Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Don't Mourn -Organize!

Press conference: Bradley Manning’s lawyer to address 35 year sentence

 
 
 
What:   David Coombs to give statement and take questions
When:  August 21, 2013.  1:30 PM
Where:  The Hotel at Arundel Preserve, 7795 Arundel Mills Blvd, Hanover, MD 21076
Notes:    Free parking in the hotel’s parking structure. 2nd Floor Conference Room
 
David Coombs, lead attorney for WikiLeaks whistle-blower Pfc. Bradley Manning, will give a statement and answer questions from the press. Today, Judge Lind sentenced 3 time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bradley Manning to 35 years - an effort to instill a chilling effect on those who’d dare to expose the United States’ illegality.
 
At the Hotel at Arundel Preserve, just ten minutes away from Ft. Meade, Mr. Coombs will respond to the sentence and discuss upcoming legal avenues of redress for his client.  This will be the first time since 2010 that Mr. Coombs has taken questions from the press regarding this case.
 
The Bradley Manning Support Network will also provide a brief overview of our efforts moving forward to free Manning, including financial backing for all legal efforts. Immediately, this includes a clemency appeal to the court martial Convening Authority Major General Jeffery Buchanan. During the press conference, Pardon.BradleyManning.org will launch, and will soon include a copy of Mr. Coombs’ application for a Presidential Pardon. Additionally, a crowd-funded college trust fund is being established in order to assure Manning the means to attend college upon his release.
 
Supporters of Manning held a vigil this morning at the Fort Meade gate and will rally at the White House tonight at 7:30 PM, with a march to follow.  
 
Background: Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old Army Specialist stationed in Baghdad at the time of his arrest in May 2010, released hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents to the transparency website WikiLeaks. Manning explained to the court in a February 28, 2013, statement that he did so in order to spark debate and reforms regarding U.S. foreign policy, specifically the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was acquitted of “Aiding the Enemy,” but found guilty of several counts of Espionage, Computer Fraud, and Federal Theft. He faces a maximum potential sentence of 90 years in prison, but military justice requires no minimum. 
 
The Bradley Manning Support Network will continue to be responsible for 100% of Manning’s legal fees, as well as international education efforts. Funded by over 22,000 individuals, the Support Network has mustered $1.4 million in Manning’s defense.
 
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Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years, defense moves for Presidential Pardon

Vigil at Fort Meade prior to sentence announcement. August 21, 2013.
Vigil at Fort Meade prior to sentence announcement. August 21, 2013.
By the Bradley Manning Support Network, August 21, 2013.
www.bradleymanning.org 
Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years, defense moves for Presidential Pardon
WikiLeaks whistle-blower Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison today, an outrage that flies in the face of America’s essential ideals of accountability in government, and which seeks to instill a chilling effect on those who’d dare to expose the United States’ illegality. A heroic soldier of conscience, Manning witnessed war crimes, rampant corruption, and covert abuse while stationed in Baghdad in 2009-10, and exposed what he saw by releasing hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic files to the transparency website WikiLeaks. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three years in a row. Earlier this month, more than 100,000 signatures in support of his 2013 nomination were delivered to the Nobel committee in Norway. Military judge Col. Denise Lind’s sentence is an outright injustice that we cannot accept.
“The only person prosecuted for the crimes and abuses uncovered in the WikiLeaks’ releases is the person who exposed them,” said Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg. “That alone proves the injustice of one more day in prison for Bradley Manning.”
Manning can subtract more than three and a half years off of that sentence, for the time he has already served and the mere 112 days he was credited for enduring torture while detained at the Quantico Marine Brig. He will be eligible to reduce his sentence by 10% for good behavior.
The fight for Manning’s freedom is far from over. Supporters and attorney David Coombs will demand Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, Military of the District of Washington commander and Convening Authority of Manning’s court martial, to reduce the sentence, which he has the legal authority to do. The Bradley Manning Support Network will collect and deliver thousands of lesser in support of Manning’s clemency to Maj. Gen. Buchanan.
“By successfully funding Bradley’s legal efforts, and by mobilizing worldwide support, we won an acquittal on “aiding the enemy,” says Jeff Paterson, the Support Network’s director. “We move forward today on every available front to win his freedom.”
Mr. Coombs is applying for a Presidential Pardon, and the case will be brought to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, to address several deprivations of Manning’s due process rights. He was detained without trial for more than three years, in violation of his Constitutional right to a speedy trial. He was only awarded four months off of his sentence for the psychological torture he suffered while in solitary confinement for more than nine months at Quantico, which fails to hold the Marines accountable for that treatment. President Obama declared Manning guilty in April 2011, more than two years before his trial began, which constitutes unlawful command influence, in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Finally, Military Judge Col. Denise Lind allowed the prosecution to change its charge sheet at the 11th hour, after both the government and defense had questioned their witnesses and rested their cases.
The Bradley Manning Support Network is responsible for 100% of Manning’s legal fees, as well as international education efforts. Funded by 21,000 individuals, the Support Network has mustered $1.4 million in Manning’s defense.
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ACTION ALERT…ACTION ALERT… ACTION ALERT…
Bradley Manning –
sentencenced TODAY!   

