Free Chelsea Manning - President Obama Pardon Chelsea Manning Now!

Amnesty renews call on US govt to free Manning

Join us in urging President Obama to Pardon Chelsea Manning!

July 30, 2014 by the Chelsea Manning Support Network

One year after Chelsea Manning’s conviction, Amnesty International is still calling on the US government to grant her clemency.  Amnesty demands that Chelsea be freed immediately, and for the US government to, “implement a thorough and impartial investigation into the crimes she uncovered.”  Read the full statement from Amnesty International below or click here to view it on amnesty.org:

Exactly one year after Chelsea Manning was convicted of leaking classified government material, Amnesty International is renewing its call on the US authorities to grant her clemency, release her immediately, and to urgently investigate the potential human rights violations exposed by the leaks.

Chelsea Manning has spent the last year as a convicted criminal after exposing information which included evidence of potential human rights violations and breaches of international law. By disseminating classified information via Wikileaks she revealed to the world abuses perpetrated by the US army, military contractors and Iraqi and Afghan troops operating alongside US forces.

“It is an absolute outrage that Chelsea Manning is currently languishing behind bars whilst those she helped to expose, who are potentially guilty of human rights violations, enjoy impunity,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director Amnesty International.

“The US government must grant Chelsea Manning clemency, order her immediate release, and implement a thorough and impartial investigation into the crimes she uncovered.”

After being convicted of 20 separate charges Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, much longer than other members of the military convicted of charges such as murder, rape and war crimes.

Before her conviction, Chelsea Manning had already been held for three years in pre-trial detention, including 11 months in conditions which the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture described as cruel and inhumane.

Chelsea Manning has always maintained that her motivation for releasing the documents to Wikileaks was out of concern for the public and to foster a meaningful debate on the costs of war and the conduct of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Notable amongst the information revealed by Private Manning was previously unseen footage of journalists and other civilians being killed in US helicopter attacks.

Chelsea Manning is now actively engaged with her lawyers in fighting her conviction.

“The US government appears to have its priorities warped. It is sending a worrying message through its harsh punishment of Chelsea Manning that whistleblowers will not be tolerated. On the other hand, its failure to investigate allegations that arose from Chelsea Manning’s disclosures means that those potentially responsible for crimes under international law, including torture and enforced disappearances, may get away scot-free,” said Erika Guevara.

“One year after the conviction of Chelsea Manning we are still calling on the US government to grant her clemency in recognition of her motives for acting as she did, and the time she has already served in prison.” 

Amnesty International has previously expressed concern that a sentence of 35 years in jail was excessive and should have been commuted to time served. The organization believes that Chelsea Manning was overcharged using antiquated legislation aimed at dealing with treason, and denied the opportunity to use a public interest defence at her trial.

In addition, there is little protection in US law for genuine whistleblowers, and this case underlines the need for the US to strengthen protections for those who reveal information that the public has the right to know.

It is crucial that the US government stops using the Espionage Act to prosecute whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning.

Join us in urging President Obama to Pardon Chelsea Manning!

Markin comment   

There is no question that now that her trial, if one can called what took place down in Fort Meade a trial in the summer of 2013 rather than a travesty, that a year after her conviction on twenty plus counts and having received an outrageous thirty-five year sentence essentially for telling us the truth about American atrocities and  nefarious actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever else the American government can stick its nose that Chelsea Manning's case has dropped from view. Although she occasionally gets an Op/Ed opportunity and has several legal moves going from action to get the  necessary hormonal treatments reflecting her real sexual identity to now preparing the first appeal of her conviction to another military tribunal the popular uproar against her imprisonment has become a hush. While the appeals process may produce some results, perhaps a reduction in sentence, the short way home for her is a presidential pardon right now. I urge everybody to sign on to the Amnesty International petition above to put the pressure on President Barack Obama for clemency.                  

