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NBC Nightly News last night did a segment last night on Pfc. Bradley Manning the soldier accused of leaking thousands of secret documents to WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n
Reporter Mike Taibbi visited Manning's hometown of Crescent, Oklahoma where a number of people speculated that the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy had contributed to Manning's decision to leak the documents. Manning is openly gay.<\/p>\n
TAIBBI: Back in Mannings hometown, theyre wondering if his troubled home life and his service in an Army that would not allow him to be openly gay had an impact on his decision to leak sensitive documents.<\/p>\n
If true it would certainly put a whole new spin on the DADT debate (now officially resolved despite John McCain's best efforts) wherein the nation is putting itself at risk for not allowing soldiers to serve openly.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Adrian Lama, the former computer hacker from California who turned Manning in thinks he might have done it for the attention.<\/p>\n
TAIBBI: Lama says Manning sought him out because of his reputation as an accomplished computer hacker. And in a dozen online conversations, Manning complained he was \"never noticed,\" \"regularly ignored,\" \"abused,\" and said he became the WikiLeaks source because serving in Iraq he was \"actively involved\" in something he was completely against. But Lama says he contacted Army counterintelligence when he became convinced Manning was in it for attention and that his huge unvetted document dump would put lives at risk.<\/p>\n
LAMA: I regret I had no other choice going forward. I wish that Bradley Manning had talked to me when he was planning it.<\/p>\n
Also? Manning's hometown is not overly sympathetic to the dire conditions he is allegedly being kept under. Video below. Transcript via.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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