Mystery men Manning and Assange have much in common

Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are both somewhat of a mystery. But both men have much in  common aside from their passion for leaking classified material that harms the United States.

Manning is suspected of leaking materials to Assange’s WikiLeaks website. How Manning even got a job as a US Army intelligence analyst is a mystery in itself.

In August The New York Times featured an article about Manning. The young private’s career was described as “anything but stellar.” The NYT said, “He had been reprimanded twice, including once for assaulting an officer. He wrote in e-mails that he felt regularly ignored by his superiors except when I had something essential, then it was back to ‘Bring me coffee, then sweep the floor.’ ”

Once Manning assaulted an officer, he should’ve been moved to a position of complete insignificance. The NYT describes a person who had been troubled all his life and it is my opinion the fact he is allegedly gay has nothing to do with that trouble. Some advocates appear to believe Manning's being gay had something to do with his actions. I perceive that defense as an insult to gays in general.

Manning, like Assange, spent time abroad during what scant biographies depict as an alternative upbringing. Manning lived with his mother in Wales after his parents divorced. He’s generally described as a geeky type who was bullied. A neighbor of Manning and his mother described Manning as a child who had to “fend for himself.”

Assange, according to The New Yorker, was the child of a couple who ran a touring theatre company and that “he was enrolled in 37 schools and six universities in Australia over his early life.” He “lived on the run with his mom and half-brother.”

Both men have become celebrities with leftwingers.

Assange is seen as an advocate for transparency in government. Yet his greatest efforts target the U.S. It is understandable that powerful countries with no free press would be a bit difficult to target. For instance in some countries, if you were to leak documents, you’d probably part with your head as well.

Assange has leaked documents about other countries, but they’re not on the level of documents released from the U.S.

Assange has his defenders and so does Manning.

Manning is celebrated on a support website as “an American hero.” Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, appears to be a fan of Manning—she penned an ‘American hero’ essay* praising him. Among other sites, the essay ran at the Huffington Post, a convenient forum for advocating for a man many Americans believe a traitor. Cohn has a passion for targeting former president George W. Bush in her writings.

The bigger mystery about these two men lies in their funding and their motives. Who benefits from smears against the U.S.? Where does the money for WikiLeaks and Manning’s support network come from? Are foreign factions involved?

Little information is available about WikiLeaks’ Assange and the alleged leaker Manning. The fact they both have so much in common, gleaned from scant data, should raise more questions than big media is asking at the moment.

‘Bradley Manning: An American Hero’
by Marjorie Cohn; The Huffington Post (9-19-2010)

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Nov. 29, 2010)