Tuesday, December 17, 2013

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Bradley Manning Support Network

Today is Chelsea's 4th birthday behind bars

Attorney David Coombs makes 3 public presentations


Today, December 17th, is Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning's fourth birthday behind bars. Last weekend, Courage to Resist and the Private Manning Support Network sponsored three exclusive events in Los Angeles, Oakland, CA, and Seattle, WA, featuring presentations from Chelsea’s attorney, David Coombs. Drawing hundreds in attendance, these events provided supporters with a personal, in-depth report back of this past summer’s historic trial as well as a look forward to the next phase in the fight to win justice for Manning.
He spoke on the problem of government overclassification:
“We have a complete section of our government — that is funded by us — that’s classified… That is a lot of information that is kept out of our public debate. And when you see that you have that lack of transparency in a democratic government that prides itself on being the beacon of democracy for the entire world, you have to ask yourself what’s wrong with that picture.”

On Manning’s intelligence and understanding of Iraq:
“She became kind of the go-to person for the unit, prior to their deployment, if you wanted to know something about Iraq, if you wanted to know something about the area they were going to. This young specialist — actually at the time a PFC, she got promoted when she was deployed — knew more than her superiors, her officers, about where they were going”

“The things she was struggling with was having a conscience.”


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On wartime secrecy:
“...one thing that Chelsea has shown is that we need whistleblowers like her to ensure that when we do commit our nation’s resources, we do so knowing all the facts, we do so knowing true information… Because 7,678 human lives — and that’s just American soldiers — is too much to lose over lies, over incomplete truths.”

Finally, he thanked Courage to Resist and the Private Manning Support Network for standing behind Chelsea and himself for three long years, and he challenged the public to stay engaged moving forward:
“...she released that information because she was hoping that it would spark debates, it would spark worldwide reforms. And now our challenge here today is, ‘Is her hope going to come to fruition? Are we going to have public debates? Are we going to demand accountability? Are going to demand transparency in our government?’ I hope the answer to that is yes.”


Help us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donations matched one to one throughout the month of December.
Donate today.




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