General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Like it or Not, Bradley Manning is a Traitor [View all]jmowreader
(50,557 posts)Manning's Cablegate dump contains files dating back to 1966 and produced by every US Embassy in the world. Any self-respecting dictatorship shoots people who are revealed to have worked with the United States. You KNOW all the dictatorships in the world, upon finding out WikiLeaks had released all these cables, started searching Assange's database for names of its suspected traitors. Those countries also believe in corruption of blood - that a treason you committed taints your entire family. And they have very long memories.
So consider: You live in a dictatorship. Forty years ago your mother was an informant for the United States. They used her real name in their reporting. Your mom died ten years ago without telling anyone in her family about her past as a spy. Then Manning releases every State Department cable back to the Vietnam War...and at two in the morning, the Ministry for Security kicks in your door and the doors of all your siblings, grabs everyone in the house, takes you to the nearest Army post, and executes all of you for treason after torturing you. That shit only makes the papers if anyone reports it, and no one's going to report it because it'll be considered collaboration and the Ministry for Security will be at their door tomorrow morning.
This is not fun and games. What Manning did has severe consequences for people who don't even know they're involved.