# Bradley Manning verdict is in - 35 years for leaking info; will ask Obama for a pardon **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 22, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855 "2013-08-22T04:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/41 "2013-08-22T15:41:15Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > Name change: It seems the erstwhile Bradley now wishes to be called Chelsea, and to begin hormone therapy asap. > ['I am Chelsea Manning,' says jailed soldier formerly known as Bradley | Chelsea Manning | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/22/bradley-manning-woman-chelsea-gender-reassignment) Was there any indication either before or during the trial that this was going to come up, or could this be a ploy to stall the trip to Leavenworth? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/42 "2013-08-22T15:42:43Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > No it isn’t, and no he’s not. Neither I nor the Army are under any obligation to start calling a prisoner by his silly little nickname. > > He got off easy. People have gotten the chair for less than what he did. For example? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/43 "2013-08-22T15:53:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > No it isn’t, and no he’s not. Neither I nor the Army are under any obligation to start calling a prisoner by his silly little nickname. > > He got off easy. People have gotten the chair for less than what he did. There we go ladies and gentlemen, that’s all you need to know about young **Smapti** right there. Let it be known that gender reassignment is the equivalent of choosing a nickname. No, don’t reset your watches, most of us are still in the 21st century. Smapti, you are free to dislike what she did and call for whatever punishment you like but the decision to seek gender re-assignment is perfectly legitimate and is a separate issue from the crimes. What possible valid reason is there to ignore her new identity? ---
**Author:** ![babygoat666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@babygoat666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/babygoat666)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/44 "2013-08-22T15:53:36Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > I don’t know. Do you? My guess is that 1) he didn’t know WHO to give it to and 2) Wikileaks would give him so immediate star status among the mushheaded leftists. And that seems to have worked perfectly. Are you using the word “star” the way that people talk about actors and musicians? Am I talking to an insane person? You were just talking about treason a minute ago. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/45 "2013-08-22T15:53:43Z")
To all those people defending Manning, would you feel differently about him if he released all the same info directly to a hostile foreign government instead of to Wikileaks? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/46 "2013-08-22T15:57:40Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > There we go ladies and gentlemen, that’s all you need to know about young **Smapti** right there. > Let it be known that gender reassignment is the equivalent of choosing a nickname. No, don’t reset your watches, most of us are still in the 21st century. > > Smapti, you are free to dislike what she did and call for whatever punishment you like but the decision to seek gender re-assignment is perfectly legitimate and is a separate issue from the crimes. What possible valid reason is there to ignore her new identity? He’s a convicted criminal in prison for crimes against the American people. He forfeited the right to change his identity when he committed those crimes. To what extent do you think the Army is required to indulge his fantasy anyway? Do you suppose he’s entitled to a free sex change operation on the taxpayer’s dime? Are they going to let him wear dresses and heels instead of an orange jumpsuit? Does he want to be locked up in a female dorm? (35 years confinement in an all-female dorm - now _there’s_ a punishment.) If he wants to play dress-up he can play dress-up when he’s a 60-year-old man with no savings and no pension and they let him free. ---
**Author:** ![babygoat666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@babygoat666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/babygoat666)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/47 "2013-08-22T15:57:41Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > To all those people defending Manning, would you feel differently about him if he released all the same info directly to a hostile foreign government instead of to Wikileaks? Generally, hostile foreign governments are interested in information they can use against their enemy. Why do you feel so strongly that the information he actually released should be kept a secret? ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/48 "2013-08-22T16:00:16Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If he were a rapist, I’d consider him a danger to society. But he’s not, and I don’t consider him a danger to society. You miss my point. I’m asking you if keeping people who are a danger to society is the only reason we have prisons? Don’t we also imprison people to punish them for what they did wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/49 "2013-08-22T16:05:04Z")
> [@babygoat666](#): > > Generally, hostile foreign governments are interested in information they can use against their enemy. Well, that explains why the Russians are keeping Snowden close. > [@](#): > > Why do you feel so strongly that the information he actually released should be kept a secret? He released 250,000 pages worth of data without even knowing what most of it was because he was pissed at the Army over DADT and wanted to embarrass them. For all he knew, the formula for the Q-38 Atomic Discombobulator could have been in there. His actions showed reckless disregard for the safety and security of the American people. As to the content of the papers themselves, I don’t think anyone besides Wikileaks has even examined _all_ of them. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/50 "2013-08-22T16:10:42Z")
