Smearing Bradley Manning

Bottom-feeders in thrall to the Pentagon target WikiLeaks

by Justin Raimondo, August 11, 2010

"....But that was just the beginning of the effort to discredit a very brave and idealistic young man: next came a flurry of purely speculative articles in which the writers went after Manning’s alleged sexuality. A number of "gay" web sites — one called, appropriately enough, "Queerty" — asserted that Manning is a "transsexual"....

What is clear to me is this: there is a coordinated campaign to defame both Assange and Manning, and I have no doubt the US government is directly involved in this effort. Just as they tried to destroy Dan Ellsberg, so they are unleashing their agents (paid and volunteer) on these two very brave people. They want to divert attention away from the content of what is being exposed, and direct it back on the whistleblowers: they don’t want people debating the wisdom of the Afghan occupation, they would much rather talk about Assange’s journalistic credentials and Manning’s sex life.

It won’t work. The American people are waking up, and the online antiwar community is a major factor in this awakening – perhaps it is the major factor, at this point. And I would point out to Moynihan that "achieving justice" – with or without scare quotes – is not entirely incompatible with reputable journalism, although it is apparently not a factor in his own career as a scribbler. To each their own. "