I attended some of the sessions of Chelsea Manning’s court-martial in the summer of 2013 and am often asked about what she could expect from the various procedures going forward to try to “spring” her from the clutches of the American government, or as I say whenever I get the chance to not leave “our buddy behind” in the time-honored military parlance. I have usually answered depending on what stage her post-conviction case is in that her sentence was draconian by all standards for someone who did not, although they tried to pin this on her, “aid the enemy.” Certainly Judge Lind though she was being lenient with thirty-five years when the government wanted sixty (and originally more before some of the counts were consolidated). The next step was to appeal, really now that I think about it, a pro forma appeal to the commanding general of the Washington, D.C. military district where the trial was held. There were plenty of grounds to reduce the sentence but General Buchanan backed up his trial judge in the winter of 2014. Leaving Chelsea supporters right now with only the prospect of a presidential pardon to fight for as the court appeals are put together which will take some time.

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Tue, Nov 25, 2014 02:56 PM

ACTION ITEM: Write letters to DoD authorities! Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. NEW ACTION: Write letters to DoD authorities supporting Chelsea's plea for clemency! Secretary of the Army John McHugh President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning’s clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense. Please write them to express your support for heroic WikiLeaks’ whistle-blower former US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning’s release from military prison. It is important that each of these authorities realize the wide support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning enjoys worldwide. They need to be reminded that millions understand that Manning is a political prisoner, imprisoned for following her conscience. While it is highly unlikely that any of these individuals would independently move to release Manning, a reduction in Manning’s outrageous 35-year prison sentence is a possibility at this stage. Take action TODAY- Write letters supporting Chelsea's clemency petition! This clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning’s upcoming appeal before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where Manning’s new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to highlight the prosecution's—and the trial judge's—misconduct during last year’s court-martial at Ft. Meade, Maryland. Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees! > > > Please donate today! < < < follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend unsubscribe from this list| view email in browser

The Latest From The Rag Blog-A Voice Of The Old New Left   

Click below to link to The Rag Blog  

http://www.theragblog.com/

Peter Paul Markin comment:

When we were young, meaning those of us who were militant leftist baby-boomers from the days that I now call the “Generation Of ‘68,” we would chuckle/gasp/shriek in horror when some Old Leftists tried to tell us a few of the ABCs of radical politics.(1968 being a watershed year for lots of things from Tet in Vietnam bringing home the reality of the lost war to the American bourgeois political upheavals that led to Chicago hell in the summer and the May events in Paris which showed the limits that a student-based vision of the "newer world" we sought.)

Those scorned old leftists, mainly old Stalinist Communist Party hangers-on who survived the 1950s red scare or moribund Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party members who survived the red scare and the Stalinists had come of political age in the 1930s and 1940s had nothing to tell us. Yes, we young stalwart in-your-face- rebels were going to re-invent the world we had not made and we needed no old fogies to put a damper on our efforts. See we were going to re-invent that world without the hurts and sorrows accumulated from millennia of previous struggles to push the rock up the hill of human progress.
Well, we fell significantly short of that aim, had that Promethean rock come speeding down over our heads the minute the American government felt the least bit threatened. (Chicago 1968, Kent State 1970 and for me personally May Day 1971 when we without anywhere near adequate forces or much of a strategy were going to shut down the government if it did not shut down the war stand as signposts to those failures.) Today I am still not sure whether in retrospect those scorned Old Leftists of old had anything going but all I know is we are now cast in somewhat the same light. We are now the Old New Leftists.
Problem is that unlike our 1960s generation, warts and all, there is no sizable younger crowd of young stalwart in-your-face-rebels to thumb their noses up at us. And there should be. That has not stopped many old radicals, many who have not succumbed to old age and hubris, from trying to be heard. And the place they have congregated, for better or worse, at least from what I can see is at this site.          

So I find this The Rag Blog website very useful to monitor for the latest in what is happening with past tense radical activists and activities. Anybody, with some kind of name, and who is still around from the 1960s has found a home here. The remembrances and recollections are helpful for today’s activists. Strangely the politics are almost non-existent, as least any that  would help today, except to kind of retroactively “bless” those old-time New Left politics that did nothing (well, almost nothing) but get us on the losing end of the class (and cultural) wars of the  last forty plus years. Still this is a must read blog for today’s young left-wing militants.