Protest, 6pm tonight, US embassy,
Grosvenor Square
London W1A 2LQ
, tube Bond Street 
More UK events here
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At Fort Meade, US, gathering at the Main Gate for a vigil 2.5 hours prior to sentencing. After sentencing: Bradley Manning Support Network press conference near Fort Meade. At 7:30 pm, rally at the White House, Washington
More US and international events here
 
Bradley Manning is the gay US military whistleblower who revealed US and other governments’ crimes to Wikileaks. Ever since his trial started on June 3rd in Fort Meade, Maryland, protests and support have never stopped inside and outside the Court. On 30 July, the charge of “aiding the enemy” was dropped, but Bradley Manning was convicted of 20 offences, including five counts of "espionage".
 
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What we can do - for now:Bradley will be able to appeal for ‘clemency’ from the convening authority. Major General Jeffery Buchanan can reduce Bradley’s sentence. He cannot increase it.
PHONE EMAIL FAX OR WRITE TO:
1.      Maj Gen Buchanan(202) 685-2900 jeffrey.s.buchanan@us.army.mil
Deputy Officer Public Affairs(202) 685-2900 adrienne.m.combs.civ@mail.mil Adrienne Combs,
Public Affairs Officer (202) 685-4899 michelle.l.martinhing.mil@mail.mil
Col. Michelle Martin-Hing,
The Public Affairs Office fax #: 202-685-0706
2.      OBAMA TO ISSUE A PRESIDENTIAL PARDON
Call the Comments Line 202-456-1111
Write to: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500,
INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING! REFUSING TO KILL IS NOT A CRIME!
FREE BRADLEY MANNING!

Payday men's network has been organising with Queer Strike in defence of Bradley Manning and other whistleblowers and refuseniks. Contact us at payday@paydaynet.org    www.refusingtokill.net
Tel: 020 7267 8698 
 

Manning could serve sentence at famous Leavenworth


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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — After being sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning could be headed for hard time at Fort Leavenworth, home to the American military's most famous prison.

The Army penitentiary has shed its once-imposing stone edifice, but inside Manning would confront a dreary, unchanging environment where inmates are highly restricted, graveyard work shifts are common and jobs pay just pennies per hour.

The judge did not say where Manning would serve his time. But Col. Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the Military District of Washington, said Manning would likely go to Fort Leavenworth, the only military prison for service members sentenced to 10 or more years of confinement.

She said that if space there is limited, military prisoners can be sent to a civilian federal prison.

Manning already has spent time in Leavenworth alongside the military's worst criminals. Here's a look inside.

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A PRISON TOWN

For generations, Leavenworth — a city of 35,000 just west of Kanas City, Mo. — has had an ominous place in pop culture. The name alone conjures images of chain gangs of prisoners in zebra-striped uniforms cracking rocks with pick axes — all under the gaze of cold-eyed guards atop watch towers.

Hollywood's license notwithstanding, this city and the surrounding area are largely defined by the business of incarceration. Near the military barracks is the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, a federal prison known for its "Big House." Just miles away in Lansing is the state's oldest prison, where the two men convicted of the Kansas killings that inspired the book "In Cold Blood" were hanged in 1965.

