charrob
08-09-2010, 01:22 PM
Activists rally to 'Free Bradley Manning' in WikiLeaks case
By Rachel Streitfeld, CNN
August 9, 2010 5:30 a.m. EDT
Video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2010/08/09/bts.code.pink.manning.rally.cnn.html
Quantico, Virginia (CNN) -- Activists rallied outside the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, Sunday to applaud the man military officials suspect leaked scores of military documents to the WikiLeaks website -- a 22-year-old Army private named Bradley Manning.
"We are here to say that if he, indeed, was the whistle-blower, then we are proud of him," said Medea Benjamin, founder of anti-war group Code Pink. "In the United States that I know and love, transparency is a positive thing."
Manning, who served as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, is the military's focus in the investigation into the largest-ever intelligence leak in American history, to WikiLeaks.org.
He is being detained at Quantico pending a military investigation in a separate case, in which he's charged with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code, including for allegedly leaking a secret military video from the Iraq war to WikiLeaks.
Outside the Quantico gates, about 80 protesters chanted "Bradley Manning told their tale, war criminals off to jail" and held signs calling on the military to "Free Bradley Manning."
Many wore pink and seemed out-of-place in a small community where people sported military haircuts and displayed Marine bumper stickers on their cars.
Ray McGovern, who said he was formerly a CIA analyst, lauded Manning for allegedly releasing information about America's "war of aggression".
"What Bradley Manning has done is to give us as Americans the opportunity to realize what's really going on there," McGovern said.
"If Americans can't realize now that they have the ground truth, literally the ground truth from these Army reports, if they can't realize and move to end these kinds of wars, then there's very little hope for our children or our grandchildren."
About 300 yards away, a handful of counter-protesters wearing the military's trademark olive green held a poster that showed Manning with bloody hands. They called the leak treasonous.
"If Bradley Manning is the one that leaked these documents, he has already put his fellow soldiers at risk," said Jim Hanson, who writes for the pro-military website BlackFive.
"I think the military and the government have some things that should be kept secret. The public knows that ... There is no 'right to know' secret information."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/08/virginia.manning.rally/?hpt=T2
120 supporters rallied to "Free Bradley Manning!" in Quantico, VA, a small town within a US Marine Corps base. Pfc. Manning was transfer after two months in solitary confinement in Kuwait to Quantico only seven days ago. Organized by CodePink and Courage to Resist in only five days, the rally was covered by CNN, ABC, international and local media. Despite being declared off limits to all service members stationed at Quantico, a number of Marines stopped by to talk about the issues.
Private First Class Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, stands accused of disclosing classified video depicting American troops in Iraq shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in 2007. Eleven people were killed, including two Reuters employees, and two children were critically injured. No charges have been filed against the soldiers who did the killing. News sources have also speculated about Manning's involvement in the leak of over 90,000 secret documents (collectively known as the Afghanistan "war logs") made public by WikiLeaks on July 25.
“Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime,” says former Marine Corporal Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, a group working with the Bradley Manning Support Network to raise funds for Pfc. Manning's defense.
Other speakers included: Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink; Phyllis Bennis, writer and peace activist; Josh Stieber, Iraq veteran of the ground unit that appears in the leaked "Collateral Murder" video; Matt Southworth, Iraq Veterans Against the War; Ray McGovern, retired CIA officer and officer, founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; Ellen Barfield, Veterans for Peace; Andrew Castro, ANSWER Coalition; Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus
Organizations that mobilized groups of individuals included: CodePink, ANSWER Coalition, Truth 911, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, World Can't Wait, Food Not Bombs, and regional Washington DC activists.
http://bradleymanning.org
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/08/18655700.php
More Videos:
YouTube - ‪Josh Stieber Defends Bradley Manning‬‎ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuJow8CiMCg)
YouTube - ‪Phyllis Bennis: "Wars Need Secrets!"‬‎ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRUrVj_V_8)
YouTube - ‪Ray McGovern: "No Moral Sense in Pentagon and White House!"‬‎ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUPEPanLlnc)
Photos:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/08/09/us/09manning1_span/jp-manning-1-articleLarge.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/1-8390.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/2-8442.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/3-8372.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/4-8380.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/5-8375.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/8-8398.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/9-8412.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/12-8403.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/13-8431.jpg
Scott Horton Interviews Kevin Zeese about a right-left Coalition Required to Up our Numbers And Stop These Wars:
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/08/08/kevin-zeese/
By Rachel Streitfeld, CNN
August 9, 2010 5:30 a.m. EDT
Video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2010/08/09/bts.code.pink.manning.rally.cnn.html
Quantico, Virginia (CNN) -- Activists rallied outside the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, Sunday to applaud the man military officials suspect leaked scores of military documents to the WikiLeaks website -- a 22-year-old Army private named Bradley Manning.
