🚀 go-pugleaf

http://americanfreepress.net/?p=2041

Did Bradley Manning leak classified military secrets because he 
was suffering a severe psychotic breakdown due to conflicts 
resulting from his desire to undergo a sex change operation? 
Manning�s attorneys think so, describing him as �a deeply 
troubled soldier struggling with issues of gender identity.�

Indeed, Manning�s sexual identity deteriorated to such an extent 
that he adopted an online alter-ego named �Breanna,� ordered 
female hormone treatments while in Baghdad, and became a 
transvestite during military leaves. He told one acquaintance, 
�I cross-dressed, full on�wig, breast-forms, dress, the works.� 
Manning then photographed himself wearing women�s clothing and 
gave the pictures to Master Sergeant Paul Watkins. In addition, 
he ordered a book from Amazon.com that instructed males on how 
they could use reconstructive surgery to look more feminine, 
while also considering the possibility of electrolysis.

This information, though troublesome, is crucial because Bradley 
Manning�s entire identity revolved around his homosexuality and 
feelings of seething rage at the U.S. military for not 
facilitating his transgender lifestyle. Prior to hacking into 
government computers, Manning punched a female intelligence 
officer named Casey Fulton in the face, threw violent tantrums, 
overturned a table and broke computer monitors, hurled chairs in 
a fit of rage, and experienced three possible nervous 
breakdowns. He eventually received a demotion for his behavior, 
whereas other officers recommended that he forfeit his firearm.

Manning�s extremely fragile condition was no doubt fueled by 
being bullied, mocked, verbally smeared and physically attacked 
by fellow soldiers. Unable to function, the diminutive soldier 
often curled into a fetal tuck at night and wet the bed as he 
screamed into his pillow.

Feeling increased animosity, Manning characterized his 
colleagues as homophobes and �a bunch of hyper-masculine trigger 
happy ignorant rednecks.� This hostile environment also led 
Manning to sneer at his cohorts by calling �military 
intelligence� an oxymoron. Filled with disdain at those 
surrounding him, Manning delivered these shocking words. �I am 
not a piece of equipment. Take me for who I am, or face the 
consequences.� Revenge soon followed.

Criminal Hacker Network
Manning�s worries about transitioning from male to female 
actually began prior to his deployment in Iraq, leading him into 
a sordid web of homosexual computer hackers. The young private�s 
introduction to this shadowy realm came via his former lover, 
Tyler Watkins, a drag queen and computer hacker that operated 
out of the Boston area.

Later, after deciding to penetrate the Army�s computer files, 
Manning revealed his secret to Adrian Lamo, a notorious bisexual 
hacker that was convicted in 2004 of breaking into computers at 
Microsoft and The New York Times. Lamo then went on to become a 
member of San Francisco�s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender 
(LGBT) and Queer Youth Task Force.

Alarmed by the gravity of his risky communications with Manning, 
Lamo contacted his former boyfriend, Timothy Douglas Webster, 
who had been employed in the past by Army counterintelligence. 
Lamo told Webster, �What I saw in those chats [with Manning] was 
an admission of acts so egregious that it required a response.�

In addition, Lamo started funneling copies of his correspondence 
with Manning to Wired magazine�s senior editor Kevin Poulsen, 
another convicted hacker who, in 1994, plead guilty to money 
laundering, obstruction of justice, mail fraud and other cyber-
crimes. After the Wikileaks scandal broke, Lamo stated that many 
of the primary figures involved were gay, or �a velvet espionage 
ring,� as he put it.

To illustrate the depths of Manning�s allegiance to his gay 
rights agenda, he boasted of smuggling downloaded data taken 
from military computers on CDs marked �Lady Gaga.� To those not 
familiar with pop music, Lady Gaga is an openly bisexual singer 
and gay rights proponent plagued for years by transgender 
rumors. Similarly, Manning�going by the name Bradass87�once 
described himself to transsexual blogger Xeni Jardin as such: 
�[My] CPU is not made for this motherboard.�

White House Insider
Manning�s obsessive battle against the military�s �Don�t Ask 
Don�t Tell� (DADT) policies even extended into the White House, 
where he befriended President Obama�s openly gay Director of 
Specialty Media Shin Inouye, who was tasked with outreach to the 
LGBT community. According to conversations with transgendered 
blogger Zinnia Jones, Manning said that Inouye was a source 
within the White House that kept him informed on Obama�s 
progress in repealing DADT. Manning then revealed, �He [Inouye] 
tried to sleep with me.�

Furthermore, after bragging about being connected to influential 
members of Washington, D.C.�s gay political scene, Manning also 
leaked military data to Chris Johnson, a reporter for D.C.�s gay 
newspaper The Blade. To show how ingrained this lifestyle was to 
him, the disgruntled activist G.I. marched in gay parades and 
attended Democratic gay rights fundraising events.

