Programs that Bradley Manning used weren’t prohibited: trial report, day 4

By Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network. June 10, 2013.

Chad Madaras. Sketch by Clark Stoeckley, BMSN.

The second week of Bradley Manning’s court martial began with forensics experts returning, testimony from someone who shared Bradley’s computer, and updates on stipulations of expected testimony, but that all came after more questions about media access.
Stenographers deserve trial access
Judge Denise Lind received a motion from a third-party to allow for the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s crowd-funded stenographers to be credentialed for the media center at Ft. Meade, to provide an unofficial transcript of the proceedings. Judge Lind wouldn’t rule on the motion since it didn’t come from the defense or government, but defense lawyer David Coombs stood briefly to support it. He said the motion assists Bradley’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial and the First Amendment right to a free press.
Forensic expert: Wget not explicitly prohibited
David Shaver, head of forensic investigations for the Army Criminal Investigations Unit, has been called a few times and will likely be called back frequently to discuss the investigation of Bradley’s computer. He testified today about his review of Bradley’s searches on Intelink, the military’s secure version of Google.
Shaver testified about Bradley’s searches for ‘WikiLeaks,’ which started on December 1, 2009, and for ‘Julian Assange’ and ‘Iceland.’ A few times, his searches for WikiLeaks brought him to the Army’s 2008 Counterintelligence Special Report, but Shaver could only confirm that he successfully reached that report once.
He also talked about the program Wget, which automates downloading from the internet. Shaver said the program wasn’t specifically authorized with a Certificate of Net Worthiness (CON), but that it wasn’t prohibited either, and not having a CON didn’t mean it wasn’t allowed.
Fellow analyst: mIRC chat, other programs not prohibited
Chad Madaras was in the 2^nd Brigrade 10^th Mountain division along with Bradley Manning, so they were together in Ft. Drum before deploying and then together in FOB Hammer in Iraq. In Baghdad, they worked in the same unit and used the same computer but on opposite shifts: Bradley worked at night, Chad during the day.
Their shared computer was frequently slow and required ‘reimaging’ – wiping the computer fully and starting over new – multiple times. Therefore, analysts were expected to save files to CDs or to a shared drive to prevent losing any data.
Madaras testified that everyone else in their Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) used mIRC, a chat program Bradley said he used. Madaras also confirmed that music, movies, and video games were on the shared drive that all analysts could access. They weren’t explicitly allowed, but they weren’t banned either. This lends itself to the question of whether Bradley “exceeded authorized access” – the government contends he added programs that he wasn’t allowed to have.
He also confirmed that it wasn’t prohibited to explore the SIPRNet, the Secret-level, military-wide internet, for other regions of the world beyond mission scope. Bradley perused the State Department diplomatic database, and while others may not have done so, it hasn’t been established that this was a violation.
Stipulations continue
We also heard the stipulations of expected testimony from of Steve Buchanan, an NSA contractor who confirmed some basic facts about Intelink, which Shaver delved into further.
The defense and government took a two-hour lunch break to continue working on more stipulations. The military’s subject matter expert tells us that twelve stipulations have been agreed to, eight more are under negotiation, and several more may be on the way.
Afternoon session
Update: 7:00, summary of afternoon session
Tweets on trial
After nearly a three-and-a-half hour lunch break, Army CID Special Agent Mark Mander testified about his contribution in the investigation of Bradley Manning, which he called “probably one of the largest and most complicated investigations we’ve ever had.”
Mander said he used Archive.org to find a 2009 version of WikiLeaks.org that allegedly shows a ‘Most Wanted Leaks’ list of desired documents, and used Google Cache to retrieve WikiLeaks’ 2010 tweets asking for ‘.mil addresses’ and for ‘super computer time’ upon receipt of an encrypted video. The prosecution wants to authenticate these documents as relevant to Bradley’s mindset at the time of the 2010 disclosures.
But the defense established that Mander has no personal knowledge of how Archive.org or Google Cache works, whether either had been hacked, whether tweets can be deleted, or whether Bradley had viewed those pages and tweets at that time.
The defense also presented an alternate version of the ‘Most Wanted Leaks’ page, which was similar but which introduced the list as the concealed documents most sought after by journalists, lawyers, police, and human rights investigators. Judge Lind accepted both versions as evidentiary exhibits.
Sheila Glenn: Army Counterintel couldn’t confirm that enemies used WikiLeaks
Ft. Meade’s Sheila Glenn works on Army cyber counterintelligence, and she testified about the 2008 Army Counterintelligence Special Report, which she reviewed and which speculated whether foreign intelligence services or terrorist groups used or could use WikiLeaks.org to gather U.S. defense information.
She mostly confirmed important elements of the report. She read aloud,
some argue, Wikileaks.org is knowingly encouraging criminal activities such as the theft of data, documents, proprietary information, and intellectual property, possible violation of national security laws regarding sedition and espionage, and possible violation of civil laws. Within the United States and foreign countries the alleged ―whistleblowers‖ are, in effect, wittingly violating laws and conditions of employment and thus may not qualify as ―whistleblowers protected from disciplinary action or retaliation for reporting wrongdoing in countries that have such laws.
She confirmed,
Wikileaks.org supports the US Supreme Court ruling regarding the unauthorized release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, which stated that ―only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.
A primary point of contention regarded ‘intelligence gaps,’ a subsection of the report under which it’s asked,
Will the Wikileaks.org Web site be used by FISS, foreign military services, foreign insurgents, or terrorist groups to collect sensitive or classified US Army information posted to the Wikileaks.org Web site?
Glenn testified that intelligence gaps could fall within a range of certainty, from points of knowledge that the Army wanted to confirm, to subjects about which it knows very little. At the time, she said, Army Counterintelligence could not confirm that foreign intelligence services, adversaries, or terrorist groups did collect information from WikiLeaks.org.
This week
Remaining on the list of upcoming witnesses is Matthew Hosburgh, an intelligence analyst, who’ll testify about a ‘computer chaos club’ document; Ken Moser from CENTCOM who’ll about the Farah investigation; and Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jon Larue.

