Was 35 Years Enough?

Bradley Breanna Chelsea Manning

35 years on 20 charges, most likely out in between 6 1/2 - 8 years for releasing:

91,371 documents collectively referred to as the "Afghan War Logs"

391,832 classified military reports from Jan 2004-Dec 2009 collectively referred to as the "Iraq War Logs"

251,287 classified State Department cables from 271 embassies

How much bullshit can one man shovel?

I’m sorry that it hurt the United States. I understood what I was doing and the decision that I made. I’m sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions...When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people.

 So I am supposed to believe that a trained intelligence analyst, an analyst trained to evaluate the military value of data, didn't know what he was doing or what the impact would be?

What is Intelligence Analysis?

Intelligence analysis is the process of taking known information about situations and entities of strategic, operational, or tactical importance, characterizing the known, and, with appropriate statements of probability, the future actions in those situations and by those entities. The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of deliberately deceptive information; the analyst must correlate the similarities among deceptions and extract a common truth. Although its practice is found in its purest form inside.  Some highlights of the job:

Assists in establishing and maintaining systematic, cross-referenced intelligence records and files. 

Assists in determining significance and reliability of incoming information. 

Assists in integrating incoming information with current intelligence holdings and prepares and maintains the situation map. 

Assists in the analysis and evaluation of intelligence holdings to determine changes in enemy capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action. 

Assists in the preparation of Order of Battle records using information from all sources and in the preparation of strength estimates of enemy units. 

Assembles and proofreads intelligence reports and assists in consolidating them into military intelligence. 

Yeah, Bradley Breanna Chelsea Manning had no idea what he was doing. Yeah, right.

I worked alongside Intel for much of my military career,  and while we may make the requisite jokes about military intelligence being an oxymoron,  I did not, in 25 years, ever meet a dumb intelligence analyst.

So no, 35 years was not enough.