Bradley Manning "Should Never Have Been Sent to Iraq"

The caption of this post reads from a headline in The Guardian. The story that follows that headline says as much about Army incompetence as it does about Manning who has been accused of leaking military secrets. Indeed, the story suggest that almost anyone and everyone could have accessed the so-called secret information and opens a whole new perspective to the efforts to vigorously prosecute Manning - perhaps to cover up the Army's own ineptitude. Living in an area with a heavy military presence, it doesn't take much exposure to learn that the the higher ups always prefer to blame problems on underlings and then try to hang them out to dry. While one has to wonder how Manning remained in the military, the bigger questions are why was he sent to Iraq and why was he given access to sensitive information? Here are highlights from the first of two Guardian stories:
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Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old army private from Oklahoma alleged to have been behind the biggest US government leak of all time, is now in Fort Leavenworth military jail, Kansas. He faces 34 charges, and if convicted could face a prison sentence of up to 52 years.
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So why did the US army ignore warnings from officers that Manning was unstable? Why did it send him – a 5ft 2in gay man with a history of being bullied in the military – to one of the most isolated and desolate bases in Iraq? Why was security so lax on the base that passwords for secret military computers were posted on sticky notes nearby?
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A year after his arrest, a Guardian investigation reveals a trail of ignored warnings, beatings and failed personal relationships that led to Manning's arrest on 29 May 2010.
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Despite the concerns of his immediate superiors, Manning was "recycled" instead of being discharged. The war in Iraq was in its fourth year and the army was short of recruits. In August 2008, after training as an intelligence analyst, he was stationed at Fort Drum in upstate New York while he awaited deployment to Iraq. Here he was considered a "liability" by superior officers.
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Manning was deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer, one of the most isolated US posts in Iraq, in the desert close to the Iranian border. Veterans recalled a desolate place built mainly from freight containers. . . . . Hammer's overriding culture was one of boredom and casual bullying, where bored non-commissioned officers picked on juniors. "They had a saying, 'Shit rolls downhill,' " said Jimmy Rodriguez, 29, an infantry soldier who was stationed at the base with Manning.
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For entertainment, soldiers would download porn to workstations or access footage from Apache attack helicopters showing civilians being shot at, often through SIPRNet, the classified intelligence network used by the state department and department of defense.
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According to Sullivan, security was extremely lax. "If you saw a laptop with a red network wire going into it, you knew it was on SIPRNet. If you had the password you could access SIPRNet. Everybody would write their password on sticky notes and set it by their computer. There is no wonder something like this transpired."
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According to Peter van Buren, a civilian reconstruction team leader on the base, there was a sense of a security free-for-all about SIPRNet. "Soldiers would call it 'war porn' or 'the war channel' or just 'war TV'.
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A second Guardian story continues with more details. Here's a sampling:
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The American soldier at the centre of the WikiLeaks revelations was so mentally fragile before his deployment to Iraq that he wet himself, threw chairs around, shouted at his commanding officers and was regularly brought in for psychiatric evaluations, according to an investigative film produced by the Guardian.
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"I escorted Manning a couple of times to his 'psych' evaluations after his outbursts. They never should have trapped him in and recycled him in [to Iraq]. Never. Not that mess of a child I saw with my own two eyes. No one has mentioned the army's failure here – and the discharge unit who agreed to send him out there," said the officer, who asked not to be identified because of the hostility towards Manning in the military. "I live in an area where I would be persecuted if I said anything against the army or helped Manning," the officer said.
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In Iraq, Manning retained his security clearance to work as an intelligence specialist. Two months after his arrival, the bolt was removed from his rifle because he was thought to be a danger, his lawyer, David Coombs, has confirmed. A Guardian investigation focusing on soldiers who worked with Manning in Iraq has also discovered there was virtually no computer and intelligence security at Manning's station in Iraq, Forward Operating Base Hammer.
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"On the computers that I saw there was a [sticky label] either on the computer or next to the computer with the information to log on. I was never given permission to log on so I never used it but there were a lot of people who did."
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Manning is facing multiple charges of downloading and passing on sensitive information. No one else at the base has been charged. Manning denies all the charges. If convicted he could face up to 55 years in jail.
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Even if one assumes Manning leaked the documents, the bigger story that the Army is seeking to sweep under the rug is that of WTF was going on at that military location? More on this issue needs to come out so that Manning isn't sent up the river as a scape goat for the sins of derelict superiors.