***From Out In The Be-Bop 1950s Rock Night- Bill Haley's Skinnie Minnie

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

In an earlier age women were expected to be a little more voluptuous than the Minnie of Bill Haley’s cover song. (It was only fifty some years ago, although that amount of time is probably an eternity in the fashion world, female variety, probably enough time to make such fashions retro now if a quick look around lately is any indication.) Arguably busty and hippy Marilyn Monroe was the model for from hunger Great Depression (1930s variety) and back from World War II fathers in the 1950s and that“wisdom” filtered down to the sons, or some sons. My boyhood personal preference, corner boyhood in front of Doc’s Drugstore hanging out making a profession of examining this key question of humankind as various shapes and sticks walked by preference, on the subject though was to go for Minnie, skinnie or not, in the teenage battle of "sticks" vs. "shapes." Now this struggle was on top of almost every boy’s mind whether they publically recognized it or not from about twelve when those stick girls started getting a shape and, guess what, started to turn from say just flat-out fifth grade nuisances and bothers to, well, kind of interesting all of a sudden in sixth grade. Of course today such epic battles, such epic pre-teen angst, probably no longer exits, and such doings are probably a figment of some old geezer’s imagination. Yah, right.

Remind me to tell you sometime about how a stick could turn you inside out just as easily as a shape, maybe worse because what were you doing hanging with a stick anyway when there were those interesting shapes to bother your mind. Actually since I have a minute I will tell you now. See that Doc’s Drugstore that I mentioned a minute ago had a juke box and a soda fountain and therefore was a natural attraction for every music hungry kid (and food too, remember those odd-ball school lunches that left us permanently incapable of eating good food, or it seemed like it) from Hullsville Elementary School (and later from Hullsville Junior High next door but this is about the earlier period). So one day Susie Johnson (we all had such vanilla names in those days, I was called Francis for chrissake, in that old white bread town but I think everybody had such square names even black kids) came strolling by.

