And their addictions are considerably more destructive than anything street dealers or Mexican cartels have to offer. Obama has the addiction to secrecy -- more accurately, to cover-up -- and and he's got it bad.
There is no question that Private Manning broke laws. In February he pleaded guilty to 10 of the less serious charges against him, which exposed him to up to 20 years in prison. But prosecutors continued to press the more serious charges, which included violations of the Espionage Act, a 1917 law that has become the Obama administration’s hobbyhorse to go after government workers whose actions look nothing like spying. Under President Obama, the government has brought espionage charges more than twice as often under that particular law as all previous administrations combined. ...Private Manning still faces the equivalent of several life sentences on the espionage counts regarding disclosure of classified information. The government should satisfy itself with a more moderate sentence and then do something about its addiction to secrecy. ...NYT
The secrecy addiction was no less virulent during the Bush/Cheney years. Or back to Reagan and the awful lying and cover-ups centered largely on our unforgivable actions in central America. Or Kissinger's secret interventions in Chile. And on it goes. God only knows what Obama inherited or what he will pass on to the next, no less corruptible, president.
Why we are willing to accept this even as people like Bradley Manning are punished for revealing high criminality is what we should be talking about. Why is Bradley Manning a throwaway while we continue to support a system -- from on-the-ground military right through the "national security" apparatchiks -- who are our predators, not our protectors?
