Go For It

Bradley Manning says he wants to live as a woman, be called Chelsea

Meanwhile, his partner in crime, is still in the news: Julian Assange's political party implodes

"Julian Assange may have blown his best chance to leave the Ecuadorean Embassy and return home to Australia as a free man.

The founder of WikiLeaks, who has been holed up in the Ecuador's diplomatic mission in London for over a year, is now facing another obstacle to freedom. Assange had founded the WikiLeaks Party in his native Australia in an attempt to win election to the Australian Senate; which he believes would make it more difficult for him to be extradited to Sweden where he faces sexual-assault charges. However, the party just split up in turmoil earlier this week after members of its national council discovered that Assange and his inner circle had been ignoring them and making major decisions on their own."

Too much secrecy, Julian. At least Manning isn't hiding his - er - her, innermost thoughts.

Oh, My, My, My..,

...doesn't that have a familiar ring to it?

Manning Apologizes for Leaks

"His statement followed testimony by a military psychiatrist who said Manning suffers from a series of emotional problems including a gender identity disorder and symptoms of autism. The psychiatrist also said Manning suffered problems related to fetal alcohol syndrome resulting from his mother's heavy drinking while she was pregnant with him."

A virtual panoply of ready made excuses.

The Sickest Part Of...

...this:

Bradley Manning faces Up to 136 Years in Prison

...is that his mentor/hero, Julian Assange, gets off Scot free. Oh well. There's a sucker born every minute, and a vulture waiting to eat him alive or, more correctly, chew him up and spit him out onto the cold hard concrete sidewalk. Hope you enjoyed your fifteen minutes of infamy, Bradly. I'm sure Julian Assange thanks doesn't give a shit about you.

Well, I Must Say...

...there is certainly fertile ground here:


Bradley Manning trial to be recreated in comic-book form

It can feature guest appearances by Julian Assange, decked out in a superhero costume, of course. Manning can have a costume, too, to go along with his sidekick/sucker/loser role.

Should be a best seller.

These Two Again

Bradley Manning court-martial opens

"He faces 22 charges, including a count of aiding the enemy, which could send him to prison for life without parole. He is also charged with violating the Espionage Act, a 1917 law created to try spies and traitors, which carries severe penalties."

Compare that charge to the one levied against our "child soldier" Kahdr.

And, as for Manning's hero, Assange?

Wikileaks employee claims Julian Assange adopted 'once despised' behaviour

"A Wikileaks spokesperson has said that the organization’s founder Julian Assange has become everything he ‘originally, rightly, despised."

RTWT. Sometimes the most delicious gossip makes you want to puke.

I Beg to Differ...

...It's not Assange who is the useful idiot. It's his loyal groupie, Bradley Manning, who wears that epithet. Assange is one of the big boys, out to screw the world - er - the United States of America, getting all cozy, fraternizing with various devils.

Jesus Murphy!

Horrible… Wikileaks Document Led to Hanging Death of Western Spy This Week in Tehran

So will Bradley Manning be charged with accessory to murder?

Too Bad, So Sad...

...Judge refuses to dismiss Manning's Wikileaks case

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Or should that be ARRRRRRRRGH!!

After a long, inexorable decline, the Nobel Peace Prize finally hits the bottom of the cesspool:

Bradley Manning nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

There're lots of other nominees on the list whose achievements are far more worthy. Lets hope one of them gets the prize.

The Latest...

...from Julian Assange:

The Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Julian Assange, Kremlin Pawn

"That’s right: Assange, self-styled foe of government secrets and conspiracies of the powerful, is going to be a star on a TV network backed by the Kremlin. The same Kremlin that has done suspiciously little to investigate or prevent the killings and beatings of journalists that have plagued Russia for more than a decade. The same Kremlin accused of blatant fraud in December’s parliamentary elections. The same Kremlin whose control of the country’s broadcast media allowed it to suppress coverage of the massive protests mounted in response to that fraud. The same Kremlin whose embrace of corruption led to Russia being named “the world’s most corrupt major economy” by Transparency International in 2011.

And so on. That Kremlin is Julian Assange’s new patron.

The same Julian Assange who accused President Obama of putting “a chill across investigative journalism” by prosecuting Army leaker Bradley Manning."

[---]

"Actually, though, maybe it makes sense. After all, Assange has said “it’s an international disgrace that so few western journalists have been killed in the course of duty, or have been arrested in the course of duty.” Russian journalists certainly aren’t disgracing themselves in that regard: They’ve been dying by the dozens, and their murders are seldom solved: Only three of the 33 murders of journalists committed in Russia since 1993 have been solved,..."

What's With Bradley Manning...

...and his superiors?

This is an old article but it says a lot:

WikiLeaks accused Bradley Manning 'should never have been sent to Iraq'

None of this will matter of course, but I just happen to have an interest in screwed up people who do stupid things and whether and how they become unscrewed, when the full consequences of their stupidity hits them hard, like a ton of bricks, and he certainly chose the hard route.  But the question is, how hard does it have to be? Is Manning as oblivious as his hero is?

