Privacy and the Private

Image from PlanetPOV.

I guess I have to say a couple of words about PFC Manning and his conviction on theft and espionage charges, but I'd rather wait until the sentencing to make it anything final. It's only today, as that phase begins, that we learn that the disclosure of the Afghan War Logs failed to produce any of the ghastly harm that was predicted, of identifying the Friends of America so that the Terrorists would be able to murder them all (there was one guy the Taliban killed, because, they said, of Wikileaks, but they were lying—he wasn't mentioned in the files). The worst General Robert Carr could say was:

Discussing the Guantanamo Bay Detainee Assessment Briefs (DABs), Carr suggested that the release of these documents was detrimental to the United States’ efforts to close the detention center, though he explained on cross-examination that the DABs could reveal that what the U.S. says publicly to some countries regarding transferring detainees back to their home countries and what we say to them privately could differ, obstructing that process. He testified, though, that he couldn’t speak to whether transferring the detainees was an administration priority.

Thanks, General Carr, for revealing to the opponents of closing Guantánamo what they need to do to slow that process down, if there's any way it could be any slower than it already is, because Manning and the Guardian didn't really make it clear. Now because of you Senator McConnell will be poring through the Guardian's database looking for evidence that he can use, and then calling the president of Yemen: "Mr. President, do you realize that what President Obama says in public about repatriating Yemeni prisoners is somewhat different than what he tells you in private?" What a massacre! We're putting you away for life, kid!

I just realized, if being detrimental to US efforts to close Guantánamo is harming our national interests, Senator McConnell must be one of the secret enemies that Manning allegedly helped out. Curiously enough, he's one of my enemies too. May I arrest him, please?

Image by TheSkunk.

Anyway, I'm in an awkward position, as I believe on the one hand that Manning performed a service to the country that, while it broke the law, deserved to be punished a whole lot less than it already has been and doesn't need to be punished any further; and on the other that this doesn't make Obama a war criminal. I'm starting to feel a little like one of those Evan Bayh types with the "Now just stop that, both of you!" Also I'm pretty sure that the whole discussion is a lot less important than poverty and injustice, and yet I feel like being in it all the time. Huh.