"We are here to say that if he, indeed, was the whistle-blower, then we are proud of him," said Medea Benjamin, founder of anti-war group Code Pink. "In the United States that I know and love, transparency is a positive thing."
Manning, who served as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, is the military's focus in the investigation into the largest-ever intelligence leak in American history, to WikiLeaks.org.
He is being detained at Quantico pending a military investigation in a separate case, in which he's charged with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code, including for allegedly leaking a secret military video from the Iraq war to WikiLeaks.
Outside the Quantico gates, about 80 protesters chanted "Bradley Manning told their tale, war criminals off to jail" and held signs calling on the military to "Free Bradley Manning."
Many wore pink and seemed out-of-place in a small community where people sported military haircuts and displayed Marine bumper stickers on their cars.
Ray McGovern, who said he was formerly a CIA analyst, lauded Manning for allegedly releasing information about America's "war of aggression".
"What Bradley Manning has done is to give us as Americans the opportunity to realize what's really going on there," McGovern said.
"If Americans can't realize now that they have the ground truth, literally the ground truth from these Army reports, if they can't realize and move to end these kinds of wars, then there's very little hope for our children or our grandchildren."
About 300 yards away, a handful of counter-protesters wearing the military's trademark olive green held a poster that showed Manning with bloody hands. They called the leak treasonous.
"If Bradley Manning is the one that leaked these documents, he has already put his fellow soldiers at risk," said Jim Hanson, who writes for the pro-military website BlackFive.
"I think the military and the government have some things that should be kept secret. The public knows that ... There is no 'right to know' secret information."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/08/virginia.manning.rally/?hpt=T2
120 supporters rallied to "Free Bradley Manning!" in Quantico, VA, a small town within a US Marine Corps base. Pfc. Manning was transfer after two months in solitary confinement in Kuwait to Quantico only seven days ago. Organized by CodePink and Courage to Resist in only five days, the rally was covered by CNN, ABC, international and local media. Despite being declared off limits to all service members stationed at Quantico, a number of Marines stopped by to talk about the issues.
Private First Class Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, stands accused of disclosing classified video depicting American troops in Iraq shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in 2007. Eleven people were killed, including two Reuters employees, and two children were critically injured. No charges have been filed against the soldiers who did the killing. News sources have also speculated about Manning's involvement in the leak of over 90,000 secret documents (collectively known as the Afghanistan "war logs") made public by WikiLeaks on July 25.
“Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime,” says former Marine Corporal Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, a group working with the Bradley Manning Support Network to raise funds for Pfc. Manning's defense.
Other speakers included: Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink; Phyllis Bennis, writer and peace activist; Josh Stieber, Iraq veteran of the ground unit that appears in the leaked "Collateral Murder" video; Matt Southworth, Iraq Veterans Against the War; Ray McGovern, retired CIA officer and officer, founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; Ellen Barfield, Veterans for Peace; Andrew Castro, ANSWER Coalition; Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus
Organizations that mobilized groups of individuals included: CodePink, ANSWER Coalition, Truth 911, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, World Can't Wait, Food Not Bombs, and regional Washington DC activists.
http://bradleymanning.org
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/08/18655700.php
More Videos:
YouTube - ‪Josh Stieber Defends Bradley Manning‬‎ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuJow8CiMCg)
YouTube - ‪Phyllis Bennis: "Wars Need Secrets!"‬‎ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRUrVj_V_8)
YouTube - ‪Ray McGovern: "No Moral Sense in Pentagon and White House!"‬‎ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUPEPanLlnc)
Photos:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/08/09/us/09manning1_span/jp-manning-1-articleLarge.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/1-8390.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/2-8442.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/3-8372.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/4-8380.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/5-8375.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/8-8398.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/9-8412.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/12-8403.jpg
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/08/08/13-8431.jpg
Scott Horton Interviews Kevin Zeese about a right-left Coalition Required to Up our Numbers And Stop These Wars:
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/08/08/kevin-zeese/