Bradley Manning revealed information of major international import/ Bill Blum

Bradley Manning spent nearly a year in solitary, being tortured with ploys like forced nakedness (perfected in Iraq as a torture method?).  He is unlikely to ever be free.   Julian Assange got the honeypot treatment and is likely to spend much of his remaining life incarcerated.

Yet we were told those leaked cables had little of value, except for their embarrassment potential.  I certainly didn't have the time to read them.  I accepted the received wisdom from the NYT etc.

Now Bill Blum says we got it wrong.  There was big stuff in those cables, and they helped bring on the Arab spring and with it the Occupiers.  Hmmm.  What was revealed?  "Here is a sample of some of the other Wikileaks revelations that make the people of the world wiser:

• In 2009 Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano became the new head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which plays the leading role in the investigation of whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons or is working only on peaceful civilian nuclear energy projects. A US embassy cable of October 2009 said Amano "took pains to emphasize his support for U.S. strategic objectives for the Agency. Amano reminded the [American] ambassador on several occasions that ... he was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program."
• Russia refuted US claims that Iran has missiles that could target Europe.
• The British government's official inquiry into how it got involved in the Iraq War was deeply compromised by the government's pledge to protect the Bush administration in the course of the inquiry.
• A discussion between Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and American Gen. David H. Petraeus in which Saleh indicated he would cover up the US role in missile strikes against al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen. "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh told Petraeus."

There is plenty more.  Read Blum's piece.