Taking PRIDE in Bradley Manning

Taking PRIDE in Bradley Manning

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With Bradley Manning’s court martial in full swing, Bradley Manning contingents marched in PRIDE parades around the country and world. Supporters organized street theatre performances, parade floats, and in SF an airplane swooped over the event carrying a Free Bradley Manning banner! All this public support for Bradley has sent a clear message: Bradley Manning is a heroic whistleblower, and enough is enough – he must be set free! The military cannot get away with having persecuted a gay soldier who did the right thing. Exposing war crimes is not a crime! Free Bradley Manning!

The Bradley Manning contingent in the SF Pride parade was the largest non corporate group in attendance! Free Bradley Manning!

In San Francisco, Bradley Manning supporters made up the largest non-corporate sponsored group, consisting of well over a thousand people. Courage to Resist reports:

The contingent featured former military strategist Daniel Ellsberg who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. Ellsberg, adorned with a pink boa, rode on a pickup truck declaring Bradley Manning “The People’s Grand Marshal.”
The contingent featured dozens of supporters riding a trolley car, the Brass Liberation Orchestra marching band, and a synchronized dance group doing a routine to Michael Jackson’s ‘They don’t care about us’. High above Market Street, an airplane dragged a banner reading ‘Our LGTBQ Hero – Bradley Manning’.

View more photos from the SF Pride march!

In New York City, the Bradley Manning contingent included a street theatre performance with a large moving jail cell and an actor playing Bradley Manning inside it. The theatre performance was organized by playwright Claire Lebowitz. Members of Veterans For Peace also joined the march. Elias Holtz, an organizer from the NYC Pride contingent writes:

… it wasn’t my crush that motivated me to spend over two months organizing a big group of queers (and allies) to march for Bradley in the New York Pride Parade.
I was motivated more by the fact that Pride would come while Bradley was on trial and would be a huge opportunity to show that the LGBT community stands with Bradley and his actions. I knew that we could rally tens of thousands behind his case in New York City alone. LGBT people know how brave one has to be to speak the truth. We back up people who speak out.
The effort became national, and we coordinated with #BradleyPride contingents in Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, and San Francisco.

In Chicago, the Gay Liberation Network initiated a “Free Bradley Manning” contingent in this year’s Pride Parade in Chicago — as an opportunity to spread the anti-war message and to defend civil liberties.

Marching for Bradley in the Chicaco Pride Parade

In Seattle, the Bradley Manning contingent was placed right near the head of the parade, third from the start.
In London, Queer+ Friends of Bradley Manning organized a contingent in support of the heroic whistleblower. Supporters marched behind a hand painted banner, while handing out more than 4000 flyers and thousands of stickers.
And at the Twin Cities Pride parade a photo booth was setup for people to take “I Am Bradley Manning” photos.

More great links:
Video of London Pride march.
Photos from Queer+ Friends of Bradley Manning
More photos from the NYC Bradley Manning contingent

*Why Communists Do Not Celebrate July 4th- Another Guest Commentary

Click on the title to link to a Workers Vanguard, Number 942, September 11, 2009 article entitled Slavery and The Origins of American Capitalism, Part 1 (Part Two is dated September 25, 2009 and Part Three October 9, 2009 which provided added details to the premise of this entry. For Parts Two and Three check today's other entry Why Communists Do Not Celebrate July 4- A Guest Commentary.
Guest Commentary:

"Why We Don't Celebrate July 4-Marxism and the "Spirit Of '76"- Workers Vanguard, Number 116, July 2, 1976

The burned-out tenements of America's decaying slums are plastered with red, white and blue posters celebrating a 200-year-old revolution. From factory bulletin boards and the walls of unemployment offices, patriotic displays urge American working people to join with Gerald Ford and the butchers of Vietnam in commemorating the "Spirit of '76." Class-conscious workers and militant blacks, like the colonial masses ground down under the economic and military heel of arrogant American imperialism, must recoil in revulsion from the U.S. bourgeoisie's hypocritical pieties about "liberty."

The Fourth of July is not our holiday. But the chauvinist ballyhoo of the "People's Bicentennial" does not negate the need for a serious Marxist appreciation of colonial America's war of independence against monarchical/ mercantilist England. Marxists have always stressed the powerful impact of the classic bourgeois-democratic revolutions in breaking feudal-aristocratic barriers to historical progress.