> [@babygoat666](#): > > Are you using the word “star” the way that people talk about actors and musicians? Am I talking to an insane person? You were just talking about treason a minute ago. Did you miss the person in this thread who said there will be statues built of Manning? “Star” is an apt description for how many left wingers feel about Manning. ---
**Author:** ![babygoat666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@babygoat666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/babygoat666)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/51 "2013-08-22T16:11:07Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Well, that explains why the Russians are keeping Snowden close. Are there more reasons that Russia is the enemy to you BESIDES Snowden? ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/52 "2013-08-22T16:12:06Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > To all those people defending Manning, would you feel differently about him if he released all the same info directly to a hostile foreign government instead of to Wikileaks? I wish that Manning had leaked to a responsible journalist concerned with protecting sources, rather than Wikileaks. I think Assange exploited a vulnerable individual. I don’t think this sentence is fair. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/53 "2013-08-22T16:14:56Z")
> [@babygoat666](#): > > Are there more reasons that Russia is the enemy to you BESIDES Snowden? Besides invading Georgia, funding the Assad regime, covertly supporting Gadhafi during the civil war, passing laws to prevent Americans from adopting Russian children, threatening to arrest openly gay athletes at the Olympics, and the fact that their president is an autocrat who’s run the country legally or illegally for the better part of two decades and is hellbent on dismantling all the democratic and human rights reforms that have been made since the fall of the Soviet Union? I’ll let you know if I think of anything. ---
**Author:** ![babygoat666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@babygoat666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/babygoat666)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/54 "2013-08-22T16:25:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Besides invading Georgia, funding the Assad regime, covertly supporting Gadhafi during the civil war, passing laws to prevent Americans from adopting Russian children, threatening to arrest openly gay athletes at the Olympics, and the fact that their president is an autocrat who’s run the country legally or illegally for the better part of two decades and is hellbent on dismantling all the democratic and human rights reforms that have been made since the fall of the Soviet Union? > > I’ll let you know if I think of anything. Is every country that acts in their own self-interest instead of yours an enemy of the United States? Which ones does that leave? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/55 "2013-08-22T16:28:28Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > He forfeited the right to change his identity when he committed those crimes. Do you have this opinion about all medical treatments or just the ones you find ‘icky’? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/56 "2013-08-22T16:28:36Z")
> [@babygoat666](#): > > Is every country that acts in their own self-interest instead of yours an enemy of the United States? Which ones does that leave? The ones that don’t have enough nukes to end all civilization, mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/57 "2013-08-22T16:29:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > For example? William Calley got the chair. I believe it was upholstered Naugahyde, in his Fort Benning bachelor officers quarters where he served 3-1/2 years house arrest. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/58 "2013-08-22T16:29:37Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Do you have this opinion about all medical treatments or just the ones you find ‘icky’? “I want to look like a girl” is not a condition that requires medical treatment. It’s elective plastic surgery. Since when have convicted inmates been entitled to free plastic surgery on the taxpayer’s dime? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/59 "2013-08-22T16:30:41Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > William Calley got the chair. I believe it was upholstered Naugahyde, in his Fort Benning bachelor officers quarters where he served 3-1/2 years house arrest. That seems to be an argument that Calley’s sentence should have been heavier, not that Bradley Manning’s sentence should be lighter. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855/60 "2013-08-22T16:36:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > “I want to look like a girl” is not a condition that requires medical treatment. It’s elective plastic surgery. Since when have convicted inmates been entitled to free plastic surgery on the taxpayer’s dime? Since when has anyone said Manning’s getting free plastic surgery? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bradley-manning-verdict-is-in-35-years-for-leaking-info-will-ask-obama-for-a-pardon/666855.md?page=4)