@Ron_C, I also have a real problem with torture, for any reason. I think there is some misunderstanding here; I’m not defending or advocating torture.
I disagree with your assessment of Manning on several counts:
• He was active military. Like it or not (and for the record, I don’t) the military is a separate world. He is not entitled to the same standards of justice that civilians are.
• Releasing the largest leak of secret documents in history is not something that gets you dishonorably discharged; it could well get you shot.
• Much of that information absolutely should be classified as secret, and releasing it very well could have endangered lives. Even Wikileaks agrees with this, as they have censored a lot of that information; the NYT and other papers feel even more strongly that the information poses a threat. I’ve browsed a few of the Afghan docs, for example, and a lot of the information is both pointless and dangerous. For example, one doc describes a friendly translator that has gone missing. It has the date and location. This information is pointless to release to the public; it serves no purpose and gives no insight about malfeasance in the Afghan war. It does, however, potentially allow the Taliban to line up the date and location with someone they picked up.
As for the state department cables, again, journalists who have actually reviewed them disagree with your assessment. Human rights organizations and sources in despotic countries may well have been put in danger by the cables, which quote them. I agree that, in general, a lot of the stuff in the cables is gossip and innuendo—but our diplomats have the right to conduct their job in privacy, just like the rest of us. The fact that they are government employees doesn’t mean the public should have access to every one of their e-mails.
Manning unilaterally decided that the public should get such access. The decision was not up to him, and it was based on what I think is a childish, illogical, and ultimately dangerous ideology, with “transparency” as the ultimate moral goal. I don’t go nearly as far as some; I think Wikileaks deserves the same protection as the NYT did when they published the Pentagon Papers. But nobody should be surprised when the person who leaked these documents gets punished for breaking the law.