In appealing for support for the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin in his Letter to American Workers (1918) wrote:

"The history of modern, civilized America opened with one of those really
great, really liberating, really revolutionary wars of which there have been
so few compared to the vast number of wars of conquest which, like the present
imperialist war, were caused by squabbles among kings, landowners or
capitalists over the division of usurped land or ill-gotten gains. That was the
war the American people waged against the British robbers who oppressed
America and held her in colonial slavery. "

It is also legitimate for revolutionaries to appeal to the most radical-democratic traditions of the great bourgeois revolutions. Yet the fact remains that the Fourth of July is a fundamentally chauvinist holiday, a celebration of national greatness. In no sense does it commemorate a popular uprising against an oppressive system, or even pay tribute to democratic principles and individual freedom. Attempts to lend the Fourth of July a populist coloration (or the Communist Party's popular-front period slogan that "Communism is 20th century Americanism") only express the capitulation of various fake-socialists to the democratic pretensions of American imperialism.

But neither can the traditions of 1776 justly be claimed by the imperialist bourgeoisie. Compared to the leadership of the colonial independence struggle, the present American capitalist class is absolutely degenerate. One has only to think of Franklin or Jefferson, among the intellectual giants of their time, and then consider Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter. The twentieth-century United States is the gendarme of world reaction, the backer of every torture-chamber regime from Santiago to Tehran.

The "founding fathers" would have been revolted by the men who today represent their class. The degeneration of the American bourgeoisie is appropriate to the passing of its progressive mission. The attitude toward religion is a good indicator. Virtually none of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox Christians; they held a rationalist attitude toward the concept of god. Jefferson would have walked out in protest at today's prayer-intoning presidential inaugurations.

The America of 1976 is the contemporary analogue of the tsarist Russia which the "founding fathers" held in contempt as the bastion of world reaction—the tsarist Russia against whose tyranny Lenin and the Bolsheviks organized the proletariat. It is to the world working class that the liberating mission now falls.

Was the War of Independence a Social Revolution?

Like the Fourth of July, Bastille Day in France is an official, patriotic holiday, replete with military marches and chauvinist speeches. Yet the events Bastille Day commemorates retain a certain revolutionary significance to this day. The French people's understanding of 1789 is as a violent overthrow by the masses of an oppressive ruling class. The French imperialist bourgeoisie's efforts to purge the French revolution of present-day revolutionary significance have not succeeded. A Charles De Gaulle or a Valery Giscard d'Estaing cannot embrace Robespierre or Marat, for the latter stand too close to the primitive communist Gracchus Babeuf, who considered himself a true Jacobin.

The American war of independence was also a classic bourgeois-democratic revolution, but it was not really a social revolution which overthrew the existing ruling class. The British loyalists were largely concentrated in the propertied classes and governing elite. However pro-independence forces among the planters and merchants were strong enough to prevent any significant class polarization during the war.

The English and French bourgeois-democratic revolutions had to destroy an entrenched aristocratic order. That destruction required a radical, plebeian terrorist phase associated with the figures of Cromwell and Robespierre. For the American colonies, winning independence from England did not require a regime based on plebeian terror. The war of independence did not produce a Cromwell or a Robespierre because it did not need one. Nor did it give rise to radical egalitarian groups like the Levellers and Diggers, or the Enrages and Babouvists. It never remotely threatened the wealthiest, most conservative planters and merchants who supported secession from Britain.

The consolidation of bourgeois rule in the Puritan and French revolutions required a political counterrevolution in which the Cromwellians and Jacobins were overthrown, persecuted and vilified. The radical opposition which sprung up in resistance to this counterrevolution became part—through the Babouvists in France—of the revolutionary tradition which Marx embraced.

Because the American war of independence did not experience a plebeian terrorist phase, neither did it experience a conservative bourgeois counterrevolution. The leaders of the independence struggle went on to found and govern the republic; greatly venerated, they died of old age.

The men who met in Philadelphia's Convention Hall 200 years ago realized their aims more satisfactorily than any other similarly placed, insurrectionary group in history. This achievement does not bespeak their greatness, but the limited, essentially conservative nature of their goals. The legitimization of black chattel slavery in the Constitution, without significant opposition, demonstrates the bourgeois conservatism of the leaders of the American Revolution. The "founding fathers" had no children who could claim that the principles of 1776 had been betrayed in the interests of the rich and powerful. The era of the war of independence did not give rise to a living revolutionary tradition.

John Brown's Body

There is a social revolution in American history which troubles the imperialist bourgeoisie to this day. It did not begin in 1776, but in the anti-slavery confrontations. The issue rose by the civil war and particularly the period of Radical Reconstruction—the intimate relationship between capitalism in America and racial oppression—awaits its fundamental resolution in future revolutionary struggle. The wasn't-it-tragic attitude of the bourgeoisie to the civil war era contrasts sharply with their celebratory attitude toward the war of independence. The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, unlike the Declaration of Independence, will never be a holiday in racist, imperialist America.