Columnist Ginger Thompson summarized this situation in an Aug. 
8, 2010 article for The New York Times. �Manning�s social life 
was defined by the need to conceal his sexuality under DADT. He 
became obsessed with the repeal of DADT.� On the other hand, the 
website Gawker.com�s Adrian Chen wrote on Dec. 16, 2011 that 
Manning saw himself as �a cunning sexual strategist, screwing 
and seducing his way to influence among D.C.�s quasi-closeted 
military and political scene.�

Twinkie Defense
On Nov. 27, 1978, San Francisco supervisor Dan White murdered 
Mayor George Moscone and a gay legislator named Harvey Milk. As 
his defense, White�s lawyers claimed that he consumed too many 
sugary snacks that led to his clinical depression. This failed 
strategy came to be known as the �Twinkie Defense.�

Interestingly, one of Bradley Manning�s computer passwords was 
�Twink1492� [slang for effeminate gay men]. In this updated and 
exploited version of the Twinkie Defense, Manning�s attorneys 
assert that because the military didn�t accommodate his desire 
to become a transgendered female, their client experienced a 
psychotic crack that led to his self-destructive acts. When 
coupled with a deluge of abuse from fellow soldiers in Baghdad, 
Manning�s deterioration caused him to seek revenge against those 
he saw as tormenters.

In this sense, Manning�s detractors insist that he didn�t 
divulge classified secrets as an act of conscience, but instead 
lashed out at an institution that made him feel powerless and 
frail. Critics further explained that Manning�depressed, 
alienated and lonely�wasn�t motivated by love of country or 
patriotism, but rather an extreme homosexual agenda that allowed 
him to commiserate with the enemy.

Stated differently, akin to the Iraqi people or those in third 
world countries that were underfoot of the U.S. military, he too 
felt victimized as a closeted man trapped in a woman�s body that 
the U.S. military ran roughshod over via their DADT policies.

 In this vein, the Twinkie Defense unequivocally contends that 
Manning cannot be held responsible for any actions he committed 
because of pressures he felt from his surroundings. But is such 
an approach fair to thousands of other gays serving in the 
military that didn�t steal state secrets? In essence, Manning�s 
lawyers are arguing that homosexuals can�t be trusted with 
classified documents because the military is homophobic, 
therefore corrupting them into committing criminal acts.

Patriotism: A Dirty Word?
Since Manning and many of his colleagues were computer hackers, 
did they feel any loyalty to their country? Manning�s betrayer 
Adrian Lamo confessed quite tellingly: patriotism is something 
of a dirty word in the hacker community.

In this context, was Manning suckered in by an even larger 
scheme than the transgender agenda he so embraced? Sanjiv 
Bhattacharya of AOL News brought this issue full circle on July 
21, 2010. �As it happens, [Adrian] Lamo was uniquely qualified 
to lead Manning on. All hackers are adept at manipulation: they 
play roles when they penetrate security systems�it�s called 
social engineering, and it often involves pretending to be 
someone else entirely. Consequently, manipulation and betrayal 
are not uncommon among hackers.�

Manning frequently referred to himself as a �ghost,� an actor in 
a body that actually wasn�t his. In fact, Manning�s counselor 
said that his patient �felt he was female� and that a host of 
gender identity struggles caused him to �feel like a monster.� 
But after being introduced to, and then exploited by, a 
subterranean netherworld of homosexual computer hackers, 
Manning�s image is no longer transparent as he faces a lifetime 
in prison.

Will Bradley Manning Be Courtmartialed?
Following a seven-day trial in mid-December at a makeshift Fort 
George G. Meade courtroom, Lt. Col. Paul Almanza will soon make 
recommendations to his military commander as to whether private 
first class Bradley Manning should face a court martial in 
regard to the theft of over 250,000 government documents that 
were eventually released to Wikileaks. The 22 counts brought 
against Manning include aiding the enemy and illegally stealing 
government secrets. The embattled soldier could face life 
imprisonment if found guilty of pilfering the battlefield 
reports in question.

