Thought-provoking item; the Gummint will prosecute a capital-offense without proving intent.
...The prosecution will likely not accept Manning's guilty plea to lesser
offenses as the final word. When the case goes to trial in June, they
will try to prove that Manning is guilty of a raft of more serious
offenses. Most aggressive and novel among these harsher offenses is the
charge that by giving classified materials to WikiLeaks Manning was
guilty of "aiding the enemy." That's when the judge will have to decide
whether handing over classified materials to ProPublica or the New York Times,
knowing that Al Qaeda can read these news outlets online, is indeed
enough to constitute the capital offense of "aiding the enemy."...
...the language of the statute is broad. It prohibits not only actually
aiding the enemy, giving intelligence, or protecting the enemy, but also
the broader crime of communicating -- directly or indirectly --
with the enemy without authorization. That's the prosecution's theory
here: Manning knew that the materials would be made public, and he knew
that Al Qaeda or its affiliates could read the publications in which the
materials would be published. Therefore, the prosecution argues, by
giving the materials to WikiLeaks, Manning was "indirectly"
communicating with the enemy. Under this theory, there is no need to
show that the defendant wanted or intended to aid the enemy. The
prosecution must show only that he communicated the potentially harmful
information, knowing that the enemy could read the publications to which
he leaked the materials....
This theory is unprecedented in modern American history....--quoted at Schneier
We've seen this before, typically under "regulatory law," which does not take intent into account when determining "guilt" or "innocence." But this is a capital offense, not a traffic ticket.
Well, except that Manning won't be in peril of capital punishment. The military didn't refer the case in the right way to ask for the death penalty, so life is the worst penalty that he can face.
ReplyDeleteThat's still a serious penalty, of course. On the other hand, he's already confessed to 20 years' worth of the charges against him -- without even a plea bargain deal.
ReplyDeleteThe "enemy" can experience ANYTHING any one of us puts out on the WWW.
Under the guise of this prosecutorial sham vaguery, all American WWW surfers/bloggers/commenters/posters are guilty.
The TRUTH of Manning's intent and/or guilt aside, Americans need to wake up to the fact that government will simply create, manipulate, and twist law to "ameliorate" and "obviate"...but, in TRUTH, vitiate...their own ends because of their heinous disregard for the TRUTH and facts of law.
We call ourselves a nation of law(s) but, in TRUTH, it is only the subservient citizenry that are expected to obey. The elitism of the charlatan great-deceiving statists, of course, places these pigs above the lawless law they themselves create.
Christ spoke of this hypocrisy RE: The Pharisees, The Sadducees, The Romans, The High Court of the land of the day, the government, the lawyers, et cetera, to, of course, no avail. He spoke of how these hypocritical aristocrats created unbearable unlivable civil AND theocratical laws that they themselves twisted and ignored.
It is an statistical fact that MOST cops are brutal liars and criminals when in court bearing false witness on the stand. Anything to win the case and close(ure) the "collar". Fuckers.
The overt malice aforethought arson murder of Christopher Dorner without due process of law is an "flaming", no pun intended, recent example of out-of-control illegal government judge-jury-and-executioner pseudo-prosecutorial mentality overreach.
Manning is guilty until proven innocent, is being tried in the court of media, and it is obvious that the US government has already made up its mind regarding Manning's verdict before the trial has even begun.
Constitutional rights, if course, be damned.
I don't know what I personally believe regarding the Manning matter simply because I have not studied the facts and TRUTH of the Manning matter deeply enough to proffer a legal analysis. It is, however, completely obvious the US government will twist interpretation of any law to achieve its end.
This is nothing but plutocratic oligarchial tyranny. The irony? Once again, the plutocrats use our own taxpayer monies against us...once again, forced to subsidize our own demise.
"It is an statistical fact that MOST cops are brutal liars and criminals when in court bearing false witness on the stand."
ReplyDeleteCite sources. Otherwise, you're spouting nonsense.
ReplyDeleteTO: Ann 3/10/2013 6:46 PM:
Cops perpetually lie under oath.
At over ~725,000 hits, do your own research.
From lawyers to DAs to prosecutors to defense lawyers to former police chiefs to former police captains to present cops to, even, judges, myriad employe IN and out of public law enforcement have admitted and confessed to this (il)legal atrocity.
I have also experienced this abomination firsthand personally...more than a few times.
Do not write of things you know nothing of...and don't ever question me again, fool.
We're not talking about generalizations, dumbass. We're presenting specifics. You stated MOST cops, implying more than the majority. Overall. In the United States. Please cite that specific statistic and your metric to offer support of that metric, not an exhaustive laundry list from google. Moreover, the links on the first page of google refer to a NYT article--an author who is taking a liberal stance!--on the subject, rather than multiple, unique takes on the matter.
ReplyDeleteyour metric to offer support of that statistic, rather.
ReplyDelete