Fort Leavenworth's former Disciplinary Barracks, an imposing structure overlooking the Missouri River, was once known as "The Castle."

But some of the architecture at the military's current Disciplinary Barracks, which opened in 2002, seems more like a modern community college built on a landscape of rolling hills. Cells are built in pods around a common area.

———

A STORIED PRISON HISTORY

The military built its first prison at Fort Leavenworth in the 1870s, and "The Castle" that so dominated the Army post's landscape for decades held as many as 1,500 prisoners. The current prison is much smaller, with 515 beds.

Leavenworth had its share of famous inmates.

It housed Mennonites who objected to military service during World War I, and 14 German prisoners from World War II were hanged there in 1945 for murdering other POWs they believed were traitors.

The old prison also housed Lt. William Calley, who was convicted of murder over the My Lai Massacre in 1968 during the Vietnam War, and famed boxer Rocky Graziano, who received a nine-month sentence during World War II for going absent without leave after punching an officer.

Manning could add to the list, as could Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is on trial in the 2009 attack on Fort Hood that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30.

The inmates include ranks as high as lieutenant colonel. Six are under death sentences, including, Hasan Akbar, convicted for the 2003 murder of two Army officers in Kuwait.

The prison also is where Sgt. Robert Bales will be housed after being convicted of killing 16 Afghan civilians during nighttime raids in 2012.

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A REPETITIVE AND REGIMENTED LIFE

Leavenworth inmates will spend an average of 19 years behind bars.

Raelean Finch, a former Army captain who visits the barracks regularly, described life inside as "monotonous."

The prison's daily routines are "fairly repetitive, restrictive and militarized," said Anita Gorecki-Robbins, a Washington military defense lawyer. And inmates have no Internet access.

Army regulations require prisoners to do "a full day of useful, constructive work" and a 40-hour workweek. Prisoners have maintenance, warehouse, laundry and kitchen details but also have access to multiple vocational training programs, including graphic arts and barbering.

An inmate's daily schedule — when he rises and sleeps — depends upon when he works. There is a graveyard shift and working it allows an inmate to sleep until early afternoon, Finch said.

Finch co-authors a blog, "Captain Incarcerated," with an inmate she identifies only as "Russ" because she doesn't not want postings to affect his prospects for parole. Depending on how they're classified after arriving, inmates often are required to spend only six hours a day — or even none — in their cells, she said.

That would contrast with Manning's past incarceration at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., where he was confined in a windowless 6-by-8-foot cell for 23 hours a day. Sometimes, all his clothing, including underwear, was removed from his cell, along with his glasses and reading material. The Pentagon defended his treatment, saying it was designed to prevent him from committing suicide.

———

SPARTAN LIVING QUARTERS

A photo of a typical cell in the Leavenworth barracks shows a well-lit but austere space, with a bunk and a desk and a metal toilet-and-sink unit. On her blog, Finch's co-author described beginning his incarceration in a 6-by-9-foot cell with cinderblock walls and a green steel door.

"It is dreary," Gorecki-Robbins said.

Inmates have access to playing cards, board games and television. The prison has craft and music rooms, and recreational activities, including weightlifting and playing basketball, flag football and ping pong. Both Finch and Gorecki-Robbins said seating for television or movies shown by the prison is determined by an inmate's social status, with the inmate with the highest ranking sitting front and center and newcomers taking seats in the back.

Uniforms are brown, usually worn and "heavily starched," Finch said. Inmates can buy their own shoes, she said, and that's where their fashion individuality shows.

Inmates are paid just pennies an hour for their work, Finch said. People outside the prison can send them money orders, though they're limited to spending $80 a month, she said.

Visitors can come any day of the week, according to post officials, though hours on weekdays are limited to the evenings. There are no conjugal visits.

———

NOT AS ROUGH AS OTHER LOCKUPS?

Both Finch and Gorecki-Robbins said many inmates perceive the Leavenworth barracks as safer than civilian prisons run by states and the federal government — and better kept.

"It's presided over by military folks," Finch said. "These are people who cleaned bathrooms with a toothbrush during basic training."