Now Susie was nothing but a stick in those days, since she had been, ah, slow to develop, if you know what I mean, but, truth, I was stuck on her, stuck on her bad, as bad as a man (oops, boy) could be stuck on a girl ever since she turned from a nuisance to, well, like I said before, kind of interesting. But see, interesting or not, what Susie had was great lips, very great lips. And the reason that I knew that hard fact was because a few weeks before the time I am talking about down in Kathy Kelly’s family room, lights out, music playing, some Everly Brothers stuff that everybody, every girl everybody and so every boy who wanted to get anywhere, was crazy for Susie Johnson came over to me and gave me a big kiss from those lips. And so that day she came strolling by my corner (and many previous days as well) I was waiting for her to try her luck again. And she didn’t, not then anyway or anytime soon after that. So don’t tell me in the boy meets girl wars that some skinnie girl can’t twist a man (oops again , boy) around her little finger , don’t tell me that noise at all.

****

Skinnie Minnie lyrics-Bill Haley and His Comets

SKINNIE MINNIE - BILLY HALEY & HIS COMETS

Well my skinnie minnie has a clay as a cheek

And I was 6 feet high and one foot thin

And now I do I love her, does a boy love pie?

Well now and she has the eye pull over my eye

Skinnie Minnie she's skinnie

She ain't tall, that's all

Well Although her shadow doesn't take much ground

Well now what there is, that really gets her around

And now what are there ahead, there's a lot she'd be

{ From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/b/bill-haley-lyrics/skinnie-minnie-lyrics.html }

And now and she may not weight too much for me

Skinnie Minnie she's skinnie

She ain't tall, that's all

Well now it's hard being slimmer than a fishing pole

She (has) one hair blond and the other hair brown

And now I did the other cheek from the other side

And now I found the old yard where did she hideah,

Skinnie Minnie she's skinnie

She ain't tall, that's all

The World Can't Wait Stop the Crimes of Your Government Donate | Local Chapters | Store | Previous Newsletters

Relevant sections from the Close Guantanamo NOW message published May 23, 2013, in The New York Times: “Obama promised to restore the rule of law. Instead he has claimed and exercised unchecked executive powers beyond what George Bush used. He refuses to prosecute officials for their use of torture, yet aggressively prosecutes any whistle-blowers who expose war crimes, most flagrantly in the torture, slander and draconian legal charges against Bradley Manning. By signing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, Obama made indefinite detention, based on merely an accusation, the law of the land. These actions amount to institutionalizing and, in important respects, escalating the “Bush Doctrine.” Donate to publish this message internationally. Alfred, This afternoon we learned that Edward Snowden, an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton (a private contractor for the National Security Agency), claimed responsibility for the biggest intelligence leak in U.S. history. In an interview with The Guardian, Snowden said, “I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in.” He added: “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” This past Wednesday, via Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian, we learned that the National Security Agency has been monitoring business phone traffic on Verizon lines and gathering all that metadata in bulk. On Thursday the story got much bigger with revelations that the NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others. Also from the Guardian: “On Saturday, the Guardian reported the existence of an NSA datamining program called Boundless Informant that helps analysts track and sort the voluminous electronic surveillance the agency collects, including by country. Top secret information published by the Guardian detailed that NSA harvested nearly 3bn pieces of intelligence from US computer networks in just 30 days.” Barack Obama responding to the revelation that the NSA vacuums up data on everyone: “in the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother and a program run amuck, but when you actually look at the details, I think we've struck the right balance.” More on PRISM and the National Security Agency at Ft. Meade MD (where Bradley Manning is being court martialed). From the Guardian interview with Edward Snowden: Q: Why did you decide to become a whistleblower? A: “The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting.” Q: What about the response in general to the disclosures? A: “I have been surprised and pleased to see the public has reacted so strongly in defence of these rights that are being suppressed in the name of security.” Today at the Left Forum in NYC, World Can't Wait sponsored a discussion on “the National Security State, Whistle-blowers and Bradley Manning” with Jesselyn Raddack, Thomas Drake and Kevin Gosztola. We discussed the need for protest and resistance to the a lack of privacy for the people, and secrecy for the government. Thomas made a case to people who say “if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't worry” by saying things remarkably similar to what Snowden said: “You don’t have to have done anything wrong, you simply have to have eventually fall under suspicion... and then they can use this system to go back in time and... derive suspicion from an innocent life” Hours after today's event, we learned about Edward Snowden. The Guardian reported tonight, “Thomas Drake, a former NSA executive who famously leaked information about what he considered a wasteful datamining program at the agency, said of Snowden: ‘He's extraordinarily brave and courageous.’ “Drake was investigated so intensely by the justice department that the longtime analyst was reduced to working at an Apple store until the Obama administration abruptly dropped charges that could have landed him in jail for 35 years. "‘It's an extraordinarily magnanimous act of civil disobedience to disclose the Pandora's Box of the Leviathan state,’ Drake told the Guardian as he returned from a weekend appearance in New York at the Left Forum, where he spoke about whistleblowing and national security.” In “Has the US become the type of nation from which you have to seek asylum?” the Washington Post says, “Snowden wasn't crazy to question whether he'd be treated fairly by the American justice system.” ► It's really up to us to create a political situation where the government is forced to back down in defending and pursuing police-state levels of surveillance, justified by “national security.” Tomorrow, we're gathering at noon at Union Square in NYC to support Edward Snowden (details on Facebook event). When asked about the personal risks he took to make this information public, Snowden told Glenn Greenwald, “The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change.” What are you willing to risk for real change? Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait Click to tweet or share on Facebook:

