Update 10/23/13: Noam Chomsky & Chase Madar address Manning’s case at MIT, while retired general defends “Collateral Murder”

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On October 9, 2013, author Chase Madar and scholar Noam Chomsky gave a talk at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) concerning the story of Chelsea Manning. Now you can watch their lecture in this online video:

From the page:

“Chase Madar is a civil rights attorney in New York and the author of The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower (Verso). He tweets @ChMadar.

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political critic, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years.”
Since Chelsea Manning’s arrest, the military has refused to publicly address the issue of war crimes raised by WikiLeaks/Manning’s releases. Now Democracy Now reports on a rare public comment made by the retired commander of the helicopter pilots responsible for killing civilians in the “Collateral Murder” video:

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Chris Walach spoke to the Army Times ahead of the release this past Friday of “The Fifth Estate,” a feature film about WikiLeaks. Walach defended the behavior of the pilots…

Walach, the pilots’ commander, told the Army Times, “In Iraq, you can’t put pink gloves on Apache helicopter pilots and send them into the Ultimate Fighting ring and ask them to take a knee. These are attack pilots wearing gloves of steel, and they go into the ring throwing powerful punches of explosive steel.

View the rest of the coverage on Democracy Now.
Finally, a writer for LGBT newspaper The Rainbow Times wrote a powerful plea for progressive activists everywhere to unite around the principle of demanding more transparency in politics, using Chelsea’s case as an example:

At first glance, Pvt. Chelsea Manning’s case seems less directly connected to LGBTQ politics. But, that is only possible if we operate on a narrow framework of what defines queer struggles. Pvt. Manning’s case is about protecting the right of ordinary people to speak out against institutions of political power without fear of repression and retaliation. Transparency and accountability in government are necessary for the healthy functioning of any democratic society. We should be holding accountable politicians and military figures who were responsible for these injustices in the first place, not punishing those who exposed them. If those in power can silence Pvt. Manning, then that only gives them more power to marginalize us when we speak out for sexual and gender justice. Defending civil liberties and the right to dissent need to be cornerstones for every progressive movement, including those for sexual and gender minorities.

Read the entire opinion piece here.

Submit your photo in support of Chelsea Manning to pardon.privatemanning.org today!