Now it is one of the seven corporal acts of mercy to visit the imprisoned. So I certainly can’t fault someone for visiting a person in jail, and if Firedoglake and Greenwald want to bemoan Manning’s treatment that is certainly their call and of course as a blogger I have no issue with citizen journalists covering a story.
But the Washington Post has an interesting description of the firedoglake folks who went to visit Bradley Manning in this story.
Two backers of a jailed Army private suspected of passing classified documents to the WikiLeaks website say their car was towed after they arrived at a Marine base to visit him.
David House and blogger Jane Hamsher say in a statement they had not had problems previously driving onto the Quantico base. But they say they were detained and unable to visit Army Pfc. Bradley Manning on Sunday.emphasis mine
“Backers”; that is the key word. Manning (and lets give the presumption of innocence) is accused of leaking classified documents in wartime to a foreign national who put them out there harming the US and risking lives. When they are backing Manning, it’s not because they think is wrongly accused, it’s because they don’t support the war and support any action that might cause our retreat.
Let’s make it clear. They do not back him because they think he is innocent. They back him because they believe he is guilty.
As Glenn Reynolds has said many times. They are not anti-war, they are on the other side and we are deluding ourselves if we think differently.
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