It is in the civil war era that there are parallels with the plebeian component of the French Revolution. The contemporary bourgeois treatment of John Brown resembles the French ruling class attitude toward Robespierre. They cannot disown the anti-slavery cause outright, but they condemn John Brown for his fanatical commitment and violent methods. The Reconstruction era of 1867-1877 is the only period in U.S. history which the present ruling class rejects an un-American extremism. Two important films, D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation and the later Gone With the Wind, are outright apologies for white supremacist terror against the only radical-democratic governments this country has ever experienced. The Compromise of 1877, when the black freedmen were abandoned to the merciless regimes of the ex-slaveholders, was the American bourgeois-democratic revolution betrayed. And the reversal of that historic betrayal awaits the victory of American communism.

Because of the American revolution's limited social mobilization, those whose principles ultimately clashed with bourgeois rule—the likes of Tom Paine and Sam Adams—were easily disposed of. The radical abolitionists—John Brown, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass— are the only figures in American history before the emergence of the workers movement whose commitment to democratic principles actually threatened bourgeois rule. For the same reason that the present-day bourgeoisie denounces John Brown as a dangerous extremist, we communists can claim the radical abolitionists as ours. Only a victorious American socialist revolution can give to the heroes and martyrs of Harper's Ferry and the "underground railway" the honor that is their historic right.

From The American Left History Blog Archives (2006) - On American Political Discourse

 

 

Markin comment:

In 2007-2008 I, in vain, attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on.

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ON THE 4^TH OF JULY -HONOR SAMUEL ADAMS, JAMES OTIS, THOMAS PAINE, THE SONS OF LIBERTY AND THE WINTER SOLDIERS OF VALLEY FORGE.

REMEMBER THE LESSONS OF THIS EARLY STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION- YOU CANNOT WIN IF YOU DO NOT FIGHT.

FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!

As we approach the 231^st Anniversary of the American Revolution militants should honored the valiant fighters for freedom, many not prominently remembered today, such as Samuel Adams, James Otis and Tom Paine who kept the pressure on those other more moderate revolutionary politicians such as Washington and John Adams who at times were willing to compromise with the British Empire short of victory. We should also remember the valiant but mainly nameless Sons of Liberty who lit the spark of rebellion. And the later Winter Soldiers of Valley Forge who held out under extreme duress in order to insure eventual victory. Anyone can be a sunshine patriot; we desperately need militants in the tradition of the winter soldiers. No revolution can succeed without such fighters.

The 4^th of July today is covered with so much banal ceremony, flag- waving, unthinking sunshine patriotism and hubris it is hard to see the forest for the tree to the days when as Lincoln stated during that other great progressive action of this country’s history- the Great Civil War of 1861-65- that this country was the last, best hope for civilization. Note this well- those men and women who rebelled against the king from Washington on down were big men and women out to do a big job. And they did it. A quick look at the political landscape today makes one thing clear. This country has no such men or women among its leaders today-not even close.

Rereading the Declaration of Independence today, a classic statement of Enlightenment values, and such documents as the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution demonstrates that these men and women were, hesitantly and in a fumbling manner to be sure, taking on some big issues in the scheme of human development. Today what do we see- half-hearted withdrawal programs to end the quagmire born of hubris in Iraq, amendments against same sex marriage, amendments against flag-burning, the race to the bottom of the international wage scale bringing misery to working people, serious attempts to create a theocracy based on Christian fundamentalism, creation of a fortress against immigration in a nation of immigrants. In short, the negation of that spirit that Lincoln talked about. Today, the militants who fought the American Revolution would probably be in some Guantanamo-like cage. DEFEND THE ENLIGHTENMENT!  

In earlier times this writer has been rather blasé about the American Revolution tending to either ignore its lessons or putting it well below another revolution- The Great French Revolution, also celebrated in July- in the pantheon of revolutionary history. However, this is flat-out wrong. We cannot let those more interested in holiday oratory than drawing the real lessons of the American Revolution appropriate what is really the property of every left militant today. Make no mistake, however,  the  energy of that long ago revolution has burned itself out and other forces-militant and their allies- and other political creeds-the fight for a workers party and a workers government leading to socialism- have to take its place as a standard-bearer for human progress. That task has been on the historical agenda for a long time and continues to be our task today. Yes, we love this country. No, we do not love this form of government. Forward.

