Bradley Manning’s gender confusion made him commit espionage
And there are those out there who have a big problem with him claiming “my gender confusion made me do it.”
Raising the hackles of some attorneys who work on transgender legal issues, defense attorneys for Bradley Manning apparently intend to make an almost novel legal argument — that the Army private was suffering from gender identity disorder when his alleged crimes were committed — if his case proceeds to court martial as expected.
In the first five days of Manning’s preliminary hearing at Fort Meade, Md., prosecutors and defense attorneys have both presented evidence that Manning, accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of secret government documents to the WikiLeaks website, was wrestling with gender issues in the period leading up to the publication of the documents.
The defense stated Saturday that Manning, 24, had written to one of his supervisors when he was stationed in Iraq before his arrest and said he had concluded he was suffering from gender identity disorder, which is classified as a medical disorder in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. He included a photo of himself dressed as a woman in the letter and said the issue was affecting his ability to do his job or think clearly.
Sorry, I’m not buying it and I don’t believe that a jury will either. The simplicity of this case is being totally lost in the distractions: he broke the law. He violated his security clearance, and he’s being charged with allegedly leaking 251,000+ documents. He can’t hide behind, “information should be free”, “DADT made me do it”, “my gender confusion made me do it.” He’s not a hero, he’s a criminal who’s gay or a gender confused male (multiple reports identify him either way.)
On a related issue, media whore Dan Choi is doing his level best to make Manning’s trial all about him with the latest scuffle he caused at the trial where he was allegedly pounced on by six officers, manhandled and given the boot off the base for the day. For someone who claims to uphold truth and honesty as a keystone of being a soldier he’s very confused about Bradley Manning:
Choi, a West Point graduate, went to the Manning trial because “soldiers stand up for integrity, and if the code of ethics and army values are important, then we should support Bradley Manning.” He added that Manning’s actions were not only in the interest of his unit, but also in the interest of the country. “He believed that our country as a whole needed to have integrity.
The law of land warfare says that if a soldier sees a crime — a rape or a murder — it’s their responsibility to report it. As I understood it, he brought it up to the chain of command. The chain of command knew about it, and they were the ones who were in violation of the law of land warfare. To not report it is to be complicit. He was the only soldier in the chain of command to do the right thing, so that’s why we have to support him.”
I’ve said it before repeatedly and it bears repeating: Choi is not an activist, and I don’t believe for a second he gives a damn about Bradley Manning other than what the case and trial can lend him in media attention now that DADT is dead and gone
(thumb via MSNBC)
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