———

Associated Press Writer John Milburn contributed to this report.

Manning sentenced to 35 years in WikiLeaks case

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FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison for giving hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in one of the nation's biggest leak cases since the Pentagon Papers more than a generation ago.
Flanked by his lawyers, Manning, 25, stood at attention in his dress uniform and showed no reaction as military judge Col. Denise Lind announced the punishment without explanation during a brief hearing.
Among the spectators, there was a gasp, and one woman buried her face in her hands.
"I'm shocked. I did not think she would do that," said Manning supporter Jim Holland, of San Diego. "Thirty-five years, my Lord."
The former intelligence analyst was found guilty last month of 20 crimes, including six violations of the Espionage Act, as part of the Obama administration's unprecedented crackdown on media leaks. He was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, an offense that could have meant life in prison without parole.
Manning could have gotten 90 years behind bars. Prosecutors asked for at least 60 as a warning to other soldiers, while Manning's lawyer suggested he get no more than 25, because some of the documents he leaked will be declassified by then.
He will get credit for the more than three years he has been held but will have to serve at least one-third of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. He was also demoted to private and dishonorably discharged.
After the judge imposed the sentence, guards hurried Manning out of the courtroom as about a half-dozen supporters shouted from the back: "We'll keep fighting for you, Bradley!" and "You're our hero!"
Prosecutors had no immediate comment, while the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and other activists decried the punishment.
"When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system," said Ben Wizner, head of the ACLU's speech and technology project.
Gabriel Schoenfeld, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank and author of the book "Necessary Secrets," welcomed Manning's punishment.
"The sentence is a tragedy for Bradley Manning, but it is one he brought upon himself," he said. "It will certainly serve to bolster deterrence against other potential leakers."
But he also warned that the sentence will ensure that Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker who has taken refuge in Russia, "will do his best never to return to the United States and face a trial and stiff sentence."
Manning digitally copied and released more than 700,000 documents, including Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department cables, while working in 2010 in Iraq.
The Crescent, Okla., native also leaked video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that mistakenly killed at least nine people, including a Reuters photographer.
A potentially more explosive leak case unfolded as Manning's court-martial was underway, when Snowden was charged with espionage for exposing the NSA's Internet and telephone surveillance programs.
At his trial, Manning said he gave the material to the secrets-spilling website WikiLeaks to expose the U.S. military's "bloodlust" and generate debate over the wars and U.S. policy.
During the sentencing phase, he apologized for the damage he caused, saying, "When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people."
His lawyers also argued that Manning suffered extreme inner turmoil over his gender identity — his feeling that he was a woman trapped in a man's body — while serving in the macho military during the "don't ask, don't tell" era. Among the evidence was a photo of him in a blond wig and lipstick.
Defense attorney David Coombs argued that Manning had been full of youthful idealism and "really, truly, genuinely believed that this information could make a difference."
Prosecutors showed that al-Qaida used material from the helicopter attack in a propaganda video and that Osama bin Laden presumably read some of the leaked documents. Some of the material was found in bin Laden's hideout after he was killed.
Also, government witnesses testified the leaks endangered U.S. intelligence sources, some of whom were moved to other countries for their safety. And several ambassadors were recalled, expelled or reassigned because of embarrassing disclosures.
The Obama administration has charged seven people with leaking to the news media, while only three people were prosecuted in all previous administrations combined.
Prosecutors called Manning an anarchist and an attention-seeking traitor, while supporters have hailed him as a whistleblower and likened him to Daniel Ellsberg, the defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
The secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam was released to The New York Times and other newspapers in a case touched off an epic clash between the Nixon administration and the press and led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the First Amendment.
In a telephone interview after Manning's sentencing, Ellsberg called the soldier "one more casualty of a horrible, wrongful war that he tried to shorten."
"I think his example will always be an inspiration of civil and moral courage to truth tellers in the future," Ellsberg said.
A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Michael Ratner, has suggested Manning's conviction could make it easier for federal prosecutors to get an indictment against Assange as a co-conspirator.
But other legal experts said the Australian's status as a foreigner and a publisher make it unlikely he will be indicted.
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