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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