As a former Army analyst, Manning sent shockwaves through the 
military and mainstream media in Apr. 2010 when Wikileaks posted 
video footage that later became known as �Collateral Murder.� 
Filmed in 2007, U.S. helicopter pilots were captured strafing 
Iraqi civilians with gunfire as they joked about and called 
their victims �dead bastards.�

The exposure of these damning actions�recorded from the cockpit 
of an Apache helicopter�caused the Army a great deal of 
embarrassment as they now had the blood of 11 innocent citizens 
on their hands. Antiwar critics unloaded on the Bush 
administration over these senseless casualties. In no time, a 
frantic manhunt was underway to find an individual that some 
called public enemy number one. Others referred to this 
whistleblower as the greatest hero of free speech since Daniel 
Ellsberg delivered his cache of Pentagon Papers to The New York 
Times and other publications.

In May 2010, federal officials arrested Manning on Iraqi soil 
for violating a top-secret security clearance that allowed him 
access to classified data. They were led to him after Adrian 
Lamo, the computer hacker that corresponded with Manning, 
snitched to a member of Army counterintelligence (see related 
story).

Shortly thereafter, Manning found himself imprisoned in 
Quantico, Va.�s Marine Corps brig where he claimed to have 
experienced prolonged abuses and inhumanities. His supporters 
allege that Manning was forced to endure solitary confinement 
for 23 hours a day�oftentimes naked�with no personal belongings 
in his cell. Then, at night, wardens allowed him to only wear a 
smock and sleep on a cot that had no sheets or covers.

As news of this treatment leaked out, the Pentagon was faced 
with another public relations disaster that created unwanted 
headlines. With no other option, Army superiors transferred 
Manning to the U.S. penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Up 
until the date of his trial, Manning had spent a total of 19 
months behind bars.

Julian Assange In More Hot Water
Ever since the Bradley Manning scandal erupted, Wikileaks 
founder Julian Assange has adamantly denied having any contact 
with the young Army private that stole hundreds of thousands of 
government documents. During an Oct. 25, 2010 interview at 
London�s Frontline Club, Assange dismissed any possibility that 
he had knowledge of Manning�s involvement in the controversial 
hacking and high-tech thievery. Then, again on Dec. 17, 2010, 
Assange took it a step further by claiming that he had never 
even spoken with Manning.

However, at Manning�s court martial trial at Fort George G. 
Meade, prosecutors provided a plethora of evidence that they 
contend proves an ongoing cyber-relationship between Manning and 
Assange. This information is crucial because if Assange did 
conspire with Manning to obtain classified data, he could be 
charged with violating the U.S. Espionage Act.

This direct collaboration on Assange�s behalf undeniably 
complicates his stance that Wikileaks merely acted as a conduit 
to publish anonymously received material. But, if Assange failed 
to tell the truth and his role went beyond that of a mere 
journalistic endeavor, Wikileaks� status as an innocent 
bystander in this affair is seriously jeopardized.

To prove the government�s case, digital forensics contractor 
Mark Johnson of the Army�s Computer Crime Investigative Unit 
provided 15 pages of correspondence between the two parties that 
was extracted from Manning�s personal MacBook Pro. Of particular 
interest in these online chats is Manning�s knowledge of 
Assange�s Internet user name and his Icelandic phone number.

Even more damning is a Mar. 8, 2010, conversation where Manning 
seeks Assange�s assistance in cracking the password of a 
government computer so that he can retain anonymity. Assange 
responded by providing a tool that was useful in deciphering the 
password in question. Later, after penetrating the military�s 
system, Manning informed Assange, �I�m throwing everything I�ve 
got on Guatanamo at you now. The upload is about 36 percent.� 
These documents would later appear on Wikileaks.

Taken one step further, Manning relayed to Adrain Lamo�the 
computer hacker that eventually snitched on him�how he had been 
in contact with Assange. Lamo responded by chiding Manning about 
this interaction, adding that�at least in his opinion�Assange 
was using Manning to do his dirty work for him.

If true, the conclusion to this scenario is clear. As Catherine 
Fitzpatrick wrote for the website Wired State on Dec. 19, 
�Julian Assange has now been definitely caught in a lie, and the 
implications of the chat logs published by Wired are now 
validated: Manning has been found to be directly in touch with 
someone named Julian Assange in chat, and had his contact 
information on his computer. Julian Assange and his lawyers, of 
course, have continued to lie about this. Assange claims he 
never got directly in touch with Manning. That�s so he can 
appear to keep his distance from the crime of inciting hacking.�

As a side note, it�s more than curious that Julian Assange has 
attacked 9-11 truth-seekers in the past, even going so far as to 
tell the Belfast Telegraph on July 19, 2010, �I�m constantly 
annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies like 9-
11.�

������