Darkness at Noon

  If you root for different teams,
Waste no time, weep no more,
Show him what the door is for.
Rub him out of the roll call
And drum him out of your dreams 
--I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair, 
South Pacific

  It's only because of their stupidity
that they're able to be so sure of themselves 
--The Trial, Franz Kafka
____________________

On National Public Radio's "Friday News Roundup" with Diane Rehm yesterday came a glaring example of news bias that passed right under the radar.

Edward Snowdon, the National Security Association leaker, was being discussed, mostly in a dismissive manner as if to parrot President Obama's lead. Anne Gearan, diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Post made passing reference to -- "that Wikileaks man who is on trial this week."

Just like that, a supposedly trusted journo goes from a disinterested posture to one of damnation and dismissal, consigning Bradley Manning to the rubbish bin of irrelevance. And host Rehm, who usually takes the high road filling in the blank for her guests, failed to do so this time.

"That man" is Bradley Manning, whose trial is being robustly ignored by the press. That is a great shame, when our press has space to consider how Kate Winslet's third child by a third man (bet there have been others) might signal the downfall of civilization, and just where is Kim Kardashian's child (she of the monumental ass, her claim to fame.)

PFC Manning's trial should be a serious story, if we were a serious people. Sorry Bradley, but we are not, and that was your major mistake. RangerAgainstWar hopes you do not disappear into some gulag, but alas, the United States is not the Sunshine State you thought we were.

Bradley Manning Trial

--Rainer Hachfeld, Neues Deutschland

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on 
 --What's Going On, Marvin Gaye 

I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not going to take this anymore! 
--Network (1976)
____________________

The National Security Agency moved swiftly and forcefully today to remind its employees of its longstanding zero-tolerance policy on conscience, warning that any violation of that policy would result in immediate termination. 

“When you sign on to work at the N.S.A. you swear to uphold the standards of amorality and soullessness that this agency was founded upon,” said N.S.A. director General Keith B. Alexander. “Any evidence of ethics, decency, or a sense of right and wrong will not be tolerated. These things have no place in the intelligence community.” 

To enforce the policy, General Alexander said that once a month all N.S.A. employees will be wired to a computer to take full inventory of what is going on in their minds: “We want to be sure they are spending their free time playing Call of Duty, not reading the Federalist Papers.” 

-- fr. N.S.A. Enforces Zero-Tolerance Policy on Conscience, Andy Borowitz

_________________

The Bradley Manning trial which began this week is not getting much press; some 75% of mainstream news outlets will not be covering the trial, and the press gallery remains mostly empty.

Meanwhile, the United States government continues perfecting its adversarial electronic surveillance posture against both the press and the rest of us. It is apparent that secrecy and the diminution of our privacy rights are a daily event in our brave new world, and we the marching morons continue in lockstep throwing our rights away by the fistfuls.

As Juan Cole wrote, "The US Government has been gleefully getting access to your private correspondence and that gave the Government Class an inherent superiority over ordinary Americans. Manning announced that turnabout is fair play, and we should be able to see their correspondence, too, especially given the war crimes in Iraq. That's why they're trying to execute him."

But as U.S. intelligence agencies perfect their methods of spying on us -- with our complicity -- there will always be the few like Edward Snowden and Manning who refuse to forbear their part in the voyeurism. Adrian Lamo who turned Manning in, under oath described Manning as having a sort of oceanic moment of awareness in which he realized the brutality we do to others, we do to ourselves. At this thought Manning felt suicidal, but instead of acting on that he revealed to us the source of the impulse to self-immolation.

We did not do much with the data other than to shuffle it off with a time-worn, "Things happen in war."

Once in a while there's a Howard Beale who dares to yell out the open window, but we don't mollycoddle our whistle blowers. Most of us go along to get along, just so happy for the Costco membership, the (hopefully one) mortgage and the 10-day family vacation. But there is another Bradley Manning out there now releasing secret court orders and PowerPoint presentations showing government tendencies to overreach its constitutionally-mandated boundaries.

To that person, whomever he may be -- we will say, "thank you for your service."

Who Do You Love?

For it may be said of men in general that they are
ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers,
anxious to avoid danger and covetous of gain 
--The Prince, Machiavelli 

Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me
--20th Century Man, the Kinks

 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
--Isaiah 5:20 (KJV) 
____________________

Bradley Manning is finally getting his day in court, after 1,000 days of confinement, often solitary, without any charges. Manning's case reminds Ranger of that of Lt. William Calley, in an inverse sort of way.

On March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War (that quaint, post-colonial dust-up), the My Lai Massacre was carried out by United States troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley Jr. Lt. Calley was indicted for his role in the murder of 109 Vietnamese civilians and convicted in the murder of 22, but he was revered at home and considered something of a folk hero for many. He was placed under simple house arrest in advance of his trial, and it was well known that his female guests were many, and they came and went in file during his time in house detention. 

