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+ - Bradley Manning Sentenced To 35 Years->

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes "Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday, the culmination of a trial that posed tough questions about the balance between government secrecy and national security.

Pfc. Manning was facing a maximum 90-year sentence. The prosecution had asked for 60 years and the defense no more than 25.

After an eight-week court-martial, Pfc. Manning was convicted in July of espionage for downloading volumes of classified military and diplomatic information that he handed to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks for public release. The presiding judge, Col. Denise Lind, rejected the U.S. government's most serious charge—aiding the enemy—which could have led to a much harsher sentence.

Pfc. Manning, 25 years old, won international notice after his May 2010 arrest at a U.S. military base in Iraq. Supporters, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, hailed Pfc. Manning as a heroic whistleblower who risked his own freedom in an attempt to rouse opposition to American foreign policy and its "war on terror."

The prosecution cast Pfc. Manning as a low-level military analyst who recklessly released classified information that could be used against American troops and their allies around the world.

During the court-martial, Pfc. Manning defended his decision to release the information as an effort to spark a broad debate about American foreign policy. Last week, in a final appeal for leniency, he issued a public apology and cast himself as a misguided young soldier who didn't realize that his actions would hurt the U.S.

"I look back on my decisions and wonder how on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better," he told the judge"

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Comment: Re:Game price reduction? Don`t make me laugh! (Score 1) 379

by praedictus (#43814685) Attached to: Xbox One Used Game Policy Leaks: Publishers Get a Cut of Sale
I have a hard time getting my head around Brazilian prices. I live by -caveat emptor- . I just bought a very nice Dell monitor at pretty much the US price, processors are pretty close to par, but motherboards and videocards are close to double. Most of the kids XBOX games I bought used/from their friends, full retail is truly a ripoff. And dont get me started on car/motorcycle prices :( Need to get the boss to bank some trips out of the country again.

Comment: Re:Sennheiser HD 280 PROs (Score 1) 448

by praedictus (#40307187) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Headphones, Earbuds, Earphones?
I too will vouch for the Senneiser HD280Pro. I bought these to replace a pair of Sony Studio Reference phones my kids got a hold of and destroyed. Isolation is good, Ive used them with my cellphone on many flights (where permitted) and long bus rides, and they block a good portion of the turbines/road noise/screaming babies while delivering pretty decent sound quality.

Comment: Re:Note to self... (Score 1) 259

by praedictus (#37611382) Attached to: Severe Arctic Ozone Loss
Dont be so sure, the worst sunburn I ever got on my face was in the subarctic back around 1990 or so. Low sun + snowcover = lots of reflected UV rays. The few bits exposed to the sun got right crispified, most of the crew suffered from some degree of sunburns till we ended up getting some sunblock flown in with the provisions.

Comment: Re:OT: Deforestation? (Score 1) 45

by praedictus (#37170204) Attached to: Google's Amazon River Street View Project
Ive seen some pretty extensive deforestation going on in Pará, mostly spreading out from the Altamira-Santarem-Itaituba axis going south -as well as cattle the flat lands here are being cleared for soya production. The Xinguara-São Felix axis (and continuing on into the Terra do Meio on the other side - thats all very recent) would be cattle ranching. Also along the BR 163 further west and extending along the Trans-Garimpeiro. Btw the narrow red barren areas on the satellite maps are iron deposits on top of plateaus, those are naturally occuring. Maraba-Parauapebas had been cleared for the most part when I first visited in 1998, the funny thing is the areas being mined are where the forest has been mostly preserved - Vale is pretty strict about controlling access, unlike the local government.

Comment: Don't get one. get a gammaspectrometer (Score 1) 277

by praedictus (#36216080) Attached to: Testing Geiger Counters
If you have cash to splurge get a gammaspectrometer rather than a geiger counter. It will actually give you an idea of the elements involved. Modern models dont need an internal cesium reference so you can measure that as well. You may have to set up new regions of interest (ROIs) for the exotic isotopes, they usually come set for uranium, thorium, and potassium, with a window for cosmic, plus total count which includes everything.

Comment: Re:Milky Way (Score 1) 118

by praedictus (#36074690) Attached to: Worldwide Night Sky Stitched Together In 5 Gigapixel Image
SImilarly, I have worked in some remote areas of Brazil with little light pollution. You can actually get a feel for the immense size of our galaxy, especially looking the region around Scorpio, as the structure and depth becomes apparent in clear skies - you can see where the nebulae are obscuring the stars in a manner that shows the extent of the dust clouds. Its hard to explain unless you see it though.