If he gets to experience the full force of what he decided he could play with impunity, will he turn his life around? Maybe. Maybe not. One never knows. And maybe he will have no life to turn around.

But I'm betting if Julian Assange also experiences the full force, that should help. When the narcissistic hero turns out to be little more than a cult leader, and his following disintegrates, as I am sure it will, maybe Manning will finally begin to understand the root of his own tragic culpability. Trouble is, his court martial may be long over before Julian even begins on that voyage of discovery.  Such are the vicissitudes of a life poorly lived, of a f*cked up childhood.

Another old article that shows how screwed up he was/is.

Awe, Poor, Poor Julian

He's had to suspend his "whistleblowing" due to lack of funds.

"Assange said in a statement that since December last year, "an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union."

"The attack has destroyed 95 percent of our revenue," he added."

There he goes again, butchering the English language and showing the depths to which hypocricy can go. Apparently the law is for those other guys, not for him.

The view from an Arab paper: Assange's aphorism

"Assange’s adversaries have sought the shield of a Higher Cause—defence of a state in wartime—themselves. The point of this confrontation is moral without prejudice to the personal morality of the activists. Governments revel in revealing what helps their image. They hide, mostly, only what hurts. We do not have to admire Assange in order to admire what he did.

Time for mild confession. I have not read the smartly titled Julian Assange: The Unauthorised autobiography published against Assange’s will by Canongate. I have only read the reviews. But if reviews are like the tasting menu offered by grand chefs, then the flavour is sufficient to indicate that this is enough. I don’t want the full meal. Publicity and adulation have bloated Assange. He has become his own Higher Cause. He is no longer the child who exposed a superpower and went home. He wants to live the rest of his life on a pedestal.

This book project began as collaboration between him and the publisher in December last year, confirmed by a fat fee. In June Assange walked out of the deal after the first draft was written based on interviews he had given. All autobiography, claimed Assange in justification, is prostitution.

This is the sort of pompous aphorism, which has been polished for glitter before an image-enhancing mirror. Assange can no longer see the difference between an autobiography and PR press releases.

His defenders will doubtless argue that you need an unstable sense of self if you have the courage to challenge the Pentagon. Assange is a famous hero, but I wonder if he is more heroic than the American soldier, Bradley Manning who actually stole the documents and passed them on to Assange, and now sits in an anonymous cell rather than on the cover of magazines.

There is a poignant moment in this book. In 1996 Assange was tried in Australia for hacking into Nortel, the Canadian telecom system. When he rose to stand in the witness box he saw the face of a colleague who had turned state evidence against him. “It was the look,” Assange says, “that I would come to know: the look of betrayal, organised on the face to look like a high-minded interest in the truth.”

I wonder whether the American soldier jailed for life would recognise the same look if he were to see Assange’s face right now."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I feel a bit of empathy for Bradley Manning. He was obviously duped - used - betrayed - by someone he worshiped. The leader of THE GRAND CAUSE had discarded him like a used tissue.

Another good one.

Julian's Pandora's Box

UPDATE: Julian won't be going home to Aussieland anytime soon, it would appear.

Julian Assange faces arrest in Australia over unredacted Wikileaks cables

This adds to his already considerable troubles:

"Australia's attorney general, Robert McClelland, confirmed in a statement on Friday that the new cable release identified at least one individual within the country's intelligence service. He added it is a criminal offence in the country to publish any information which could lead to the identification of an intelligence officer."

[---]

 "The new development adds to the pressure on the WikiLeaks founder, who is currently fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden to answer allegations of sexual misconduct. Assange will be unable to remain in the UK if his extradition appeal is successful, as his visa will by then have expired.

Assange already faces legal action in the US, where a grand jury has been convened in Virginia to decide whether to prosecute the founder of the whistleblowing website..."

[---]

"The Guardian, New York Times, El País, Der Spiegel and Le Monde, who worked with WikiLeaks publishing carefully selected and redacted documents in December last year, issued a joint statement condemning the latest release.

"We deplore the decision of WikiLeaks to publish the unredacted state department cables, which may put sources at risk," it said.

"Our previous dealings with WikiLeaks were on the clear basis that we would only publish cables which had been subjected to a thorough joint editing and clearance process. We will continue to defend our previous collaborative publishing endeavour. We cannot defend the needless publication of the complete data – indeed, we are united in condemning it."

Kinda got yourself into a tight spot, there Julie. What'r ya gonna do now, eh?

===========ORIGINAL STARTS HERE=============
Wikileaks is at it again. Except this time, Assange is not amused. In fact, Julie's fighting a full on war internally and with his newspaper accomplices.

And don't you think there's a bit of the "pot-kettle" element to the Bradley Manning story. Who's more screwed up, Assange or Manning? I think Manning must have seen a "big brother" to look up to in Assange. Some role model. I kinda feel sorry for Manning, but Assange can go "f**k" himself. I suspect most members of Assange's Wikileaks team are hurt little boys and girls. Assange, on the other hand, is one of those monsters that prey upon and use hurt little boys and girls for their own nefarious purposes.

Anyway, this latest leak is just like the previous ones. The big dark secrets revealed are of the ho hum variety.