Home » Industry Watch » The Technological
Manning Trial: One Fein MouthfulNothing else so exposes the gargantuan gap between the US and the rest of the world.
FT MEADE (Rixstep) — Nothing exposes the gargantuan gap between the world at large on the one hand and the US at small on the other as do the closing remarks of Major Ashden Fein in the trial of Bradley Manning. Fein embodies the 'Robotthink' of the US to an extreme degree - the brainwashed conformist agenda of its military.
For the rest of us, it's quite clear what Bradley Manning's all about. Then again, we have access to the news and the truth, something the members of the US military do not. We can freely converse about these things; members of the US military may not.
It's not necessary to go through all of Major Fein's closing remarks. They're enough to bore judge Denise Lind to death. But certain passages are especially significant, for they do not remind the court of evidence, something conspicuously lacking in the trial, but try to assess character or motive to the defendant, something which should not be admissable.
The 'mouthfuls' of Fein are interspersed with what might seem to be bleatingly self-evident comments. This is by design.
Fein Mouthfuls
Here we go.
✅ Pfc Manning contemporaneously engaged in online chats with Julian Assange and urged him to release the documents previously provided by him to the ones that were not released.
WUT? But sorry Fein, no one was ever able to establish that Assange chatted with Manning. The closest they got was Manning saying he suspected he could have been chatting with Assange. You took that and took a major leap. That's dishonest.
✅ Third, his constant research of the world reaction when the documents he compromised to WikiLeaks were released to the public.
So Fein is insulting the claimed intelligence of Lind? For that's submitted as proof Manning knew what he released would make it onto the world stage before he released it. To not get the fallacy in that argumentation, you'd almost have to be a member of the US military.
✅ On 5 April 2010 WikiLeaks released the Apache video of a military operation.
Actually it was a Nintendo slaughter in cold blood. Of note is WikiLeaks visited the bereaved relatives of the victims and the US forces did not.
✅ Witnesses testified that the ACIC report, Apache video, SIGACT database, NCD database, SOUTHCOM database, all contained actual and true information thus intelligence.
In a sense, yes. In the sense that they exposed war crimes on the part of the US.
✅ This intelligence was accessible to Pfc Manning and Pfc Manning made this intelligence accessible to the world on the Internet through WikiLeaks.
And for that the world is grateful and the US is shamed. We know. Please go on.
✅ Your Honor, you have heard evidence that Pfc Manning knew he was not authorised to transmit these classified documents to WikiLeaks and WikiLeaks was not authorised to receive classified information.
No, but as a whistleblower he is. Barack Obama said so. And WikiLeaks is 'authorised' to receive anything. Just like the NY Times.
✅ You have also heard - well, an overwhelming amount of evidence that Pfc Manning knew that the enemy uses the Internet to gather intelligence.
Wow. No further comment.
✅ Your Honor, there is absolutely no way he even knew what he was giving to WikiLeaks as far as the entire large databases. Instead, he learned the exact details of what he compromised the same time as the public and the enemy.
Thereby refuting his earlier argument. Maybe no one will notice. Or care.
✅ He told Adrian Lamo that Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world were going to have a heart attack when they woke up one morning and found an entire repository of classified foreign policies available in searchable format to the public.
Yeah. That was really cool. And it was payback for attacking him and WikiLeaks.
✅ According to Colonel Miller, when he briefed the staff about Pfc Manning's actions, a funeral-like atmosphere fell over the crowd. They were angry, sad, grieved, and frustrated, all at the same time.
That's EVIDENCE?
✅ Colonel Miller testified that before the scope of Pfc Manning's misconduct was revealed, the unit morale was at an all-time high.
Sure. Just ask Bradley Manning.
✅ As they had just completed their mission requirements, everything was going well with the Iraqi security forces...
Oh admirably. The Iraqis were so happy to have them there.
✅ Soldiers that had been on numerous prior deployments within, as he testified, the most deployed brigade in the United States Army, were finally seeing the fruits of their labours over the past 10 years come to fruition.
Oh PLEASE.
✅ And then, Pfc Manning's covert actions came to light. His misconduct completely shook the entire brigade, according to Colonel Miller.
Well hell yes! The grunts began to realise how corrupt their superiors were!
