Snowden and Manning or Clapper and Alexander: Who are the Real Traitors?

Dear Mr. President,

The NYT reported on the Bradley Manning trial today (“In Closing Argument, Prosecutor Casts Soldier as ‘Anarchist’ for Leaking Archives” p. A12). The Times calls it a “high-profile” trial even though their coverage is near zero. But today they dutifully repeated the the prosecution’s closing arguments: “Pfc. Manning was not a humanist; he was a hacker,” Major Fein said, adding: “He was not a whistle-blower. He was a traitor…” Fein called the WikiLeaks staff “information anarchists” and Manning an “anarchist.” He also claimed Manning turned over documents to WikiLeaks “in a bid for ‘notoriety, although in a clandestine form’” which seems an oxymoron, but when you have no case all you can do is call someone names and assassinate their character. Most fascinating, however, was this: “While Major Fein made his arguments, reporters watched the trial on a closed-circuit feed at the media center. Two military police officers in camouflage fatigues and armed with holstered handguns paced behind each row there, looking over the journalists’ shoulders, which had not happened during the trial. No explanation was given.” I know you view the press as the enemy but isn’t this a bit over the top? And speaking of your war on the press, Abdulelah Hider Shaye, the Yemeni journalist who exposed the U.S.’s missile attack on the village of al-Majalah and stayed in prison 2½ years due to your personal intervention, got released Tuesday. Maybe you don’t carry as much weight with President Hadi as you did with President Saleh or maybe you weren’t paying attention what with Snowden and Congress’s revolt over the NSA. Speaking of Snowden, the Guardian reported today that Holder sent a letter to his Russian counterpart assuring him that we wouldn’t seek the death penalty so Russia should send him back for prosecution. And Tuesday, Geoffrey Robertson’s article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/snowden-asylum-america-international-law) pointed out our history of forcing down commercial jets carrying a suspect so we can arrest them, which explains why Snowden didn’t take that flight to Havana last month and why he’s staying in Moscow for now, reading Crime and Punishment and learning Russian. Tell me again who’s the real traitor? Snowden and Manning or Clapper and Alexander? Snowden and Manning or the liars who “overreach, misleading the public and covering up abuse and mistakes.” (NYT “Spy Agencies Under Heaviest Scrutiny Since… the ‘70s” p. A13).