Outrageously
sentenced to 35 years in prison:
Campaign for presidential pardon
begins
Outrageously, Bradley Manning was sentenced today to 35
years in prison - a sentence meant to carry a chilling message to anyone
considering future exposures of government illegalities. Bradley’s lawyer David
Coombs held a press conference immediately following the announcement where he
shared a profound letter written by Bradley Manning which will be delivered to
the White House asking for a presidential pardon. He also recounted that when
faced with the sentence, Bradley Manning spoke with integrity and composure:
“I’m going to get through this” he said.
In response to this travesty of justice, Amnesty
International and the Bradley Manning Support Network launched a White House
petition today calling for Bradley Manning’s sentence to be commuted to time
served. We must accumulate 100,000 signatures in the next month. Please share
this petition widely!
Coinciding with the campaign to pardon Bradley Manning,
a new website has been launched inviting people to show their support by
submitting a photo holding a “Pardon Bradley Manning” sign, along with a
personal message. View
photos and submit your own here.
Lawyer David Coombs
reads powerful letter by Bradley Manning
This profound statement by Bradley
Manning was read by David Coombs at the press conference:
The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of the
concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of
9/11, our country has been at war. We have been at war with an enemy that
chooses not to meet us on a traditional battlefield. Due to this fact, we’ve had
to alter our methods of combatting the risk posed to us and our way of life.
I initially agreed with these methods and chose to
volunteer to help defend our country. It was not until I was in
Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I
started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this time that
I realized that our efforts to meet the risk posed to us by the enemy, we had
forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue life both in Iraq and
Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we
sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians,
instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind
the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any
public accountability.
In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated
the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for
years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and
executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the
name of our war on terror.
Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally
questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of
patriotism drown any logically based dissension, it is usually an American
soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission. Our
nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy—the Trail of
Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism and the Japanese-American internment
camps—to mention a few. I am confident that many of the actions since 9/11 will
one day be viewed in a similar light. As the late Howard Zinn once said, there
is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
I understand that my actions violated the law. I regret
that my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was
never my intent to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to
disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and my
sense of duty to others.
If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my
request knowing that some time you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free
society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have a country that
is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women
and men are created equal.”
Bradley's family also responded to
the sentence through David Coombs:
"We are saddened and disappointed in today's sentence.
We continue to believe that Brad's intentions were good, and that he believed he
was acting in the best interests of his country.
We would again like to thank his extraordinary defense
team for their tireless efforts on his behalf, and of course we want to thank
Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network and the thousands of
supporters around the world who have stood with Brad throughout this
ordeal.
Please know that his fight is not
over."
Help us continue to
cover 100%
of Bradley's legal fees! Donate
today.
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