✅ The unit collectively felt it was a blemish on its otherwise stellar record.
You know you're in trouble when military units start talking about 'stellar records'. Ask Ethan McCord about stellar records.
✅ If there's a distraction and the soldier has to look to his left and right when he's supposed to be looking in front of him, that his eyes are off his job and the foundation of the military starts to crumble.
WUT?
✅ Your Honor, 104 aiding the enemy by giving intelligence. Your Honor, Pfc Manning deliberately transmitted the Apache video, certain Department of State cables information, and the CIDNE-A SIGACTS to WikiLeaks. He did this with the knowledge and intent that it would be released to the world and he did this knowing that the enemy would retrieve this valuable information from WikiLeaks.
Oh please. He released it so voters in the US would know how their governments had deceived them. Give it up.
✅ Your Honor, for Article 104 purposes, who are the enemies of the United States.
That's classified. Yes. True. But OK. Can we guess? The answer is 'almost everybody today, dude'. Easier to ask who aren't. They're mostly dictators with big offshore accounts. Counting them goes quicker.
✅ Pfc Manning had actual knowledge that these enemies, al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsula, used WikiLeaks to gather intelligence on the United States. And therefore, by giving intelligence to WikiLeaks, he was giving intelligence to the enemy.
He could also have known that his webmail accounts were being hacked by the NSA and foreign countries. He could have suspected his own unit's communications were insecure. The 'enemies' had more to gain by surfing the Internet in general. Are you going to put Vint Cerf and Sir Tim on trial? What's your point?
✅ Pfc Manning had the general evil intent necessary to aid the enemy and evidence shows that he acted voluntarily and deliberately with his disclosures.
That's Fein's first unadulterated mouthful.
✅ His daily work product as an intelligence analyst in Garrison and in theatre established his knowledge of the enemy threat.
Iraq hadn't threatened the US. Truth did. The invasion was immoral and illegal and based on a perpetrated lie, as are all wars in democracies. Iraq didn't threaten anyone. The US threatened Iraq - and destroyed it.
✅ His research of intelligence reports related to WikiLeaks warned him repeatedly of the enemy's use of WikiLeaks.
Then why did he first go to the mainstream media, to the NY Times and others?
✅ Your Honor, what did Pfc Manning learn at AIT about the need to safeguard classified and sensitive information? The dangers of putting such information on the Internet and the enemy's use of the Internet.
Hey he didn't do that - you did. You made your 'catastrophe' possible. For you have today changed that policy, indicating you're aware you made a big BOO-BOO.
✅ He learned the lesson of INFOSEC.
Doubtful Manning needed to learn any lesson. Also doubtful the US military learned anything even today.
✅ Lessons that the enemy used the Internet.
There you go. They also used VOCAL CORDS.
✅ Lessons that focused on the enemy piecing together information on the Internet to use against the United States includes PII, unit identification, and unit location information.
Who cares? They invaded. George Washington would have booted them out too.
✅ And the number of terrorist websites has jumped from less than 100 to as many as 4,000 over the past 10 years.
Ban the Internet! Oh right - that's what you're trying to do.
✅ And, Your Honor, the fact that Osama bin Laden asked for the disclosed information and received it proves that Pfc Manning was correct when he taught in Prosecution Exhibit 25 that adversaries, including foreign governments, terrorists and activists and hackers, that's who they are, that the common OPSEC leaks include leaks on the Internet and that disclosure of the information on the Internet must be avoided because one must use common sense because there are many enemies and it's a free and open society.
Wow. Free and open society? Whose? Tell the truth, Manning! You had a hotline direct to the bearded guy himself, didn't you?
✅ Mr Hall testified as an expert, said that Pfc Manning would have been aware, he would have been aware that the enemy engaged in similar pattern analysis about the US TTPs and movements.
Could be. BUT THE US PERPETRATED WAR CRIMES. That changes the picture. Totally.
✅ Pfc Manning acknowledges his own understanding of the value of the information that he passed to WikiLeaks by claiming the SigActs for Iraq and Afghanistan are, 'possibly one of the most' - or excuse me - 'one of the more significant documents of our time, removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare'.
Wow. That settles it. Pfc Bradley Manning is a hero. Defence rests.