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A Frank Jackman comment (2014):

Recently I wrote a short piece in a left-wing political blog centered on the need for revolutionary intellectuals to take their rightful place on the active left, on the people’s side, and to stop sitting on the academic sidelines (or wherever they were hiding out). One of the reasons for that piece was that in the aftermath of the demise of the Occupy movement a few years back, the continuing failed efforts to stop the incessant American war machine, and the lack of serious and righteous response to the beating that the working classes and oppressed in this country (and internationally) have taken from the ruling class and their hangers-on a certain stock-taking was in order. A stock-taking at first centered on those young radical and revolutionaries that I had run into in the various campsites and had talked to on the flash mob marches who were disoriented and discouraged when their utopian dreams went up in smoke without a murmur of regret from the masses.

I noted there, and the point is germane here as I try to place the remnant of old New Left represented by the contributors in The Rag Blog in perspective, that is almost a political truism that each generation will find its own ways to cope with the political tasks that confront it. The international working class movement is no exception in that regard. Moreover, although the general outlines of Marxist theory which I mentioned in the article still holds true such tasks as the updating of the theory of imperialism to take into account the qualitative leap in its globalization is necessary (as is, as an adjunct to that, the significance of the gigantic increases in the size of the ‘third world’ proletariat). Also in need of freshening up is work on the contours of revolutionary political organization in the age of high speed communications, the increased weight that non-working-class specific questions play in world politics (the national question which if anything has had a dramatic uptick since the demise of the Soviet Union), religion (the almost universal trend for the extremes of religious expression to rear their ugly heads which needs to be combated), special racial and gender oppressions, and various other tasks that earlier generations had taken for granted or had not needed to consider. All this moreover has to be done in a political environment that sees Marxism, communism, even garden variety reform socialism as failed experiments. To address all the foregoing issues is where my call for a new crop of revolutionary intellectuals comes from.

That said I have also made a note that some of theories from the old days, now being re-tread by some of the old New Left denizens of this blog as if nothing had changed since the 1960s,  made me think that making the revolution the old-fashioned Marxist working class way is the beginning of wisdom. In the interest of full disclosure though back in the day I was as likely as anybody to adhere to all kinds of new theories (mainly because the old theories being old must be irrelevant, a notion that was widespread then) but life, political life, itself has already made its judgments on the worth of those theories for pulling humankind ahead. The class struggle exists, although in a very one-sided manner right now, one-sided on their side not ours, and any theory, any plan worth its salt, worth the righteous oppressed rising up against it should reflect that and at its core the teachings of Marx and his progeny still make sense.   
A Markin disclaimer:

I place some material in this space which I believe may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. One of the worst aspects of the old New Left back in the 1970s as many turned to Marxism after about fifty other theories did not work out (mainly centered on some student-based movements that were somehow to bring down the beast without a struggle for state power) was replicating the worst of the old Old Left and freezing out political debate with other opponents on the Left to try to clarify the pressing issues of the day. That freezing out , more times than I care to mention including my own behavior a few times, included physical exclusion and intimidation. I have since come to believe that the fight around programs and politics is what makes us different, and more interesting. The mix of ideas, personalities and programs, will sort themselves out in the furnace of the revolution as they have done in the past. 

Off-hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the “remedies” provided by the commentators in these various blogs and other networking media. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts. So read on. 

Free Chelsea Manning-President Obama Pardon Chelsea Now!  

 