Calley was sentenced to time in Leavenworth doing hard labor, but his life sentence was shortened considerably, and he never saw a day in jail; ultimately, he spent 3 1/2 years in house arrest in his quarters in Ft. Benning, Georgia. (Democratic President-to-be and sometime World Humanitarian Jimmy Carter was one of Calley's champions.) Compare the treatment of murderer Calley to that of Manning, who could be described as a whistleblower, and who will take Calley's place in Leavenworth.

Bradley Manning did not pull a trigger or commit any act of violence. Manning did not sell the documents he accused of trafficking, but instead approached The Washington Post and The New York Times; when these newspapers rejected him, he sent the material anonymously to WikiLeaks. He has been charged with aiding the enemy, but the charge is rather Kafkaesque as we cannot define our enemy, nor have we met them on a major battlefield.  Assuming al-Qaeda is the enemy, how can Manning be said to aid the enemy if there is no battlefield?

Just as with Kelly's fellows, the service members shooting civilians from the gunships in Manning's leaked video have never been court-martialed for their actions.  Who aids the enemy more: Manning's Wikileaks or the actions of soldiers in rogue gunships, a President who calls for lethal drone strikes and secret renditions of surmised enemies to foreign prisons for torture, and the whole lot of extrajudicial behavior which has become institutionalized in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©)? 

The recruitment value of torture and illegal policies is high, and they are a better fundraiser for the terrorist's cause than any reasoned response might have been.  Calley's inhumane actions hastened the end of the Vietnam War as Americans were repulsed by the killings of civilians.

Chris Hedges take on Manning's trial is worth a view (here).  In his conclusion, Hedges states:

Manning has done what anyone with a conscience should have done. In the courtroom he exhibited—especially given the prolonged abuse he suffered during his thousand days inside the military prison system—poise, intelligence and dignity. He appealed to the best within us. And this is why the government fears him. America still produces heroes, some in uniform. But now we lock them up.

Today, a mere 45 years later, The U.S. does not seem to care.

Tread on Me

But the law, Judah.
Without the law, it's all darkness
--Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
__________________

Remember all of the purple thumbs which were part of the constructed pastiche that said, "We're winning?" Well, voting is not the sign of either freedom or democracy.

The sign of democracy is being allowed to vote on key issues and having politicians who will then fulfill our mandate. That is freedom and democracy marching hand in hand. When we in the U.S. vote for President, is our intent to elect a warrior king ? An assassin? A jailer? Do we expect him to uphold The Constitution, or to view it as a buffet for the choosing?

What politician will cease being a reactor and fulfill the role of statesman, instead being an actor for the betterment of his nation? As long as any man sits in prison sans trial, none of us is a free man. Rights are not rights if they can be abrogated by arbitrary Presidential fiat. Discretionary rights are as bogus as discretionary war.

How can we tell our troops that they are fighting for our rights, when one of them (Bradley Manning) sits in jail without any rights at all? Do we and they not see this? The actions of Presidents George Bush and Obama to assassinate citizens and incarcerate people without trial embodies the Constitutional concept of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The Republican candidates are stepping up to the plate, but no one asks them, "Would you free, try, or just let Manning continue to rot in prison?" Instead we focus on their sex lives and other meaningless drivel. We should ask, "Do you support the assassination of U.S. citizens sans benefit of trial?", but we do not, because we know the answer. Both political parties support the truncation of citizen's rights in this not-so Brave New World.

It is strange that the U.S. would try and impeach a president for sexual dalliances with an intern, while gladly accepting the assassinations and jailings without a whimper.

Don't Tread on Me has left the building.

Manning Overboard

When the people are being beaten
with a stick, they are not much happier
if it is called "the People's Stick
--Statism and Anarchy (1873) Mikhail Bakunin

And if you can take a man's life
for the thoughts that's in his head
Then won't you sit back in that chair
and think it over judge one more time
--Johnny 99, Bruce Springsteen

Are you gonna pull those pistols
or whistle Dixie?
--Outlaw Josie Wales (1976)
__________________

Why is Bradley Manning being held in punitive and vengeful Federal custody? What is his crime, or alleged crime?

It cannot be espionage or treason. It is even hard to call it spying, so what is it, exactly? If Manning is such a threat, why hasn't WikiLeaks, founder Julian Assange or anyone else associated with this incident been indicted as co-conspirators? Why is Manning the only one in Federal prison? Why were none of his superiors charged with failure to secure classified data?

Manning was recently transferred to Ft. Leavenworth Correctional Facility, a Federal prison. Not only was Manning held in isolation for five months in the Marine Corps brig in Quantico where he was subjected to possible human rights violations and certainly held without recourse to a speedy trial, he is now being imprisoned without having been adjudicated guilty by any court, not even a kangaroo one.

Why this pre-trail confinement, which appears as open-ended as the Middle East campaigns? Further, why hasn't Manning's legal team filed a writ of habeas corpus? Manning's condition is similar to that of the Guantanamo Bay detainees -- try them or release them; there is no middle ground. Manning is a U.S. citizen, and if he can be jacked around by the legal system, so too can anyone.

We owe to the rule of law to try Manning or release him -- if murderers can get a speedy trial, so can Manning. Our system of jurisprudence demands this small token of respect for U.S. legal thought, traditions and practice.