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What Bradley Manning showed the world about Israel/Palestine

by Alex Kane on June 6, 2013 9

Bradley Manning leaked diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks that shed light on U.S. foreign policy and Israel/Palestine (Photo: Associated Press)

The trial of military whistleblower Bradley Manning has refocused attention on the revelations about U.S. foreign policy his actions produced. Much ink has been spilled on the headline-making news related to Iraq and Afghanistan that WikiLeaks, the organization Manning leaked to, shed light on. But WikiLeaks' and Manning's actions also exposed many important details about Israel/Palestine.

The massive amount of State Department cables that Manning handed over to WikiLeaks was a deep look into how U.S. policy on Israel, Palestine and the larger Middle East play out. Here's a look back at some of what Manning told the world about the region—a reminder why Israel/Palestine watchers should be concerned with Manning's trial and sentencing.

Israeli praise for the Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority (PA) remains a buffer between Israel and a Palestinian population resentful at a 46-year-old foreign occupation. The West Bank's limited governing authority cracks down on armed resistance to the occupation and other forms of dissent while doling out salaries to employees who rely on it to make a living. It's a formula to keep the West Bank quiet as settlements expand across the occupied territory.

WikiLeaks focused attention on how important the Palestinian Authority is to Israel. In 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he wanted to” strengthen, according to one State Department cable. Another cable from that same year shows why Netanyahu wanted to boost the PA. Israeli defense ministry official Amos Gilad “noted that Israeli-PA security and economic cooperation in the West Bank continues to improve as Jenin and Nablus flourish, and described Palestinian security forces as the ‘good guys,’” as another cable reads. A separate cable also reveals that Gilad was concerned about PA President Mahmoud Abbas' longterm viability. Other cables revealed close security cooperation and intelligence sharing between the PA and Israel, though PA officials wanted to keep those activities under wraps.

Fast-forward to today, and those revelations still resonate, though the situation has changed some. Israeli actions like transferring tax revenue to the PA are about shoring up the West Bank government. For Israel, the worst thing that could happen would be for the economic unrest that rocked the PA in late 2012 to get off the ground again, threatening the stability of the authority that keeps a lid on Palestinian unrest. There's also continued concern about the PA's long-term viability. As a recent International Crisis Group report showed, the threat of a Palestinian uprising against the PA or Israel is real, though distant for now in large part because of a lack of leadership. That report also documented a deterioration in security cooperation between PA forces and Israel.

As the days drag on with little political change on the ground in the West Bank, the gap between the PA—important for Israel's stability, as WikiLeaks showed—and their constituents is bound to grow.

