Click on the
headline to link to the "Private Bradley Manning Support
Network"for the latest information on his case and activities on his
behalf .
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We of the international anti-war
movement were not able to do much to affect the Bush- Obama Iraq war timetable or,
as of now, the Afghanistan one, but we can save the one hero of that war, American
soldier Private Bradley Manning. The Manning legal case, and Private Manning as
an exceptionally brave individual, can and should serve to rally all those
looking for a concrete way to express their anti-war outrage at the continuing
atrocious American imperial war policies. The message below can serve as a
continuing rationale for my (and your) support to this honorable whistleblower.
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The following are
remarks that I have been focusing on of late to build support for Private Manning’s
cause at stand-outs, marches and rallies.
Veterans for Peace proudly
stands in solidarity with, and in defense of, Private Bradley Manning.
I stand in solidarity with
the alleged actions of Private Bradley Manning in bringing to light, just a little
light, some of the nefarious war-related doings of this government, under Bush
and Obama. Those precious bits of information leaked to Wikileaks about
American soldiers committing war atrocities in Iraq as chronicled in the tape
known on YouTube as “Collateral Murder” and the Iraq and Afghan War Diaries. If
he did such acts they are no crime. No crime at all in my eyes or in the eyes
of the vast majority of people who know of the case and of its importance as an
individual act of resistance to the unjust and barbaric American-led wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. I sleep just a shade bit easier these days knowing that
Private Manning may have exposed what we all knew, or should have known- the
Iraq war and the Afghan war justifications rested on a flim-flam house of
cards. American imperialism’s gun-toting flim-flam house of cards, but cards
nevertheless.
I am standing in solidarity
with Private Bradley Manning because I am outraged by the treatment meted out
to Private Manning, presumably an innocent man, by a government who alleges
itself to be some “beacon” of the civilized world. Bradley Manning has been
held in solidarity at Quantico, other locales, and now at Fort Leavenworth in
Kansas for over two years, and has been held without trial for longer, as the
government and its military try to glue a case together. The military, and its
henchmen in the Justice Department, have gotten more devious although not
smarter since I was a soldier in their crosshairs over forty years ago.
Many of us have become somewhat
inured to the constant cases of jackboot torturous behavior on the part of the American
military in places like Guantanamo, Bagram and other national security hellhole
black box locations against foreign nationals. We have also become inured, or at
least no longer surprised, when American civilian citizens are subject to such
actions, and more likely death. However, as recent allegations of pre-trial
torturous conduct condoned by high military authority (see the allegations and
motion to dismiss charged on the Bradley Manning Support Network website) by
Private Manning’s civilian defense lawyer David Coombs make clear, those acts
are not confined to foreign nationals and American civilian citizens. The
torture of Private Manning, an American soldier, by the American government
should give us all pause. And should have us shouting to the heavens for his
release.
These are more than
sufficient reasons to stand in solidarity with Private Manning and will be
until the day this brave soldier is freed by his jailers. And I will continue
to stand in proud solidarity with Private Manning until that great day.
I urge everyone to sign the
petition calling on the American military to free Private Bradley Manning
either here or on the Bradley Manning Support Network website. And if we cannot
get Private Manning freed that way I urge everyone to begin a campaign in your
area to call on President Barack Obama, or whoever is president while Private
Manning is incarcerated, to pardon this brave soldier. The American president
has the constitutional authority to grant pardons to the guilty and innocent,
the convicted and those facing charges. I call on President Obama to pardon
Private Manning now.
************Courtroom notes, Bradley Manning’s motions hearing: October 17, 2012
Bradley Manning returned to Ft. Meade today for another motions hearing. Judge Lind will rule tomorrow on the defense motion to compel witnesses in the next hearing and on whether an author made Collateral Murder’s contents public at least a year before Bradley’s arrest.
By Nathan Fuller. October 17, 2012.
Developments since last hearing in August:
To start today’s motion hearing for PFC Bradley Manning, Judge Denise Lind recapped for the press and public what has taken place since court was last in session. 1) After reviewing the approximately 700 Quantico emails that the prosecution had tried to hold back from the Defense, Lind ruled against the prosecution, finding all but 12 were relevant. 2) On September 28, Lind largely granted the government’s redactions and substitutions for DHS, Department of State, and CIA documents. 3) Before litigating the defense’s speedy trial motion, the parties need to agree on a chronology of relevant events thus far. The prosecution sent the defense a 231-page document, which was rejected because it was a non-searchable PDF, mostly consisting of extraneous content. Continuing their strategy of ongoing delay, the prosecution then sent a 20-page Word document still containing irrelevant information, which the defense will be forced to review and whittle down into an appropriate timeline.
The prosecution refuses to provide an accurate portrayal of the pretrial timeline, because, as Coombs noted in his motion, the prosecution’s repeated and unjustifiable delays point “unmistakably to the conclusion that PFC Manning’s statutory and constitutional speedy trial rights have been trampled upon with impunity.”