Note- To learn more about the history of the American Revolution and the foundation of the Republic any books by Gordon S. Wood on the subject are a good place to start. Garry Wills also has some insights worth reading.

 

 

 

***Out In The 1940s Crime Noir Night-From Rags To Riches- John Garfield’s Blues- “Force Of Evil”-A Film Review

Force Of Evil, starring John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, M-G-M, 1948

No question I am a film noir, especially a crime noir, aficionado. Recently I have been on a tear reviewing various crime noir efforts and drawing comparisons between the ones that “speak” to me and those that, perhaps, should have been better left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy and need no additional comment from me their plot lines stand on their own merits, although I will make some comment here. Others, because they have a fetching, or wicked, for that matter, femme fatale to muddy the waters also get a pass. Some, such as the film under review from the late 1940s starring John Garfield, Force of Evil, offers very little of either. It is not for lack of trying but rather that the stilted dialogue of the main characters, relentlessly hammering us with clear cut choices between good and evil when a lot of life is very gray, very gray indeed, gets in the way. And it is certainly not that John Garfield can not carry off a crime noir film. Hell, he and femme fatale Lana Turner burned up the screen in the film adaptation of James M. Cain’s crime novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, a film that I will review in the near future in this series. The plot line and dialogue just got in the way here. It is as simple as that.

Here is the scoop. John Garfield, through his brother’s Great Depression-era sacrifice went to law school and became a high-priced lawyer (silly brother, right?), made the New York City big time. A Wall Street lawyer big time. Well, almost big time, because the way he got there was through a very lucrative association with a crime boss who was looking to control the numbers racket in 1940s New York City (the numbers racket, now called the lottery, is now respectably controlled by the state, whatever state) and make it a legal business like any other self-respecting capitalist adventure. The trouble is said sacrificing brother is running a numbers “bank” slated for the dustbin as part of the crime boss’s consolidation plan. Capitalism 101, okay. This makes Brother Garfield queasy and filled with self-doubts and regrets (in between bouts of greed fueled by the dough to be made by a poor boy New York City slum corner boy). The tension between those two forces (ah, good and evil, got it) aided by a “girl next door-type (good force, right?) gnawing at his innards forces dear John to come clean at the end. Especially when said crime boss, through another criminal associate, offs his brother. Like I said, a little thin in the story line.

What is not thin though, and as is usually the case when New York City is the locale, is the black and white cinematography that gives some very interesting footage to the dramatic tension here- the good versus evil thing mentioned above. Additionally “the girl next door” character almost breaks out and becomes something of a human we can recognize when money, wealth and fame enter the picture. Although she never quite does break out of the good angel stuff. Still it is always good to hear John Garfield struggling with some cosmic message in his corner boy heart. But wait and see him in Postman if you want really gritty, attention-getting performance. This one is just very, very average.

***Out In The 1940s Crime Noir Night-The Stuff Of Dreams- Humphrey Bogart’s “The Maltese Falcon”-A Film Review

DVD Review

The Maltese Falcon, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorrie, based on the crime novel by Dashiell Hammett, directed by John Huston, Warner Brothers, 1941

No question I am a film noir, especially a crime film noir, aficionado. Recently I have been on a tear reviewing various crime noir efforts and drawing comparisons between the ones that “speak” to me and those that, perhaps, should have been better left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy and need no additional comment from me their plot lines stand on their own merits, although I will make some comment here. Others, because they have a fetching, or wicked, for that matter, femme fatale to muddy the waters also get a pass. Some, such as the film under review from the early 1940s, The Maltese Falcon, offer parts of both.

Generously offer parts of both here as an exemplar of the genre with one of the classic detectives of the age, Sam Spade. The plot line works because it is a prima facie, hard-boiled example of the lengths that humankind will go in pursuit of “the stuff of dreams.” As for femme fatale energy, although my personal 1940s favorite is Rita Hayworth, it is provide by the fetchingly wicked Mary Astor. Yes, I can see where old Sam Spade will jump through a few hoops, hell, many hoops, to get next to that one once she starts making her moves. Watch out Sam.

Although every serious crime noir aficionado should know the plot to this one by heart I will give a short summary for those three people in the classic crime noir world who have not seen (or read) this one-yet. It is, frankly, about a bird, and not just any bird but a historically significant gem –ladened statute of one, and one moreover that will bring a good price on the black market where such things are traded as a matter of course. That is where the “stuff of dreams” gets everyone evolved in trouble. Who has it (or doesn’t have it), for how long, and what they will do in order to get it (and keep it) provides the driving force of this film as it did with classic noir detective writer Dashiell Hammett when he wrote it. The film is fairly true to the spirit of the novel, including much of the dialogue. Of course, along the way certain alliances are made (and unmade) as Sam Spade tries to maneuver among the parties interested in the object, including the aforementioned Mary Astor, a band of high- end brigands led by Sidney Greenstreet, and maybe others who have fallen by the wayside in pursuit.