✅ His possession of all the above data information is additional circumstantial evidence that Pfc Manning had actual knowledge leading to the only reasonable inference that he knew by disclosing this information to WikiLeaks, an organisation he knew would release any information he was providing them to the public.
Wow. 'Data' and 'information' are two different things in computer science, 'information' being 'data' that actually means something. Using the word 'inference' right after 'circumstantial' sort of nails it - Fein's coffin, that is. But whatever: this is patently false and anyone but an utter ignoramus or a US military robot knows it. WikiLeaks will always check documents for authenticity - and on rare occasion withhold documents. Fein's wrong again. The boob.
✅ He read three different intellectual reports that explicitly told him that the enemy will read anything posted on WikiLeaks.
They were intellectual reports? Wow! They can't have been meant for common military consumption! But he could just as easily have been told the 'enemy' read everything posted at BBC News. Or the NY Times. Or the Huckleberry Courier.
✅ So what did Pfc Manning learn from that document? That WikiLeaks represented a potential force protection, counterintelligence, OPSEC and INFOSEC threat.
Basically defining the truth as a threat against criminal behaviour. That's fine.
✅ That they post all the information they receive without editorial oversight.
BULLSHIT, Fein! How dare you?
✅ That a reader must presume, they must presume foreign adversaries will read and assess any information.
Unless they're blocked as are the US military. Wow what a moron.
✅ So what did he learn from this IRR. That WikiLeaks is a self-described uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis.
Sounds good!
✅ WikiLeaks in 2008 had garnered the attention of major news media outlets but not intelligence reporting within the United States because it was largely north.
O RLY.
✅ If Pfc Manning had any questions about the threat WikiLeaks posed to our national security he could have reached out for clarification which he clearly did not do.
Who the fuck would have told him? LOL
✅ However, Your Honor, we do know what he did, he kept Julian Assange's contact information and he reached out to them in November of 2009 instead of seeking clarification if he actually doubted what he read.
God what a load of bullshit, Fein. He didn't know it was Julian Assange and he was stonewalled every time he did ask locally. That's what happens to whistleblowers - they don't sneak around like spies, they start by trying to alert their colleagues. But Manning's colleagues were - how did he describe them - 'a bunch of hyper-masculine, trigger-happy, ignorant rednecks and gullible idiots'.
✅ By reading and disclosing these three documents he knew at a minimum that WikiLeaks had a self-admitted reputation for encouraging leaks of classified information for the United States government and releasing that information.
But WikiLeaks hadn't released very much US intel at that point. Sorry.
✅ Pfc Manning knew the exact type of information he chose to disclose would be useful to the enemy.
Then why did he withhold the REALLY damning things?
✅ Pfc Manning knew the information had a global scope and he was creating worldwide anarchy...
'Worldwide anarchy'? Freedom from the oppression of the US, sure. But worldwide anarchy? Another Fein mouthful.
✅ These are not the words of a humanist, but these are the words of an anarchist.
Oh please. Define 'anarchist'. No? You don't dare?
✅ On page 10 of the Assange chats, Julian Assange specifically states to Pfc Manning that...
NO. You don't know that's Julian. The person at the other end never said who it was. Manning suspected - hoped - it was Julian, but he never knew, and neither do you, Fein.
✅ Fein quoting WikiLeaks blurb: 'Better principle and less parochial than any government intelligence agencies. It is able to be more accurate and relevant. It has no commercial or national interests at heart. It is only interested in the revelation of the truth. Unlike the covert activities at state intelligence agencies, WikiLeaks relies upon the power of overt fact.'
Good sales argument for WikiLeaks! Thanks, Major!
✅ Your Honor, Pfc Manning's work with an intelligence agency of the people is not an act of a person trying to spark a national debate but rather an act of a soldier, a soldier of the United States Army that has no longer loyalty to his country because he had no, no national interest at heart.
BULLSHIT. Armies - when they unfortunately exist - are to serve the PEOPLE. The US army did not. End of story. Fein's wording here is Orwellian - 'intelligence agency of the people' supposedly something bad, (inter)national debate closely linked of course, as with Snowden today - it's all so much gobbledegook. Fein's masterpiece?
✅ Pfc Manning depended on WikiLeaks posting whatever he disclosed to them on the Internet.
