Veterans For Peace Stands With Bradley
Manning!
Mass Rally at Ft. Meade, Maryland, Saturday, June
1
Court Martial Begins on Monday, June
3,
International Days of Action, June
1-8
Military veterans are turning out in force to show
support for PFC Bradley Manning
on the eve of his historic court martial, which begins on Monday, June 3,
at Fort Meade, Maryland. The diminutive 25-year-old Manning, who has
acknowledged giving classified Army documents to Wikileaks about U.S. conduct of
the wars Iraq and Afghanistan, is facing the possibility of life in prison. In
what many people see as “overkill,” the Army has charged him with “Aiding the
Enemy,” the most serious of 22 charges.
Many members of Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War will attend a large rally at Fort Meade this Saturday, June 1. Veterans will also participate in International Days of Action, June 1-8, in over 100 cities around the U.S. and worldwide, to demonstrate widespread support for PFC Manning.
Many members of Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War will attend a large rally at Fort Meade this Saturday, June 1. Veterans will also participate in International Days of Action, June 1-8, in over 100 cities around the U.S. and worldwide, to demonstrate widespread support for PFC Manning.
What Manning
released through Wikileaks was evidence of the routine killing of civilians
by US forces
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the routine cover-up of these war crimes. The Iraq
War Logs and the Afghan War Diaries also revealed that military and civilian
leaders were lying to the U.S. people when they presented rosy assessments of
the progress of those wars.
“Bradley Manning is a hero who wanted
to aid the public, not a traitor who wanted to aid the enemy” said Gerry
Condon, a spokesperson for Veterans For Peace. “It is a shame that our nation
did not pay more attention to the information he shared with us three years ago.
Many lives could have been saved - hundreds of Afghani civilians and hundreds of
U.S. soldiers.”
PFC Manning has been
held in prison for over three years, much of it in solitary
confinement and under other abusive treatment, as documented by the United
Nationsl Special Rapporteur on Torture.
The Army's court
martial of Manning, which begins on Monday, is expected to continue throughout
the summer, with the prosecution presenting over 100 government witnesses, many
of them in secret testimony. Veterans For Peace will participate in a daily
vigil outside the front gate of Fort Meade.The Army's presecution
of Bradley Manning coincides with the Obama Administration's crackdown on whistle-blowers and
journalists alike. Over twice as many people are being prosecuted under the 1917
Espionage Act than in all previous administrations combined.
On Thursday, February
28, Bradley Manning made a profound and historic statement to a military court
and to the world. Reading from prepared notes for over an hour, Bradley detailed
how he released classified military and government documents to Wikileaks, and
he explained why he did so.
“I believed if the public,
particularly the American public, could see this it could spark a debate on
the military and our foreign policy in general as it applied to Iraq and
Afghanistan. It might cause society to reconsider the need to engage in counter
terrorism while ignoring the human situation of the people we engaged with every
day.... I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear
conscience.”
One of the most moving aspects of Manning’s testimony was his explanation
as to why he released the so-called “Collateral
Murder” video, which shows the gunning down in
Baghdad of two Reuters journalists and bystanders by American soldiers in a US
Apache helicopter. Manning described being deeply troubled by
the video, especially the crew’s “lack of
concern for human life” and lack of “concern for injured children at the
scene.”
Veterans For Peace,
an international organization with chapters in over 100 cities,
demands that the US Army drop all
charges against Bradley Manning and release him from prison
immediately. We intend to stand with Bradley every
step of the way. We will protest at Fort Meade, Maryland and in our hometowns,
including at military recruiting stations. We will not stop until Bradley
Manning is free.
For more information or interviews
with Veterans For Peace, call Gerry Condon at 206-499-1220
or visit www.veteransforpeace.org and www.bradleymanning.org
or visit www.veteransforpeace.org and www.bradleymanning.org
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