Innocent until proven guilty: could others have been responsible?
A major issue today was David Finkel’s 2009 book The Good Soldiers, which the defense says includes verbatim transcript excerpts of the ‘Collateral Murder’ video. The government doesn’t believe the court should recognize that the transcripts are “verbatim” and doesn’t believe they definitively prove that Finkel was in possession of the video before its 2010 release. Judge Lind will compare the video and the book excerpts and rule tomorrow on whether she’ll take judicial notice of Finkel writing a “verbatim” transcript.
On the defense’s motion to compel witnesses, Lind will rule tomorrow when the court resumes at 1:00pm EST. The witness testimony requested would give more background on the prosecution’s extensive and potentially illegal pretrial delays.
Prosecution continues to block evidence showing lack of harm.
Fearing that evidence be introduced showing Bradley Manning to be a whistleblower deserving judicial protection, the prosecution continued its attempts to gag all references to the lack of harm caused, particularly a defense list of statements made by government officials. These include comments by the Defense Department’s Geoff Morrell, a White House press release, letters between Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Senator Carl Levin, a Defense Department briefing, a State Department briefing, Andrea Mitchell’s interview of Joe Biden, and a transcript of Congressman John Conyers speaking to the House of Representatives on the beneficial effects of WikiLeaks’ releases.
The government initially rejected most of these items because the defense submitted a number of news articles citing the quotes at issue, calling the news stories “hearsay” that didn’t directly reflect the government’s positions. But since Coombs has now provided the government briefs themselves, the prosecution opposes the majority of the statements on relevancy grounds. The prosecution’s Captain Morrow appeared to take issue with a CNN article as opposed to a newspaper article (such as from the New York Times), because the CNN post appeared on the Internet instead of in print.
The only reason the government wants to suppress these already-public statements, Coombs contends, is to obscure the fact that the whistleblower who released these cables to WikiLeaks brought no harm to U.S. national security.
By Nathan Fuller. October 17, 2012.
AP photo of PFC Bradley Manning
To start today’s motion hearing for PFC Bradley Manning, Judge Denise Lind recapped for the press and public what has taken place since court was last in session. 1) After reviewing the approximately 700 Quantico emails that the prosecution had tried to hold back from the Defense, Lind ruled against the prosecution, finding all but 12 were relevant. 2) On September 28, Lind largely granted the government’s redactions and substitutions for DHS, Department of State, and CIA documents. 3) Before litigating the defense’s speedy trial motion, the parties need to agree on a chronology of relevant events thus far. The prosecution sent the defense a 231-page document, which was rejected because it was a non-searchable PDF, mostly consisting of extraneous content. Continuing their strategy of ongoing delay, the prosecution then sent a 20-page Word document still containing irrelevant information, which the defense will be forced to review and whittle down into an appropriate timeline.
The prosecution refuses to provide an accurate portrayal of the pretrial timeline, because, as Coombs noted in his motion, the prosecution’s repeated and unjustifiable delays point “unmistakably to the conclusion that PFC Manning’s statutory and constitutional speedy trial rights have been trampled upon with impunity.”
Innocent until proven guilty: could others have been responsible?
A major issue today was David Finkel’s 2009 book The Good Soldiers, which the defense says includes verbatim transcript excerpts of the ‘Collateral Murder’ video. The government doesn’t believe the court should recognize that the transcripts are “verbatim” and doesn’t believe they definitively prove that Finkel was in possession of the video before its 2010 release. Judge Lind will compare the video and the book excerpts and rule tomorrow on whether she’ll take judicial notice of Finkel writing a “verbatim” transcript.
On the defense’s motion to compel witnesses, Lind will rule tomorrow when the court resumes at 1:00pm EST. The witness testimony requested would give more background on the prosecution’s extensive and potentially illegal pretrial delays.
Prosecution continues to block evidence showing lack of harm.
Fearing that evidence be introduced showing Bradley Manning to be a whistleblower deserving judicial protection, the prosecution continued its attempts to gag all references to the lack of harm caused, particularly a defense list of statements made by government officials. These include comments by the Defense Department’s Geoff Morrell, a White House press release, letters between Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Senator Carl Levin, a Defense Department briefing, a State Department briefing, Andrea Mitchell’s interview of Joe Biden, and a transcript of Congressman John Conyers speaking to the House of Representatives on the beneficial effects of WikiLeaks’ releases.
The government initially rejected most of these items because the defense submitted a number of news articles citing the quotes at issue, calling the news stories “hearsay” that didn’t directly reflect the government’s positions. But since Coombs has now provided the government briefs themselves, the prosecution opposes the majority of the statements on relevancy grounds. The prosecution’s Captain Morrow appeared to take issue with a CNN article as opposed to a newspaper article (such as from the New York Times), because the CNN post appeared on the Internet instead of in print.
The only reason the government wants to suppress these already-public statements, Coombs contends, is to obscure the fact that the whistleblower who released these cables to WikiLeaks brought no harm to U.S. national security.
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