Quote from: SEC agent on June 06, 2013, 03:48:25 PM

Quote from: Biomech on June 06, 2013, 03:38:22 PM

So is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Manning's "treason", as patriotism will always be labeled, is minor compared to that REGULARLY committed by the government trying him.

Actually, under the constitutional definition of treason, Manning would have to be proved to have done harm against the STATES, not the FedGov, and to have caused harm by giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Despite these arguments being deliberately absented at the show trial.

They have a better case for embezzelment than treason.

As for your comments about the proper chain of command, those are the very people that are outed by these leaks. Telling Al Capone that he's doing something questionable to his face is imprudent. Catch-22.

I'd like to think you aren't as ignorant of the facts as you appear. But I've unfortunately met a lot of you flag wavin' "my country, right or wrong" sorts, and you probably are. YOU are a bigger threat to the people of these former states than Mr. Manning, OR Julian Assange, who is NOT the "enemy". Last I checked, Australia (and all commonwealth nations) are formal allies of the US Imperial court.

Two things.

First, as was mentioned earlier in the thread, your knowledge of the law is nonexistent, and your silly freeman constitutionalist reading of the law is not supported or interpreted the same way by the justice system. What he did was treason whether you personally believe it or not.

Second, crimes committed by people at all levels of government (up to and including the president) are successfully investigated and tried by the government on a daily basis. You can ignore this fact all you like, but it doesn't change the fact.

Manning was too much of a coward to actually stand up for his convictions, so he tried to hide behind a computer and got caught. If he wanted to be a whistleblower, there are perfectly legal ways to do so (none of which endanger American lives).

No, my love of the law is nonexistent. Every single thing that the anti-federalists warned against in abandoning the articles of confederation has come to pass, including a government that has ALL the power. We all know damn well that this leak was embarrassing to the highest levels of the diplomatic corps for doing just exactly what they were bombing other people for.

Had you followed this story outside of Faux news, you would be aware that he DID try other channels and got the "we are taking care of it" bullshit that you would expect. He's a computer geek, so he took a decision and went with what he knew how to do. Cowardice is refusal to commit "treason" when those you "betray" are selling you and everyone you love down the river. You might put a lot of labels on what he did and have some validity. Under Imperial law, treason will probably stick, though given the deliberate shackling of the defense they are clearly not as certain of that as you are.

You called down Godwin on me before, but even you MUST see the similarity between this and the People's Courts.

As for constitutional interpretation belonging solely to the Supreme Court, I think you need a serious history lesson. Lincoln's treasonous war, by the CONSTITUTIONAL definition of treason, settled that secession was dangerous, not that it wasn't the right of the states. His idiotic idea that states that preexisted the union couldn't have been formed without the union shouldn't have ever been given ANY credence. Then again, perhaps the American public has always had a problem with temporal reality...