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
 
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Comments

Ashford Schwall 12 years ago
somebody is trying to re-write history here. "libby was part of the bush administration’s attempt to discredit plame’s husband, joseph c. wilson iv," wrong it was wilson's own big mouth who talked about his cia wife at washington cocktail parties. then it was learned that richard armitage acknowledged that he was the source who first revealed the identity of cia officer valerie plame to syndicated columnist robert novak back in 2003, touching off a federal investigation. "after he publically disputed the alleged “facts” being used by the bush administration to convince the american people that saddam hussein was building nucleawrir weapons, a claim that was proven false." again wrong. bush never made that claim. bush said "the british government has learned that saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa." then oddly in july of 2008 came this: secret u.s. mission hauls uranium from iraq last major stockpile from saddam's nuclear efforts arrives in canada "the last major remnant of saddam hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a canadian port saturday to complete a secret u.s. operation that included a two-week airlift from baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. the removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on saddam's nuclear legacy. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/secret-us-mission-hauls-uranium-iraq/#.t2c49x3snok

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