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by virtuowl 3015 days ago
I know what you mean but i am not sure how much he knew about the things manning leaked. Considering what he did before i want to believe that he had a good reason why he did it. Maybe he really thought people were in danger
3 comments

People really were put in danger. The Taliban targeted Afgan nationals revealed in the documents to be associating with the US. From a Taliban spokesperson: "We will investigate through our own secret service whether the people mentioned are really spies working for the U.S. If they are U.S. spies, then we know how to punish them." [1]

I like freedom of information, but what Manning did was simply irresponsible. There was no filter on the documents released. Release all the reports of us torturing and murdering, sure. But don't go around telling the Taliban exactly which families risked their lives to help the counterinsurgency.

[1]: http://www.newsweek.com/taliban-says-it-will-target-names-ex...

Fucking hell, will you stop linking that 8-year-old article? The only information contained in it is one goat enthusiast no one ever heard of, quoted as saying "yes if we learn of a betrayal against goat enthusiasm we will be upset about it." That proves absolutely nothing. If any brave Afghan national USA collaborator had died as a result, we would have heard about him enough to be sick of it. Unlike, for instance, the thousands of Afghan nationals murdered directly by USA military, whom the war media never mentions.
This is exactly why Adrian did what he did.
According to him he did it as a matter of conscience given the broad and indiscriminate nature of what Manning was releasing, potentially putting the lives of US servicemen and those that work with them at risk.
As I recall he did it so he didn't get in trouble himself if anyone found out he new.
His stated reason was that Manning was putting lives in danger due to not filtering the documents released whatsoever. This included revealing the identities of Afghan nationals which had been friendly with the counterinsurgency. These nationals were then targeted by Taliban. See my sibling comment for more.