A Palestinian Bantustan

The Obama administration is engaged in another all-out push to jump-start the moribund “peace process” between Israel and the PA. But they have run into a roadblock: the PA's insistence that a settlement freeze be implemented and that Israel commit to the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations. The PA, under intense pressure to cave on these demands, has good reason to play hardball, as WikiLeaks showed Benjamin Netanyahu's vision for a Palestinian state. While much of these details were known without WikiLeaks, the details in the documents are still a useful reminder of what Netanyahu says when he utters the words "Palestinian state."

In a 2007 meeting with Congressman Gary Ackerman, Netanyahu laid out his refusal to divide Jerusalem and return to the 1967 borders—core components of a viable two-state solution. Two WikiLeaks cables from 2009 reveal that once he got in the prime minister's seat, his vision stayed the same. He told a Congressional delegation that “a Palestinian state must be demilitarized, without control over its air space and electro-magnetic field, and without the power to enter into treaties or control its borders.”

Those meetings put any lip-service by the Israeli government towards a Palestinian state in its proper context. Indeed, the more honest segments of Netanyahu's current coalition have already put the kibosh on talk of a Palestinian state. Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said June 6 that the current governing coalition is staunchly opposed to a Palestinian state.

The Gaza assault and the Goldstone report

The Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008-09 was the subject of a number of important Manning-leaked cables. The cables exposed regional cooperation with Israel while it waged a punishing air and ground campaign that resulted in the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians.

A June 2009 meeting detailed in a diplomatic cable showed that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told U.S. officials that Israel had consulted with both Egypt and the Palestinian Authority before invading Gaza. Barak asked them whether they would take over Gaza in the event of a Hamas defeat. Both said no. Other cables showed coordination while the invasion was going on. One cable revealed that the targeting of tunnels to Gaza was “coordinated with Egypt.” Another cable showed how Israel frequently consulted with PA security forces over how to control protests in the West Bank against the Gaza assault.

The fact that Israel consulted with pre-revolutionary Egypt and the PA on defeating Hamas is no surprise. The Fatah-dominated PA and Hamas have been at loggerheads ever since Fatah attempted to take control of Gaza from Hamas in the aftermath of democratic elections the Islamist party overwhelmingly won. The Fatah attempt was backed by the U.S.

And before the revolution in Egypt, the Mubarak government was a key regional ally of Israel and the U.S. Mubarak-run Egypt wanted to restrain Hamas' power in part because of the group's links to the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition group to Mubarak. But even after the revolution, Egypt has done its best not to antagonize Israel or the West. It has continued to crack down on smuggling tunnels into Gaza used for consumer goods and weapons. The one significant post-revolutionary change that has taken place is that the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt is open for people, though its not open for goods.

WikiLeaks also showed the extent to which the U.S. shielded Israel from international action over alleged war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. One October 2009 cable detailed a meeting between UN Ambassador Susan Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Rice told Lieberman that the U.S. was doing everying it can to “blunt the effects of the Goldstone report” and that the U.S. was sure it could build a “blocking coalition” to ensure that the Security Council not take action the report. Sure enough, the Security Council helped bury the report.

Other cables show similar actions. Israel had attacked a number of UN facilities during the war, and the UN wanted to investigate those strikes. A report detailing the 9 incidents where UN facilities were struck by Israel recommended that an impartial inquiry be carried out. But WikiLeaks documents showed that after Rice brought pressure to bear on the UN Secretary General, the possibility of an independent inquiry was squashed.

Many of the revelations that Manning helped to bring into the light came as no surprise. Still, they offered intimate details of official meetings that exposed how U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is conducted. Now, Manning is facing life in prison for his actions--he's accused of violating military and civilian law. The trial is set to last for the next 12 weeks.

