Who Did More Harm to American Security, Bradley Manning or Scooter Libby?
Monday, March 12, 2012
Bradley Manning and Scooter Libby
Army Private Bradley Manning is facing the possibility of spending a long time in prison for embarrassing the U.S. government, while I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former right-hand man to Vice-President Dick Cheney, did no prison time even though he was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements related to his role in outing covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Sentenced to 30 months in prison for his felonies, he had his sentence commuted by President George W. Bush.
Libby was part of the Bush administration’s attempt to discredit Plame’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, after he publically disputed the alleged “facts” being used by the Bush administration to convince the American people that Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons, a claim that was proven false. Plame’s identity, kept secret as part of her intelligence work, was leaked to conservative columnist Robert Novak in an attempt to get back at Wilson.
The deception in which Libby took part, including the public exposure of an American covert agent, led to the invasion of Iraq and the resultant deaths of thousands of U.S. military personnel and contractors, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the dangerous loss of American credibility in a region of vital importance.
Bradley Manning stands accused of copying classified State Department cables and other materials and transferring them to WikiLeaks, which made them available to the public. Although this was an illegal act, no evidence has been presented that any of the documents caused harm to a single American or endangered national security. Indeed, in several cases, the documents helped pro-democracy movements in other countries by showing citizens of these nations that U.S. officials shared their views of corrupt leaders.
Although Manning may have embarrassed President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on balance his action did much more good than harm. The same cannot be said of Scooter Libby.
-David Wallechinsky
To Learn More:
Scooter Libby v. Bradley Manning; Malice v. Nobility (Daily Censored)
How Secret were the WikiLeaks State Dept. Cables? (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Obama Justice Dept. Wants to Keep Cheney CIA Leak Interview Secret for 5-10 Years (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Obama Justice Department Sides with Cheney in Valerie Plame Case (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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