Press Release... Press Release... Press Release... Press Release... Press Release... Contact: Giorgio Riva (Payday men's network) 07837 89699 Anne Neale (Queer Strike) 07958  152171 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHELSEA MANNING - FREE HER NOW! Tuesday 17 December 2013  3 - 4.30 pm Vigil at St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square London WC2N 4JJ, Charing Cross tube   Supporters of international whistleblower Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning will gather in London on Tuesday to celebrate her 26th birthday by demanding her immediate release. The US soldier was jailed for 35 years for leaking documents via Wikileaks that exposed US and other governments’ war crimes and corruption. There will be similar actions in Berlin, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco . . . Thanks to Chelsea's whistleblowing, we the public now knows about: The “collateral murder” video of a US helicopter crew killing Iraqi civilians ● the cover-up of rape in Iraq & Afghanistan ● the extent of drone strikes ● US dirty tricks in Haiti, Venezuela, Peru & elsewhere ● the corruption of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali that spurred the 2011 revolution ● Israel consulting with the Egyptian government and the Palestinian Authority before invading Gaza . . . Protestors will invite people to support a petition by Amnesty International demanding her immediate release and another petition by the Private Manning Support Network demanding President Obama's pardon.  "The sentence imposed on Chelsea Manning is harsher than most convicted murderers and rapists. The US government wants to make an example of Chelsea Manning to discourage whistleblowing on their crimes, including the surveillance of all of us," says Giorgio Riva of Payday men's network, joint organiser of the vigil. "Ever since Chelsea was detained and tortured in 2010, international protests, including by LGBTQ people, have demanded the release of our Queer Hero.  It’s urgent that we increase the pressure for her immediate release. The prison authorities need to respect her new identity as a woman - Chelsea should now be able to start the hormone therapy he wants,” explains Anne Neale of Queer Strike, joint organiser of the event. The vigil will denounce the recent witch-hunting of The Guardian which published secret information on government surveillance operations. As well as demanding that governments "stop spying on us," the vigil will highlight the situation of the growing list of courageous whistleblowers: Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, confined by the UK to the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he was granted asylum ● Edward Snowden, computer expert exiled in Russia for revealing massive spying by government agencies NSA & GCHQ ● Sarah Harrison, British Wikileaks journalist who ensured Snowden's safety to Russia and whose return to the UK is deemed "unsafe" ● David Miranda, interrogated at Heathrow airport on Snowden's disclosures, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act ●  Jeremy Hammond,  jailed for 10 years for hacking the intelligence contracting firm Stratfor, exposing the use of paid informants ● Barrett Brown:  US journalist who faces over 100 years in prison for reporting on firms like Stratfor and linking to hacked information.      Julian Assange Edward Snowden Sarah Harrison David Miranda Jeremy Hammond Barrett Brown  Payday men’s network  payday@paydaynet.org  www.refusingtokill.net  020 7267 8698  Queer Strike  queerstrike@queerstrike.net   020 7482 2496