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/06/bradley-manning-israelpalestine.html

This Wednesday, the House of Representatives will vote on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 (NDAA). This proposed NDAA would spend $640 billion, more than permitted by law, $ billions more than the Pentagon has asked for. This is an outrage! Please send a message to your Representative! Tell him or her to support amendments to audit and tighten the Pentagon budget (while protecting healthcare and other programs for troops and veterans), bring the troops home from Afghanistan, rein in the lethal drones program, end the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that gave a green light to the past decade of endless warfare, and vote no on the overall NDAA unless amended appropriately. Use your own words, but please emphasize that in this era of austerity--with sequester-driven cuts to Food Stamps, education, healthcare--many in Congress want to throw money at the Pentagon. Please ask your Representative to support pending amendments which would: * Audit the Pentagon * Cut Pork--unnecessary boondoggle weapons systems including the F-35 fighter plane, the V-22 Osprey and the Abrams tank. * Eliminate nuclear weapons and provocative foreign military bases * Bring the troops home from Afghanistan and vacate bases there * Rein in the lethal drones program * Repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) Please send a message now and plan to follow up with a phone call on Wednesday at 202-224-3121. For peace, Shelagh Foreman Program Director

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On The 50th Anniversary Of Medgar Evers' Murder

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/06/10/medgar-evers

***On The 50th Anniversary Of Medgar Evers' Murder -Bob Dylan's Only A Pawn In Their Game

 

 

Only A Pawn In Their Game by Bob Dylan

Lyrics

A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man’s brain
But he can’t be blamed
He’s only a pawn in their game
A South politician preaches to the poor white man
“You got more than the blacks, don’t complain.
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin,” they explain.
And the Negro’s name
Is used it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
’Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoofbeats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide ’neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.
Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught

 

They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He’ll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game

Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1996 by Special Rider Music

***On The 50th Anniversary Of Medgar Evers' Murder -Bob Dylan's Only A Pawn In Their Game




Only A Pawn In Their Game by Bob Dylan

Lyrics

A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man’s brain
But he can’t be blamed
He’s only a pawn in their game
A South politician preaches to the poor white man
“You got more than the blacks, don’t complain.
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin,” they explain.
And the Negro’s name
Is used it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
’Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoofbeats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide ’neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.
Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He’ll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game

Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1996 by Special Rider Music

***On The 50th Anniversary Of Medgar Evers' Murder -In When The Blues Is Dues- In Jim Crow Times – 50 Years Later It’s Still Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam”

… his hitchhiked ride, a good guy, a guy in pick-up truck, an almost new 1961 Ford model, who picked him up after dark just south of Richmond, left him off right off Highway 61, just outside of town, Clarksburg, early that next blazing hot afternoon after that good guy had tooled that pick-up about fourteen hours straight with only a couple of pits stops. As he ambled toward the center of town figuring to get a little lunch at the bus stop before heading out on the bus to head west some before he picked up the hitchhike trail again he noticed, he clearly noticed that he was in the colored section of town, or what seemed like it. All kinds of shacks, run-down and worst, junk cars, or worst, the latest, maybe about a 1949 Hudson from what he could see, litters of little black children playing in front of decayed yards filled with debris,and a feel of poverty, not ground-down, groveling poverty but just the poverty of the poor, the poor who have been poor for a few generations and don’t know any other existence. As he passed the rows of shacks some residents gave him short looks, not hostile but more like“whitey, what are you doing here in this section of town, you must be a stranger.”Others just went about their poking around business.

These stares (or indifferences) kept up until he hit the edge of the colored section, or what seemed to be the edge, when he thirsty, thirsty as hell, by this point stopped in a store, one of those old time country-type stores, a store out of some William Faulkner Mississippi novel, he thought, filled with colored folks, and one white man behind the counter. He approached the counter, asked for a Pepsi, cold, ice cold, and large. The white man behind the counter (who turned out to be the owner, and who he would hear of a couple of years later in some televised news report as the leader of that town’s White Citizens Council) said this -“boy, where do you think you are, Boston?”, this here is a nigra store and no whites are served here. By rights I should have you thrown out of town but since you are a stranger I will just tell that if you want a Pepsi, or any damn drink, you will have to go to my store over in town a couple of miles from here up this same road, right next to the bus station which I hope you plan to be using.” He left without a word, but still thirsty as hell.