A message from Chelsea on #GivingTuesday Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees! > > > Please donate today! < < < A message from Chelsea Manning #GivingTuesday Chelsea E. Manning 89289 1300 North Warehouse Road Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027-2304 November 29, 2014 First, I would like to thank you very much for your extraordinary contribution throughout my court-martial last year. Without your commitment, the truth might not have been nearly as visible to the public and many of the big issues that are touched on in my case would have gone unnoticed. But now, in preparing for my appeal, I have worked with the Chelsea Manning Support Network to hire two great appellate attorneys, Nancy Hollander and Vincent Ward of the law firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias and Ward. Both Ms. Hollander and Mr. Ward have achieved some remarkable successes in complicated and high profile civil and criminal cases in the past, and have fought to protect our Constitution, civil liberties and social justice through their work at Guantanamo Bay, the Gulf Coast oil spill, and so many more cases. They have already begun the painstaking task of poring through the tens of thousands of pages produced at trial, and researching every possible angle of the case. Fortunately, they have already identified some major issues that provide a realistic chance of overturning convictions based on the “Espionage Act” and “Computer Fraud and Abuse Act” that could significantly reduce the sentence. However, I still need your contribution again to continue to fund their efforts at this critical stage in the case. My case touches on so many important issues that affect most—if not all—Americans. I hope that you can continue contributing to my fight for Justice. The actions that lead up to my trial were motivated by my conscience and concern for the public interest. But, there are still many things that I hope I can accomplish after my release from confinement---including advocacy for transparency in government, military, and civil life, and lobbying to ensure that reforms are made, and enforced. I encourage you to write to me, and I am looking forward to reading your thought, opinions, and unique feedback. I hope that we can continue to fight together to curb the government’s overreach and change the course of history, for the better! Chelsea E. Manning Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees! > > > Please donate today! < < <

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No Justice, No Peace- Black Lives Matter- You Have Got That Right Brothers and Sisters-Speaking Truth To Power- Malcolm X  

 

 

 

 

No Justice, No Peace- Black Lives Matter- You Have Got That Right Brothers and Sisters

View this email online. Share: December 2014: Black Lives Matter—Are You Signed Up? Dear Mary Lynn, Ferguson is not a flash in the pan.  The current moment is one that has broken through years of pain, anger, and organizing. Young African American organizers are leading the call for a movement that not only stops our national crisis of police killings of young Black men but also changes our society into one that refuses to tolerate the criminalization, devaluing, killing, and brutalizing of Black people.  On a call before the Ferguson grand jury decision these young Black organizers shared that proclaiming All Lives Matter misses the point, because it goes without saying that white lives matter. The power of the Black Lives Matter slogan is that it contradicts what our culture currently expresses. The young leaders of Ferguson are demanding that their lives matter and asking us if we will join them in their struggle. Will you sign up? In short order we have had two grand juries decide not to indict police officers for the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, respectively. Now more than ever we have a chance to make change through mass action, speaking out, crossing borders, building relationships, and organizing. Across the country UUs are joining demonstrations in their communities. The National Action Network is organizing a national march against police violence on December 13 (check the Standing on the Side of Love Facebook page for details about a UU contingent being organized in the DC area).  If you or your congregation have been part of Black Lives Matter protests we want to hear from you. If you were not but wish you had been we want to hear from you. It’s time to organize our UU presence in this movement as powerfully as we can; we can start by standing up, being counted, and connecting. Fill out this form to be part of Standing on the Side of Love: Black Lives Matter. Many of our congregations are part of community organizations addressing the criminalization of people of color—from racial profiling and mass incarceration and deportation to denying voting rights. Many of us are actively engaged in anti-racism work. And we all still struggle with the complicity of faith communities and faith leaders in these larger evils, through silence, through a lack of building relationships, through inaction. It’s time to really commit our faith community to being a strong part of the Black Lives Matter movement, bringing everything we can to it—from examining our own complicity in oppression to dismantling it and building Beloved Community. Can we sign you up?  Finally, get ready for Selma in March 2015 (registration now open) because we are going to be commemorating and recommitting our faith to the movement for racial justice. It’s been fifty years since we acted boldly in Selma and a loving bold spirit is needed now. It’s time to sign up, because Black Lives Matter! Get resources for Standing on the Side of Love: Black Lives Matter, and be counted. Keep working in solidarity and keep loving. In faith, Alex, Annette, Audra, Janice, Jennifer, Jessica, Lesley, Nora, Susan, and Taquiena Multicultural Growth & Witness staff

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On The Parliamentary Front Against The American Middle East Wars

