A big week for legal matters, the justice system and enemies of America - though the language might have to be changed to perceived enemies of the state in the first two cases, depending on whether you blow hot or cold on the phenomenon known as being a whistleblower - which can get one labelled as both a "hero" and an "enemy" in the same week and in the same courtroom.
First up we had Bradley Manning, the WikiLeaks-associated military whistleblower who kindly placed thousands of military cables and army logs into the hands of the elusive Julian Assange, who, given his proclivity to buck the system and in assertion of his belief that the public wants what the public gets - promptly published them for all to see. Including, quite naturally, the real enemies of the state - yeah, those other ones, that were/are actually fighting ongoing wars with Amerika Inc.
Private Manning has been held in various levels of detention since 2010 and this past week was exonerated on the most serious of 22 charges against him - that of actually "aiding the enemy". However, he was found guilty of basically all of the others, related to offences under the Espionage Act. He will be sentenced next, and one can only envision that there is some serious incarceration time ahead of this 25-year-old.
Although these situations are very hard to deal with and argue over, not least because they raise such extreme and opposite opinions from people, and even stronger emotions, I cannot get away from the fact that you don't join the US army to then betray it. Quite how such a low level recruit got access to all of the classified material that he did is beyond me, but he did, and the military needs to address that issue.
I haven't heard anything that came out of those classified communications/documents that exposed the Army as anything other than a military outfit engaged in two wars, so what was the heroism in Manning's actions? It's easy to claim that such individuals are heroes, but it is just as easy to pigeonhole them as someone at the bottom of the ladder wanting their fifteen minutes of fame.
Snowden clearly saw his chance to ride the whistleblower rollercoaster, and the 30-year-old did so in rather spectacular fashion by leaking his inside knowledge of mass surveillance systems put in place by both the US and UK governments. Snowden is a former CIA employee and was most recently an NSA contractor who leaked his information to Britain's "The Guardian" newspaper in spring of this year - resulting in what is considered to be the biggest security breach at the NSA in history.
We all basically know the rest: his appearance in Hong Kong, the mocking response of China to US demands for support in bringing him back to the US, and then his extended vacation in a transit area of Moscow's airport while his fate hung in the balance. Although Venezuela, Ecuador and the other usual suspects offered him a safe haven, due to airspace reasons he was forced to appeal to Russia's Putin to save his ass.
This stalemate put Putin and Russia in general at direct loggerheads with old cold war foe, the US of A, and what happened next was entirely predictable - they gave Snowden refugee status and freedom to live anywhere in the country for the next year. This was obviously in direct contradiction to what the White House had asked of Russia, and you can just imagine the chuckles of laughter in Putin's offices at "puting" one over on mother Amerika. Mockba!
Again though, why would you ever be truly shocked by what goes on inside the CIA, FBI or NSA? Especially in the post-911 world?! We all know we are being watched, and most mature non-criminal types accept it as part and parcel of being kept safe from terrorists, and maybe we don't actually need or want to hear the details! Not everyone agrees on that, of course, but I have got to say that like Manning, no, even more than Manning, the focus of this story has been squarely focused on Snowden himself, and I don't hear about the riots in the streets by an incensed populus at being surreptitiously monitored so closely!
"Fifteen minutes with you (fame), well, I wouldn't say no....." [adapted from Mr. Morrissey]
I did agonise over the inclusion of the third picture above, because that particular face associates much more closely with being a reviled enemy of the nation, albeit for very different reasons. That face should be seen one last time because of the situation the photo derives from - the court where that monster was sentenced to life without parole + 1,000 years - which ensures not only that this sick face will be buried for the rest of its miserable life, but, as a by-product of avoiding the death penalty (due to the typically cowardly plea deal), the next 1,000 years will truly be an eternity in Hell itself.
As Michelle Knight, one of his heroic victims said so eloquently: "I spent eleven years in Hell, now your Hell is just beginning. I will overcome all of this that happened, but you will face Hell for eternity."
There is perhaps a less than obvious reason why the Castro trial was important for me to include alongside both Manning and Snowden - the story of the three victims of Castro reminds us who the true heroes are - law enforcement personnel who put their lives at risk on a regular basis and who never give up on even more heroic victims such as Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, as well as the legal system that then enforces justice on the perpetrator.
In my book, there's a huge difference between doing something that might have something noble underlying it but which additionally brings one instant fame, and what victims who prevail over evil have overcome and what law enforcement does on a daily basis to free such victims.
I am not sure the former can be viewed as victims of anything other than their own magnified sense (or even hubris) of "doing the right thing", even if it screws up their lives and those of their loved ones, completely. What information do we now all have that we didn't have before that can classify either Manning or Snowden as heroic?
Ariel Castro has been removed from society, and for what he did he cannot possibly argue that his sentence was not what he deserved. In the cases of Manning and Snowden, will they feel a similar resolve at being removed from society (in one case, only from Western society) when they see their youth evaporating in a concrete cell or some concrete high rise in the suburbs of Moscow? I don't think so! - Kevin Mc
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