After walking what seemed like an eternity, now with white stares coming fromall kinds of shacks, run-down and worst, junk cars, or worst, the latest, maybe about a 1949 Hudson from what he could see, litters of little white children playing in front of decayed yards filled with debris, and a feel of poverty, not ground-down, groveling poverty but just the poverty of the poor, the poor who have been poor for a few generations and don’t know any other existence, he reached the downtown bus station, and Mister’s grocery store next door. He went into the store, now filled with white folks, and with a white man behind the counter, approached the counter and asked for a Pepsi, cold, ice cold, and large. In reply the white man said the following-“We don’t take with white folks trading at the colored store so if you want a Pepsi, or any damn drink, you’ll have to get it at the bus station-on your way out of town.” He left, again without a word.

He entered the small bus station, stepped up to the clerk’s counter, bought a ticket to New Orleans, and then asked for a drink of water. The clerk pointed behind him and he went and got that precious drink of water, a drink at the “whites only”drinking fountain not the “colored only” one that his new found instinct told him that he should not use…

…and thus james crow in the flesh. And Mississippi goddam too.

*******
(1963) Nina Simone

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Washing the windows
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin' didn't we

Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
for my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

That's it for now! see ya' later

***From The Boston Bradley Manning Support Committee Archives (September 2012)

 

Rassemblement de soutien à ALLÉGUÉE WIKILEAKS DÉNONCIATION BRADLEY MANNING PRIVÉ AU CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA Hdqtrs. –September 6, 2012- 2:00 PM

DATE: JEUDI 6 septembre 2012

HEURE: (. Personnes seront distribution de tracts du centre-ville d'environ 11:00 et nous y resterons jusqu'à environ 17h00 alors rejoignez-nous à tout moment vous pouvez montrer votre solidarité) À PARTIR DE 14h00

LIEU: CENTRE-VILLE DE BOSTON OBAMA SIÈGE à 77, rue SUMMER (près de l'arrêt Downtown Crossing SUR LES LIGNES ROUGES ET ORANGE)

Le Boston Smedley Butler brigade et Samantha Chapitre-Combattants pour la Paix, le Réseau de soutien Bradley Manning Boston, Somerville Manning Place Comité et d'autres militants sociaux et des citoyens intéressés soutenir l'appel lancé par le Réseau national de soutien Bradley Manning et d'autres pays à se rallier à Obama siège local le jeudi 6 Septembre 2012, jour où le Président Obama devrait accepter l'investiture du parti démocrate du président, d'appeler à la liberté de dénonciation WikiLeaks présumé, l'Armée soldat de première classe Bradley Manning. Nous allons également appeler le président à user de son pouvoir constitutionnel de gracier soldat Manning maintenant.

GRATUIT Bradley Manning-PRÉSIDENT OBAMA PARDON Bradley Manning MAINTENANT!

Visitez notre page Facebook-Downtown Boston Bradley Manning soutien de rallye-Septembre 6e http://www.facebook.com/BradleyManningSupportRally#!/ BradleyManningSupportRallySeptember6th

Travail bénévole Appel à l'action à Obama 2012 bureaux dans le pays pendant 6 septembre DNC Le Réseau Bradley Manning soutien, les Afghans pour la paix et SF Bay Vétérans d'Irak Contre la Guerre de l'appel pour des actions à l'échelle nationale des bureaux locaux de la campagne d'Obama le 6 septembre 2012 lors de la Convention nationale démocrate! Bradley Manning gratuit!

Depuis l'arrestation de l'Armée PFC Bradley Manning en mai 2010 pour avoir prétendument le partage de la «Assassiner Collateral" vidéo et autres preuves de crimes de guerre et la corruption gouvernementale avec le site Wikileaks dénonciateurs, les progressistes et les militants des droits humains ont demandé, "Pourquoi pas le Président Obama intervenir pour aider Bradley? "

Après tout, c'est le président Obama qui a déclaré mai 2011 en ce qui concerne les manifestations au Moyen-Orient,

«Au 21e siècle, l'information c'est le pouvoir, la vérité ne peut pas être cachée, et la légitimité des gouvernements dépendra en définitive de citoyens actifs et informés."

