# Bradley Manning PFC **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 22, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909 "2013-08-22T21:31:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Navigator66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/43a26b/32.png) [@Navigator66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Navigator66)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/1 "2013-08-22T21:31:18Z")
One question only. How does a Private First Class get access to that much classified information? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/2 "2013-08-22T21:34:17Z")
Officers think up policy. NCOs enact that policy through orders. Privates follow those orders. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/3 "2013-08-22T21:35:47Z")
Same reason the butler knows everything going on in the house. Someone has to do the work. The more important question: How was it that a private could just walk out the door with that much information. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/4 "2013-08-22T21:39:46Z")
Easy-peasy. Walk out with it like you own it. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/5 "2013-08-22T21:46:20Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Easy-peasy. Walk out with it like you own it. In particular, burn it onto a CD marked “[Lady Gaga](http://gizmodo.com/5701089/how-a-burnt-lady-gaga-cd-helped-leak-thousands-of-intelligence-files)” and no one bats an eye. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/6 "2013-08-22T21:49:51Z")
I would think using a stick would be a lot smarter than using a CD. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/7 "2013-08-22T21:50:43Z")
That’s brilliant! Play some Lady Gaga for a couple weeks, then ‘download’ ‘her’ ‘new album’ and you’re set. Edit- a stick would get checked. A CD, not so much. “It’s the new Lady Gaga, you want to listen?!?” “No, move along.” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/8 "2013-08-22T22:01:54Z")
It would have been better for security reasons for the systems there not to have CD burners. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/9 "2013-08-22T22:07:08Z")
The point of having all that data is to do stuff with it, usability and security are mutually exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/10 "2013-08-23T04:31:47Z")
Blue? ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/11 "2013-08-23T07:47:09Z")
So why bother with all of this classifying business anyway? Whenever the Pentagon or the CIA hires a new janitor or a new mail clerk, just give him the damned password for everything. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/12 "2013-08-23T14:16:41Z")
Manning, Snowden… private, private contractor… nobody important, but full access to everything. It goes like this: (a) ignore the rules - shoot civilians, download US citizens’ data, whatever. (b) classify everything so nothing embarassing gets out - but now you can’t tell the “really needs to be classified” from the “caught in the general classify-everything sweep” © have no serious controls over who gets to see what classified material. I remember an article in a photography magazine in the 70’s; some journalist wanted to make a point about a security hole. he took a honkin’ big telephoto into the journalist gallery during some big summit. Nobody blinked; the guards probably didn’t have a clue. He shot some pictures over Kissinger’s shoulder of a document stamped “Top Secret” - quite legible, it was simple a summary of the day’s news. Classify everything. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/13 "2013-08-23T14:28:21Z")
As a factual matter, you are wrong when you say Manning had full access to everything. The documents Manning stole were from a computer system limited to “Secret” data, not Top Secret or higher. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/14 "2013-08-23T19:48:16Z")
Manning’s wiki page: > [@wikipedia](#): > > After four weeks at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Fort Polk, Louisiana, she was deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer, near Baghdad, arriving in October 2009. From her workstation there, she had access to SIPRNet (the Secure Internet Protocol Router Network) and JWICS (the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System). Two of her superiors had discussed not taking her to Iraq – it was felt she was “a risk to himself and possibly others,” according to a statement later issued by the army – **but again the shortage of intelligence analysts held sway**. Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/15 "2013-08-23T22:21:03Z")
Since this not really a simple question, let’s move it over to GD. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/16 "2013-08-24T00:47:11Z")
> [@Navigator66](#): > > One question only. How does a Private First Class get access to that much classified information? I’m sure there are **civilians** with that access. NSA, for instance, is mostly civilians. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-pfc/666909/17 "2013-08-24T05:39:47Z")
**Chief Inspector:** _“How does an idiot become a policeman, answer me that!”_ **Inspector Clouseau:** _“It is sehmple, he applahys lahyk ahyverone else…”_