PJ Crowley Resigns over Manning Remark

I saw this today over at The Skeptical Bureaucrat, and I am sad to see it. As you probably know, I worked for PJ in my last assignment and I had, and continue to have, a lot of respect for him.

To me, this is just one more reason to hate Bradley Manning, Julian ASSange, and Wikileaks.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - P.J. Crowley abruptly resigned Sunday as State Department spokesman over controversial comments he made about the Bradley Manning case.

Sources close to the matter the resignation, first reported by CNN, came under pressure from the White House, where officials were furious about his suggestion that the Obama administration is mistreating Manning, the Army private who is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, under suspicion that he leaked highly classified State Department cables to the website Wikileaks.

Speaking to a small group at MIT last week, Crowley was asked about allegations that Manning is being tortured and kicked up a firestorm by answering that what is being done to Manning by Defense Department officials "is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."

Crowley did add that "nonetheless, Bradley Manning is in the right place" because of his alleged crimes, according to a blog post by BBC reporter Philippa Thomas, who was present at Crowley's talk.

[...]

Crowley has told friends that he is deeply concerned that mistreatment of Manning could undermine the legitimate prosecution of the young private. Crowley has also made clear he has the Obama administration's best interests at heart because he thinks any mistreatment of Manning could be damaging around the world to President Obama, who has tried to end the perception that the U.S. tortures prisoners.

Nevertheless, Crowley's political fate was sealed on Friday when Obama was asked at a White House news conference about his comments regarding Manning.

Obama revealed that he had asked Pentagon officials "whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of (Manning's) confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards."

In a comment that drew howls of protest from liberals, Obama added that Pentagon officials "assure me that they are. I can't go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning's safety as well."

[...]

Crowley is highly respected on foreign policy matters, dating back to his time as National Security Council spokesman under then-President Bill Clinton. He has been the Obama administration's public face on many international stories as the daily briefer at the State Department for Secretary Hillary Clinton.

But he has not had a completely smooth relationship with officials in the Obama White House, and eyebrows were raised several months ago when White House aide Mike Hammer was sent over to the State Department to serve as Crowley's deputy.

Hammer will replace Crowley as the assistant secretary for public affairs, Hillary Clinton said in a statement Sunday.

She said she accepted Crowley's resignation "with regret."

Deeply Personal

Muttering Behind the Hardline has one of his best posts ever (in my opinion) with a dead-on description of what it feels like to have your cables leaked through Wikileaks.

He compares it with the abused woman you tried to help only to have her abusor find out because you tried to help and have you be powerless to assist with the fallout.

NDS writes:

"You have the sickest of feelings in the pit of your stomach. It wasn’t your fault, but the weight of the responsibility you feel is crushing. You want to make it right, but how? You feel helpless, ashamed, regretful, frustrated. You’re terrified that something awful is about to happen. You hope Sarah and her kids somehow make it through, and that you find some way, any way to help in time.

You feel, well, you feel like a political officer who, with the news of the Wikileaks dump, saw flash through his mind at lightning speed every confidential interview he ever did with every human rights or social activist he ever quietly met with working in a country governed by a totalitarian regime. And with 250,000+ documents out there, it’s not just possible but likely that those brave men and women he considered friends may be facing a very rough time ahead. And chances are now that he’s long gone, he will likely never know whatever became of them.

Julian Assange and Bradley Manning apparently don’t have to worry about walking around with that sense of guilt. They don’t personally know the people who trusted us with their inner thoughts and secrets, hoping we might be able to help bring light to their very dark place.

This is more than treason. It’s more than a leak or an information dump.

For many of us, this is deeply personal."

Amen.