WUT? He didn't depend on shit. He wanted the story out there but he wasn't 'dependent' on anything or anyone.
✅ He called WikiLeaks a group of FOI activists, he knew the compromise of Department of State cables would affect everybody on earth.
Yeah and it did, and good thing at that. Finally the assholes in the US got caught with their knickers down. Oops.
✅ He noted, again, Your Honor, that Hillary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning...
He didn't mean that literally. And the blame must instead be on those perpetrating the crimes, not those who expose them. You're tiresome, Fein.
✅ He created the searchable format for the public, the public included the enemy and he knew that, Your Honor, as an intelligence analyst.
That's doubtful. WikiLeaks and the Guardian and other media partners did that. You're slipping, Fein.
✅ He even acknowledged that, quote, could have sold the information to Russia and China but chose not to because it's public data.
That proves he's a whistleblower, Fein.
✅ This isn't public data, Your Honor.
No, but it should be. Because the US lied and committed crimes. So good on Manning.
✅ Your Honor, this simple acknowledgement by Pfc Manning shows that he understood the utility and financial value of this information and how foreign entities desired the information.
And didn't sell it? 'Desired' as in learning how the US spied on UN delegates? Sure.
✅ Your Honor, the defence would like you to believe that Pfc Manning actually wanted to spark change and reform.
Of course. What other motivation could there be? He could have sold it. Instead he tried to do the Right Thing™ in a sea of conspiracy.
✅ However, Pfc Manning never once mentioned protecting the American public...
The public? Venezuelan? Ecuadorean? Who? And how did they need protection? Protection from knowing the LIES of the US governments?
✅ Simply put, if Pfc Manning had given the information to Russia or China, he would have made an incredible amount of money according to him.
But he didn't. And that crushes your entire case, Fein. So why don't you shut up and sit down. Fein.
✅ Pfc Manning had no allegiance to the United States and the flag it stands for.
More than you, asshole.
✅ His answer, that flag meant nothing to him.
Not the way it was abused all around him. Why don't you try behaving a bit so people can regain their faith in the country?
✅ And, Your Honor, you heard, although suffering from memory problems, that Master Sergeant Adkins testified that he remembered signing his administrative reduction board appeal...
Good solid evidence, Fein. You got quite the case there.
✅ Pfc Manning did have a general evil intent...
Oh STOP IT, Fein. People are splitting their sides laughing at you. Somebody's going to take you over their knee.
✅ Your Honor, there's no dispute that information from the CIDNE-A database, specifically the SIGACTS, certain Department of State cables and the Apache video are intelligence.
Yes, intelligence. Intelligence of US war crimes.
✅ As the court is aware, intelligence means any information which is helpful to the enemy and true, at least in part.
No, it also means exposing the LIES of CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS. Fein.
✅ Second, Your Honor, the Apache video in a video released about al-Assad media organisation operated by al-Qaeda.
Wait. The people gunned down were connected to al-Qaeda? Mouthful again, Fein!
✅ United States faces enemies worldwide and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan.
No shit, Fein. First honest thing you've said. But the US CREATES enemies worldwide. At least 41 of them. The number of countries where they do not (yet) have military bases. The whole raison d'etre of the goons is to create enemies whenever they need them. So put a sock in it.
✅ The Apache video. Your Honor, you heard testimony from Commander Aboul-Enein that media perception is important to al-Qaeda and any event that places al-Qaeda in a positive light or US forces in negative light is beneficial to al-Qaeda.
Then tell those morons to not play Nintendo war with innocent people.
✅ The edited and released version of the Apache video is obviously a video that al-Qaeda can use in propaganda.
LOL - Fein mouthful. No further comments necessary.
✅ Terrorist organisations now have it, proven by Adam Gadahn calling on all jihadists to view the video and war against United States.
IT'S ON THE INTERNET, ASSHOLE. Where it SHOULD be.
✅ This was even obvious to Osama bin Laden, who wanted this material and he received it, and he received it, asked for this type of material and received it, and he was in the most isolated regions within Pakistan, Your Honor.
How did you know where he was? You didn't. You couldn't catch him for ten years.
