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Comment by pif | Hacker News Reader

What did they do in order to promote peace?

Read Snowden's book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_(autobiograph...

That has always been an optional requirement for that prize. The prize is awarded on the principle "we like that famous person".

They held a previous Nobel Peace Prize winner accountable.

Manning has done nothing to hold anyone accountable. She stole classified data, haphazardly, and did nothing to ensure its release wouldn't get people killed. Then, she dumped it all to WikiLeaks. She didn't do it to protect anyone or as a whistleblower.

Even if you hate what Snowden did, he is a whistleblower in the sense that he saw something he thought was wrong, and carefully pulled enough data to prove it without endangering anyone's lives or doing unnecessary damage to his country.

I could totally get behind Assange's and Snowden's nominations (but like others have said a nomination for this Prize is meaningless), but Manning's seems ridiculous.

>Manning has done nothing to hold anyone accountable. She stole classified data, haphazardly, and did nothing to ensure its release wouldn't get people killed. Then, she dumped it all to WikiLeaks. She didn't do it to protect anyone or as a whistleblower.

I'm unclear why the challenges with the Manning release begin with the 22yo w/o enough experience to make better judgments and not the scores of military and political careerists who created, enabled and hid the atrocities.

Transparency is the first step to accountability. Manning isn't a superhuman capable of bringing about justice directly - the failure shows that the system stops at nothing to shield the guilty and throws our heroes in jail.

My point is she's not a hero unless you consider people who recklessly commit federal crimes without even the slightest bit of forethought heroes. Snowden saw a massive problem and was methodical and diligent in his process. Even if you hate what you did, he went out of his way to protect innocent people while still exposing the wrongdoing. To use a military analogy, Snowden tried to snipe someone surrounded by hostages while Manning just tossed a grenade into the room.

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