Jeudi, Août 16, États-Unis vétérans militaires à Portland OR, Oakland et Los Angeles CA, occupé les bureaux de campagne d'Obama en 2012 et a faxé une lettre de demande au bureau central de la campagne d'Obama. Ces lettres ont commencé:

Comme ceux qui ont passé des années à servir notre pays, nous avons la foi que commandant en chef, le président Obama fera la bonne chose à répondre à notre demande.

La lettre poursuit en énumérant les exigences suivantes:

Que le président Obama se rétracter et de s'excuser de propos tenus en Avril 2011, dans laquelle il a affirmé M. Bradley Manning "a enfreint la loi." Parce que le président Obama est le commandant en chef, ce qui constitue une influence ordre illégal, violant ainsi l'article 37 du Code uniforme de militaire Justice (UCMJ), et empêche Bradley bénéficié d'un procès équitable.

Que le pardon du président Obama à l'accusé dénonciateur, en tenant compte de ses 800 jours de détention préventive. Des Nations Unies torture chef Juan Mendez appelle le traitement de Manning "cruel et inhumain», comme on a inclus neuf mois d'isolement à Quantico en dépit psychiatres Brig recommandant des conditions détendues.

Le Réseau Bradley Manning support maintient l'espoir que la justice prévaudra et que le président Obama peut être le véhicule du changement sur cette question, mais d'abord il a besoin d'entendre haut et fort les anciens combattants et les civils dans tout le pays que le peuple américain veut réparer l'illégalité la torture de Bradley Manning, et je crois qu'il devrait être libéré.

Les organisateurs des 16 août actions de la côte Ouest sont maintenant exhortant les autres à se joindre à un effort national pour organiser des actions à beaucoup plus de bureaux locaux de campagne d'Obama le 6 Septembre, le jour du discours d'acceptation de candidature du candidat. Nous voulons partager des messages de soutien pour Bradley avec des bureaux de campagne d'Obama, d'un océan à l'autre.

S'il vous plaît contacter emma@bradleymanning.org pour plus d'informations à propos de présence et / ou l'organisation d'un événement.

***From The Boston Bradley Manning Support Committee Archives (September 2012)

Call for action at Obama 2012 offices nationwide Sept. 6th during DNC

The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!

Since Army PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the “Collateral Murder” video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, “Why isn’t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?”

After all, it was President Obama who in May 2011 declared with regards to protests in the Middle East,

“In the 21st Century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens.”

On Thursday, August 16, US military veterans in Portland OR, Oakland CA, and Los Angeles CA, occupied Obama 2012 campaign offices and faxed a letter of demands to the Obama campaign’s central office. Those letters began:

As those who have spent years serving our country, we have faith that as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama will do the right thing in answering our request.

The letter went on to list the following demands:

That President Obama retract and apologize for remarks made in April 2011, in which he said Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Because President Obama is commander-in-chief, this constitutes unlawful command influence, violating Article 37 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and prevents Bradley from receiving a fair trial.

That President Obama pardon the accused whistle-blower, taking into consideration his 800 days of pretrial confinement. UN torture chief Juan Mendez called Manning’s treatment “cruel and inhuman,” as it included nine months of solitary confinement at Quantico despite Brig psychiatrists recommending relaxed conditions.

The Bradley Manning Support Network maintains hope that justice will prevail and that President Obama can be the vehicle of change on this issue, but first he needs to hear loud and clear from veterans and civilians across the country that the American people want amends for the unlawful torture of Bradley Manning, and believe he should be freed.

Organizers of the August 16 West Coast actions are now urging others to join them in a nationwide effort to hold actions at many more local Obama campaign offices on September 6th, the day of candidate’s nomination acceptance speech. We want to share messages of support for Bradley with Obama campaign offices from coast to coast.

Please contact emma@bradleymanning.org for more information about attending and/or organizing an event.

 

Labor donated