Bradley Manning: An Army Of One

'Bradley Manning’s Army of One
'How a lonely, five-foot-two, gender-questioning soldier became a WikiLeaks hero, a traitor to the U.S., and one of the most unusual revolutionaries in American history.'

Interesting/odd essay in New York magazine.
Why "traitor"?
Why mention his height in the intro?
Steve Fishman argues that it was "all in the mind", but does talk about Manning wanting to act morally.
He claims to have spoken to his father and an un-named gender counsellor.
But a counsellor wouldn't talk about a client - it's confidential (Fagburn has never seen any evidence for the rumours that Bradley was "gender-questioning").
And his father says Bradley's taken him off his visitor list, so one wonders what he says can be believed.
Most importantly (if it's true) it says how Adrian Lamo entrapped Bradley Manning by flirting with him - scum.
Be interested to hear what Bradley thinks about Julian Assange...

Update: The Guardian has run a piece on this that misses the Lamo story but concentrates on newly released weblogs where - allegedly -Manning says he was bullied for being gay in the army; "It took them a while, but they started figuring me out, making fun of me, mocking me, harassing me, heating up with one or two physical attacks."
But a "Guardian Exclusive" said this in May.

Update 2: Glenn Greenwald responds in Salon; The Motives Of Bradley Manning.
Greenwald's consistently defended Manning. He's also interviewed Lamo who he considers "deranged" and an attention-seeker.

Update 3: "It's obviously improper for the executive to intervene and impose a jail sentence without a trial [in Venezuela]. And I should say that the United States is in no position to complain about this. Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without charge, under torture, which is what solitary confinement is. The president in fact intervened. Obama was asked about his conditions and said that he was assured by the Pentagon that they were fine. That's executive intervention in a case of severe violation of civil liberties and it's hardly the only one. That doesn't change the judgment about Venezuela, it just says that what one hears in the United States one can dismiss..."
Noam Chomky in an interview with The Observer about Hugo Chavez. The full transcript was released by The Guardian today after Chomsky accused them of "extreme dishonesty" for the spin they had put on what he'd said.

Update 4: I've started a new post on what's turning into "Fishmangate".