✅ As Mr Hall testified, all junior analysts know that enemy conducts particular analysis based on data it can access and the enemy does this through data mining.
Wow. What a revelation.
✅ Pfc Manning knew this when he decided to make the information available to the enemy in the format he made it available.
He didn't give it to the enemy, unless you define 'enemy of the US' as almost anyone in any country. Come to think of it, that's actually pretty accurate.
✅ On pages 44 and 45 of that issue, the magazine lists activities in western jihadist to wage jihad against the United States and the west.
They've been on about that for ten years.
✅ Pfc Manning knew who the enemy was and what type of information they sought, specifically classified information and tactical information.
False. Propaganda. You already said he had no inking of the true nature of the material, despite him making searchable databases (as you claim). What a load of rubbish.
✅ He knew that the enemy used the Internet and that WikiLeaks was helpful to our enemies.
Define 'enemies', idiot. The world at large?
✅ Pfc Manning was well informed of how WikiLeaks operated. He searched for WikiLeaks more than 100 times on Intelink during his deployment or, as you heard earlier, roughly four searches for every five days in theatre.
But he also chose to go to the US MSM first. Easy does it, Fein. You're never going to win this one, no matter the verdict. He's a hero to tens or hundreds of millions and you can't change that.
✅ Pfc Manning was an anarchist whose agenda was made abundantly clear almost immediately after he deployed to Iraq.
Apologise, Fein.
✅ Your Honor, in the Assange chats, page 5, page 5, Pfc Manning boasts on his knowledge that, 'the more the government controls information, the harder the government tries, the more violently the information wants to get out'.
And? That sounds insightful! Into the pathology of corruption! And it gives us hope! That bastards like you will be crushed!
The important thing to remember in all this is that none of this would have happened if the US hadn't committed war crimes. Had the US been behaving ethically, no one would have leaked a thing. This whole 'mess' is caused by the crimes of the US.
And the world will not forget.
✅ Your Honor, rather than focusing on his war fighting mission...
Are you trying to imply, Fein, that the US fought against the idea of war?
✅ He was not a naive or well-intentioned soldier.
Naive? No. Well-intentioned? Of course. The only thing that could have changed him was seeing evidence of how ugly the US had become. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of civilian lives lost, over a million all told, all because that country wanted to take over a country - a criminal invasion, a heinous act.
✅ Your Honor, a well-intentioned soldier does not claim that: 'the State Department fucked itself, placed volumes and volumes of information in a single spot with no security'.
You mean the right thing is to lie? On the contrary. For that's exactly what they did. And they acknowledged that by changing the system back again. Let's face it: those bureaucrats aren't the sharpest.
✅ This recognition of system weaknesses and the active and deliberate exploitation of those weaknesses are not the acts of the naive and well-intentioned soldier, but one who acts in a calculated manner and for his own purposes.
Those purposes were highly altruistic. You might be stupid, Fein. That possibility is now open.
✅ ... he actually thought he would get away with what he did and he wouldn't get caught.
And he would have had he not talked to Pfizer's favourite poster child, FBI informant Adrian Lamo.
✅ Showing no loyalty to this nation...
He showed loyalty to the people.
✅ Pfc Manning knowingly gave the enemies of the United States unfettered access to these government documents...
He didn't knowingly give anyone shit.
Fein's Finale
Fein winds up. Highlighting passages in this manure dump is the only commentary needed. Come to think of it, no highlighting is necessary: it's ALL shit. Have a laff.
Your Honor, the United States is confident that after reviewing all of the evidence, applying your own common sense knowledge of human nature and the ways of the world and specifically spending time focused on Pfc Manning's own words in his chats that you will find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of all the charges and their specifications.
Your Honor, Pfc Manning was not a humanist; he was a hacker. A hacker who described his fellow soldiers as dykes, a bunch of hyper-masculine, trigger-happy, ignorant, rednecks or gullible idiots.
Your Honor, he was not a troubled young soul. He was a determined soldier with a knowledge, ability, and desire to harm the United States in its war effort. And, Your Honor, he was not a whistleblower; he was a traitor. A traitor who understood the value of compromised information in the hands of the enemy and took deliberate steps to ensure they, along with the world, received all of it.
Thank you, Your Honor.
(Court recessed at 5:45 PM)
|