Manning was a 5-foot-1, 105 pound out-and proud homosexual who enlisted during the DADT era. He once threatened his stepmother with a knife, and the police were involved, although apparently no charges were filed. He was nearly discharged in basic training, where he complained of being bullied, was rumored to have had a breakdown, and screamed back at his drill sergeants when they would scream at him.
During his military training, he was referred to Army mental health counselors. He was an emotional basket case. once crying for hours after watching "The Last King of Scotland." At one point, he sent a photograph of himself dressed as a woman to his master sergeant, and he considered gender reassignment surgery.
So naturally, this guy was given top secret security clearance.
WTF, US Army? My son hopes to get into intelligence, and his Marine recruiter told him that if he had so much as a high school suspension, he could forget it. They had him fill out a questionnaire with about 200 items on it, and a "YES" on any one of these items meant "Your Enlistment Stops."
My question: Had he shown up for his enlistment in an evening gown, would he have been put on the fast track?
31 comments:
When I was in Navy bootcamp at Great Lakes guys like him were sent home after a week or two. And this was in 1973, when bodies were scarce and requirements not so high.
What happened here?
Here is a link to the Story
Pasta is understandably upset.
Simple. He was given preference because he is a member of a protected group.
Next question.
It seems like nobody will ever be convicted of selling out the country even when the evidence is overwhelming that that is what this guy did.
Its an open invitation for other to try it, knowing that they will not pay the ultimate consequence.
He was given preference because he is a member of a protected group.
If Obama can use the IRS to intimidate, which is what he did, his CIC command influence must be child's play to him.
Strings were pulled here.
I never understood the straight arrow standard either. Someone who never got in any trouble their whole life, especially a man, is some kind of scary freak to me. That's just not normal, and I would expect them snap at some point, and make up for lost time. We're all sinners I hear, and I just want someone who got most of it out of their system by now. Not totally done, but a little familiar with the dark side at least.
I'm with you pasta.
That goes along with my concern about letting the 20 year olds play with the blimps over DC.
There are many jobs young soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines can do which don't require top secret clearance and give them time to develop skills and grow up. (Yelling at your drill sergeant not being one of those things.)
Before we were married (decades ago) hubby had a top secret clearance as he worked on some submarine stuff.
Several years later he decided to join the Peace Corps. Dang if they did not do a total security back ground check (again?) and went back to his neighborhood from 20 years previous when he was a kid! Remember, he already had clearance to design submarine stuff.(!)
So when I see Manning -- or Snowden -- get clearance I am with you ... Young -- and ambiguous about (or perhaps disengenous in how they express or acknowledge them) their values.
And then of course, there is Nidal Hasan, M.D., who "helped" returning vets with their adjustment problems in between lecturing officers about the legitimacy of Islamic jihad and passing out business cards with "Son of Allah" on them before slaughtering a bunch of men and women, military and civilians.
Our screening process clearly has some defects. Ya think? But don't tell the DoD. They are too busy looking under rocks for Catholic and Evangelical terrorists.
“While we’re relieved that Mr. Manning was acquitted of the most dangerous charge, [we’ve] long held the view that leaks to the press in the public interest should not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act,” Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union said. “Since Manning already pleaded guilty to charges of leaking information – which carry significant punishment – it seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information in the future.”
No shit Sherlock.
I think the operative phrase is, "where he complained of being bullied".
I'm sure Dan Savage and the rest of the anti-bullying crowd took an interest in him.
Which would support Michael's contention.
In any case, with 136 years in Leavenworth facing him, he'll have plenty of chances to toughen up.
The security deal is blackmail potential.
I suppose bad behavior figures in sometimes.
It seems like nobody will ever be convicted of selling out the country even when the evidence is overwhelming that that is what this guy did.
He was convicted on the espionage charges. He was found not guilty of aiding the enemy for the same reason Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder -- because he clearly wasn't guilty of that crime.
"He did something and the enemy happened to benefit from it" is not the standard. If it was, every military commander who made a bad decision in battle would be at risk of prosecution under the statute. Think about it.
I had to go see the psych when I was at basic (why is not important, nor did the psych think it was important once I'd seen him) anyhow, I talked to a guy in the waiting area that was having a horrible time. I was actually left there talking to him alone for so long that I suspect that it was on purpose.
He was being hazed, badly. For whatever reason he wasn't adjusting well and the other guys would just pile it on, make sure he didn't get any sleep, and he was pretty much having a breakdown. What I said the other day is true... once you're at basic training there's this thing going on where they act every single moment like they're about to send you home in disgrace, but the truth is they're trying to get every person through and you can be really pathetic and you'll still make it through, I did it, right?... unless YOU ask to go home... or threaten to kill yourself (stupid... you could have just asked to go home)... or have an injury. Everything else they just "recycle" you until you make it... eventually.
I think I might have got left to talk to this guy for the better part of an afternoon because he wasn't willing to go home. His father had told him to come home in uniform or not at all. Southern boy. He had a BA in business, a college degree. Soft looking. Seemed obvious to me that he wasn't really suited for the military, even if he was from a culture that valued it. The hardest thing, I think, is actually the fact that you need really good social instincts (the things girls are supposedly better at than guys) in order to figure out the culture. If you can't do that, it's really awful.
