Click on the
headline to link to the "Private Bradley Manning Petition"
website page.
Markin comment:
The Private Bradley Manning
case is headed toward a mid- winter trial. Those of us who support his cause
should redouble our efforts to secure his freedom. For the past several months
there has been a weekly stand-out in Greater Boston across from the Davis
Square Redline MBTA stop (renamed Bradley Manning Square for the stand-out’s
duration) in Somerville on Friday afternoons but we have since July 4, 2012
changed the time and day to 4:00-5:00 PM on Wednesdays. This stand-out has, to
say the least, been very sparsely attended. We need to build it up with more
supporters present. Please join us when you can. Or better yet if you can’t
join us start a Support Bradley Manning weekly stand-out in some location in
your town whether it is in the Boston area, Berkeley or Berlin. And please sign
the petition for his release either in person or through the "Bradley
Manning Support Network". We have placed links to the "Manning
Network"and "Pardon Private Manning Square" website below.
********
Bradley Manning Support
Network-http://www.bradleymanning.org/
Manning Square website-http://freemanz.com/2012/01/20/somerville_paper_photo-bradmanningsquare/bradleymanningsquare-2011_01_13/
Remarks Made By A Speaker At The Pardon
Bradley Manning Rally At Downtown Boston Obama Headquarters-September 6, 2012
Welcome one and all and I am
glad you could be here for this important struggle.
The Smedley Butler Brigade of
Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with, and defense of, Private
Bradley Manning and his fight for freedom from his jailers, the American
military.
Now usually when I get before
a mic or am on a march I am shouting to high heaven about some injustice.
Recently I was called strident by someone and when it comes to the struggle
against this country’s wars, the struggle for social and economic equality, and
for freedom for our political prisoners I am indeed strident.
But I am looking for
something today something personally important to me and so I will try to lower
my temperature a bit- I want, like you, for President Obama to pardon Bradley
Manning so I will be nice, or try to be.
Bradley Manning is in a sense
the poster person for all of us who have struggled against the wars of the last
decade. He stands charged with allegedly leaking information about American war
crimes and other matters of public concern to Wikileaks. We, and we are not
alone on this, do not see whistleblowing on such activities as a crime but as
an elemental humanitarian act and public service.
Private Manning has paid the
price for his alleged acts with over 800 days of pre-trial confinement and is
now facing life imprisonment for simple acts of humanity. For letting the
American people know what they perhaps did not want to know but must know- when
soldiers, American soldiers, go to war some awful things can happen and do. He
has also suffered torture at the hands of the American government for his brave
stand. We have become somewhat inured to foreign national being tortured by the
American government at places like Guantanamo and other black hole locales. We
have even become somewhat inured to American citizens being tortured and killed
by the American government by drones and other methods. But we know, or should
know, that when the American government stands accused of torturing an American
soldier for not toeing the war line then we private citizens are in serious
trouble.
Why does Private Manning need
a pardon? Did he give away the order of battle or the table of organization for
American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan? No. Did he give away the
design for drones and such weapons? No. He allegedly simply blew the whistle on
something that is a hard fact of war- war crimes by American soldiers through
release of the Collateral Murder tape and what have become known as the Iraq
and Afghan War logs. This is what the American government had tried with might
and main to cover up. And what needed to be exposed. All talk of bringing
democracy, or national building, or having a war to end all wars, and the
million other lame excuses for war pale before the hard fact that in the heat
of war the real strategy is to kill and burn and let god sort out the innocent from the
guilty.
That is what Private Manning
exposed. I, and I am sure many other
veterans from previous wars who saw or knew of such things and did nothing
about it, are glad that such things were exposed. If for no other reason
Private First Class Bradley Manning deserves presidential pardon for his
service. To insure that event we urge everybody to ramp up their efforts in
behalf of Bradley by signing here or online at the Bradley Manning Support
Network site the petition to the Secretary of the Army for his release and to
call the White House, the telephone number is listed on the flyer we are
handing out, and demand that President Obama pardon Private Manning.
Today’s event is the start of
our fall campaign of behalf of Private Manning who at this time is expected to
go to trial next February. We want to build toward that trial, assuming
President Obama (or President Romney) has not pardoned him by then. We have
been holding weekly stand-outs in Davis Square in Somerville outside the MBTA
Red Line stop Wednesdays from 4:00to 5:00 PM and urge you to join us. Or better
yet start a Free Bradley Manning stand-out in your own town square. Thank you
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