Syria, Iraq and ISIS: Understanding the New War; How Should the Peace Movement Respond? Wed, Dec. 10, 7:00 pm Cambridge Friends Center 5 Longfellow Park, off Brattle Street, Cambridge Prof. Elaine Hagopian on understanding the war Activist views on the peace movement's response Discussion on what to do next The US announced early in November that troop deployment in the war against ISIS will be doubled from 1500 to 3000 -- although they are supposedly not "boots on the ground." Meanwhile, thousands of air sorties have been flown and the Obama administration is again asking Congress for billions to fund a new war. But US allies are reluctant to commit resources, Turkey regards the Kurds as the greater threat and Saudi Arabia is privately providing ISIS aid. The US is battling to overthrow Assad in Syria while also fighting his enemy. Contacts are made with Iran -- but we don't really want to coordinate efforts. Beheadings rouse demands for action. The US claims its only goal is to defeat ISIS but the long term goal has not changed: regime change in Syria and continued domination over the region made unstable by years of US intervention. The prospect of a long and escalating war confronts us. What is our message in this complex and contradictory situation? Elaine Hagopian, professor emeritus of sociology at Simmons College, will provide background and context on Syria, referencing Palestine and Iraq. Cole Harrison, executive director of Mass Peace Action, and Marilyn Levin, co-coordinator of United National Antiwar Coalition, will offer different views on the peace movement's response. Elaine Hagopian is a retired professor of sociology from Simmons College, Boston. She served as visiting professor of sociology at the American University in Beirut, and as a distinguished Lecturer at the American University of Cairo. She was awarded two Fulbright Hays Faculty research grants to do research in France and the Arab region. She served with UNCIEF in the United Arab Emirates; and as part of a UNESCO team to do a feasibility study for a Palestine Open University. Her publications focus on Arab regional issues and on Arab-Americans; her article "Bashar Assad's Missed Opportunity: Syria's Pandoran Box" appeared in Counterpunch in June 2011. $5 donation requested Sponsored by United for Justice with Peace info@justicewithpeace.org 617 383 4857 Dear Al, The Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) is set to vote on authorizing our latest war in Iraq and Syria THIS week. Our Senator, Edward Markey, is a member of the committee. He needs to hear from you before the vote! Call Senator Markey by using this special toll-free number: 877-429-0678. This number will connect you with the Capitol Switchboard operator, and you should ask to be connected to Senator Markey's office.  (Thanks to the Friends Committee on National Legislation for the toll-free-number) You can say: “I understand the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be debating the use of force against ISIS. I urge the Senator to oppose authorizing force in Iraq and Syria. However, if there are opportunities to constrain the use of force, such as by prohibiting ground troops, I urge the Senator to support those constraints.” After calling Senator Markey, send him an email using this online form. Now is the time to act. This is our last chance to restrain the war before the new Republican-controlled Congress comes to Washington. The SFRC’s vote will decide not only whether or not to endorse the war in Iraq and Syria, but what restrictions, if any, to place on that war. With congressional hawks set to take the reins of power, there will be a push to send combat troops to fight ISIS, to expand the war into pursuing regime change in Syria, and to flood the conflict with American weapons. The SFRC must seize this opportunity to end endless war. Please call Senator Markey and ask him to vote against the war in Iraq and Syria: 877-429-0678. After calling Senator Markey, send him a message to follow up. Responding to violence with violence is not working -- to improve safety or to defeat violent extremism. No use of force will solve the problems that plague the region. Violent extremism cannot be bombed out of existence. Instead, the U.S. needs to lead an effective response to stop the violence perpetrated by ISIS and to help people in the region restore security. Now, finally, Senator Markey will have a chance to vote on whether this military-focused strategy is the right way forward. Please call him today: 877-429-0678. After calling Senator Markey, send him a written note as a reminder! Americans in uniform have already died in this war, and it is shameful that Members of Congress have so far hidden from their constitutional responsibility to debate and vote on such a monumental issue. Americans deserve to know whether our elected officials support yet another endless war in the Middle East or are ready to stand up for peace. Power to the peaceful, Shelagh Foreman Program Director P.S. Call Senator Markey NOW at 877-429-0678. Thanks!

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