Afghanistan and Iraq, later published by WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning appears certain to be found guilty at a trial beginning Monday. But having denied the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy," chiefly al-Qaeda, the man accused of causing his country's worst ever security breach remains an enigma: a hero to his followers, an enemy of the state to others. The short, skinny, bespectacled US Army private has cut a confident figure in previous court appearances, exuding a quiet...

James C. Goodale, the so-called “father of reporters’ privilege” and the author of a new book called Fighting for the Press (CUNY Journalism Press, 255 pp., $20), was in his office at the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm, where he’s a partner, comparing Barack Obama to Richard M. Nixon. “Nixon and Agnew were like listening to a Fox News program all day long, every day,” he said. “In their eyes, the Eastern establishment press were against them and they were against it and they were going to destroy it as best they can.” But, he said, “Obama has all these...

IT for Oppression Whether it's Syria using Facebook to help identify and arrest dissidents or China using its "Great Firewall" to limit access to international news throughout the country, repressive regimes all over the world are using the Internet to more efficiently implement surveillance, censorship, propaganda, and control. They're getting really good at it, and the IT industry is helping. We're helping by creating business applications -- categories of applications, really -- that are being repurposed by oppressive governments for their own use: 1. What is called censorship when practiced by a government is content filtering when practiced by an...

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is accused of providing an enormous stash of classified government documents to WikiLeaks for publication, deserves a Nobel Peace Prize more than President Barack Obama, according to former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. “While President Obama was starting and expanding unconstitutional wars overseas, Bradley Manning, whose actions have caused exactly zero deaths, was shining light on the truth behind these wars,” the former Republican presidential contender told U.S. News. “It’s clear which individual has done more to promote peace.” Manning was nominated for the award in 2011, 2012 and again earlier this year. Obama won the...

Islamabad - Musharraf's admission that Pakistani leaders agreed to even a limited number of strikes counters their repeated criticism of a programme they long claimed the US was operating without their approval. Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has admitted that his government had secretly signed off on US drone strikes. This is the first time a top past or present Pakistani official has admitted publicly to such a deal. Pakistani leaders long have openly challenged the drone program and insisted they had no part in it. However, Musharraf, during an interview in Islamabad, insisted Pakistan's government signed off on strikes...

WikiLeaks is to publish more than 1.7 million US diplomatic documents, Julian Assange says. Source: AAP WHISTLEBLOWING website WikiLeaks is to publish more than 1.7 million US diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s, founder Julian Assange says. The website has collated a variety of records including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence and is releasing them in a searchable form on Monday.Assange has carried out much of the work from his refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London and told the Press Association that the records highlighted the "vast range and scope" of US influence around the world.The Australian...

The raid on bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, netted more than the death of bin laden. SEAL teams members in the compound collected hard drives and other electronic media regarding al-Qaida activities and connections. During the analysis of that media, Intelligence analysts found that bin laden had files which were downloaded from WikiLeaks, that is, the information stolen by Pfc Manning was in the hands of al-Qaida. Apparently, Bradley Manning “knowingly gave intelligence to the enemy through indirect means”. Army prosecutors are planning to use one of the SEALs to testify at Manning’s court-martial. The evidence will show that...