In any case, I wasn't telling the guy to stick it out, buck up, he could do it. I was asking him, why are putting yourself through this? You don't need to put yourself through this. Why are you letting your dad bully you? If there aren't jobs at home, go to California or something (at the time, there were jobs in California) and get a job, use your degree. Your dad will get over it.
And I wonder what it would take for even the psychs to send him home once he was there if he didn't first ask them to send him home.
... for what it's worth.
Manning is a scum bucket...
Just wanted to make that clear.
Pasta, this is a damn fine post. One of the best on this topic I have read.
Lem said...
Trooper, what do I know about blogging?
My opinion probably isn't high on your list, but I'd say you've done quite well on short notice and have assembled a fine contributor masthead in the process.
You efforts have made "Comment Home" a fun place, and interesting place, to stop by. When anyone choses to post something from Ann's posts, good for them...the topics are usually worthy of discussion, more so if someone here thinks so.
I've said before elsewhere and I'll say it again here...it is the people who show up here, including and in particular the "contributors", that matter to me, I am always in danger of learning something, of changing my views, pr modifying a stance I've taken.
One stance I've taken is that you've done a good job. I don't have to agree with every detail to fully appreciate it all. So, thanks, you are doing something I know I could not do.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
Pasta, this is a damn fine post. One of the best on this topic I have read.
Let me echo that opinion. I am also disturbed by how Manning got where he got with his background. Once he got there I know, without a doubt, how was able to do so much damage. I am hoping, presuming at best, that his uniformed supervisors were sanctioned under non-judicial punishment per the UCMJ.
However, your son is entering the Marine Corps, a different kettle of fish, and doing so at time when enlisted ranks are being reduced wholesale. That means he is especially well qualified. Be proud.
Second Ari, Lem, from the start you've covered yourself with glory.
Third Aridog.
Beta Rube said...
What happened here?
He fucked his country. This little traitor should be swinging right about now.
Meth, so he fucked the country. Big deal. Our presidents lately have done worse and THEY key getting re-elected. Clearly the majority of voters just don't give a shit anymore, so why should the military justice system?
The truely unfortunate fact is that Manning is just one of many that are in our government that shouldn't be there. But, can't say anything mean to any of them. You're likely to get into more trouble than this Manning person.
Icepick said...
Meth, so he fucked the country. Big deal. Our presidents lately have done worse and THEY key getting re-elected. Clearly the majority of voters just don't give a shit anymore, so why should the military justice system?
I don't disagree with this, but the distinction is, is that you can't hang Urkel from the gallows like you can this little itinerant weasel. People not giving a shit is a direct result of the insidious nature of leftism and how its taken over the minds of two successive generations. The American experiment is over. It's all about mitigating the slide downward.
I don't disagree with this, but the distinction is, is that you can't hang Urkel from the gallows like you can this little itinerant weasel.
That's exactly backwards. Manning cannot be hung; he's already been prosecuted and is protected by double jeopardy now.
Bush, Obama, et al, enjoy no such protection. We could hang the lot of them, we just don't. If all you meant was "the government will never prosecute people like Bush and Obama for their crimes" then, sure. That's what Icepick is complaining about.
Little weasel should be packed in a suitcase and thrown off the Verrazano bridge.
I don't know if Snowden is, in point of fact, a sensitive idealist, but he can credibly play one. Manning not so much. He looks like he was acting out a lot conflicts and emotional problems. The wonder is how a guy with all these warning signs outlined in sequins got to have such a sensitive post. Somebody really screwed up......I went through AF basic back in the sixties. It wasn't all that difficult, but a fair number of recruits washed out and I just can't conceive of anyone yelling back at a TI.
He's a huge fag. Burn him on the cross.
Even though we queens are taking over this country and almost 1/2 the population allows fag marriage I say fry that queen!
tits.
Oh, come on now! He's a rascal--yes. A scallywag--of course. A prankster--no doubt. But a treasonous traitor, aiding and abetting the enemy? Okay, yeah, he's that too.
Ah, Jamie Farr. My Uncle Ron became friends with Mr. Farr when he transferred to the Toledo paper - everybody always said they looked alike when I was a kid... Jamie Farr ended up a local hero for Toledo because of his role as Klinger.
I had gotten into a nasty row with a former roommate around 2000 or so - had to do with non-profit corporation politics, fan crap really, but it was serious at the time. After we had our parting, he went mustang and got commissioned - he had been a Public Affairs non-com in the reserves, but was moving into the National Guard as an intelligence officer. The security-clearance people interviewed me, and boy, goddamn, that was awkward. For one thing, the falling-out had been over corporate governance, mis-use of corporate intellectual property, and so forth. It *trembled* on the edge of being of interest to someone doing a background check. I tried not to burn him on it, since it really was a matter of opinion and trust at the core of the dispute, but some of the expressions of that dispute were... ehhn.
We've reconciled since then, and since he did a tour in Iraq as a company and then battalion intelligence officer, I guess whatever I said didn't scotch him. On the other hand, maybe my interview transcript went right into the circular file along with all the other work product of the background investigation people.
I ate @ Tony Packo's in Toledo a few years back. Pretty good Hungarian food and lot's of pix of Jamie Farr. He probably is responsible for many millions in sales.
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