Dashiell Hammett was known, correctly known, along with Raymond Chandler, for taking the crime detective out of the police procedural/ amateur society detective milieu and permitting their detectives to take a few punches, give a few punches, flirt with the femme fatales, and use the sparse language of the streets to bring some rough justice to this sorry old world. Sam Spade here takes more than his fair share of hits in order to make sense out of the mess that Ms. Astor brings to his door (and initially his partner, the late Miles Archer). And that is the rub. The various characters here are willing, more than willing, to murder and maim to get the damn bird and so Sam has to, on more occasions that he probably wished, weigh what to do about it. See that is where the femme fatale to muddy the waters part comes in, that damn perfume and that dangerous sassy manner that will drive a man, even a rough justice seeking man a little too close to the edge. But in the end the code of honor, or just an idea of it, drives Sam away from the perfume and back on the straight and narrow. Later when he thinks about that perfume he will still be wondering if he did the thing the right way. Yah, dames will do that to you, tough detectives or just regular joes. I know I was ready to throw my lot in with her, share of the bird or not.

Note: This will not be the last time that Humphrey Bogart played the classic noir detective. Or work with Lorrie and Greenstreet. He got his shots at playing Phillip Marlow in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. In a sense Bogart as an actor, a strange sense since he was not “beautiful,” defined that kind of detective- the “tilting at windmills” guy not too fragile to take a punch, able give a dame the once over, and bring a little of that “rough justice” to the world, especially a world where the stuff of dreams went awry more often than not.

***Growing Up Absurd In The 1950s- Be-Bop The Adventure Car Hop-The Golden Age Of Rock 'N' Roll- With Johnny Ace In Mind

 

FromThe Pen Of Frank Jackman

Scene: Prompted by the cover photograph, the memory cover photograph, which grace each CD in the The Golden Age Of American Rock ‘n’ Roll series. The golden age of the automobile meets the golden age of al fresco dining, okay, okay pre-Big Mac dining. Sorry, I got carried away. And once I have put automobile and teen dining out together all that needs to be added is that Eddie is out, out once again, with his ever lovin’ Ginny in the Clintondale 1950s be-bop teen night, having a little something to eat after a hard teen dance and a harder love bout of down in the Adamsville beach “submarine race” watching night.
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“Two hamburgers, all the trimmings, two fries, two Cokes, Sissy,” rasped half-whispering Eddie Connell to Adventure Car Hop primo car hop (and ex-Eddie girlfriend back in junior high days when he learned a thing or two about girls, about girl charms and girl bewilderments), Sissy Jordan. For those who know not of Adventure Car Hops or car hops in general here is a quick primer. Adventure Car Hop is nothing but a old time drive-in restaurant where the car hop takes your order from you while you are sitting in your “boss” car (hopefully boss car, although the lot this night is filled with dads’ borrowed cars, strictly not boss, not boss at all) with your “boss” girl ( you had better call her that or next week she will be somebody else’s boss honey) personally and she returns after, well, depends on how busy it is, and right now this in Adventure Car Hop busy time, with your order.

Now Sissy, a little older than most Clintondale car hops at twenty-two, is really nothing but a career waitress, a foxy one still, but a career waitress which is all a car hop really is, a waitress. Except most are "slumming” through senior-hood at Clintondale High or some local college and are just trying to make some extra money for this and that while being beautiful. Because, and there is no scientific proof for this, but none is needed in any case, at Adventure Car Hop in the year 1962 every car hop is a fox (that beautiful just mentioned), a double fox on some nights, in their short shorts, tight blouses, and funny-shaped box hats.

And in the 1962 teen be-bop night, the teen be-bop Friday or Saturday night those foxes are magnets for every guy with a car, fathers’ car or not, without a girl hoping against hope for a moment with one said car hop, and guys with girls who are looking to show off their girls, foxier even than the car hops if that is possible and usually isn’t although do not under any conditions let them know that, the girls or the car hops, and, more importantly, their boss cars. And playing, playing loudly for all to hear their souped-up car radio complexes, turned nightly in rock heaven’s WJDA, the radio station choice of every teen under the age of twenty-one. And right now on Eddie's super-duplex speaker combo The Dell-Vikings are singing their hit, Black Slacks and some walkers are crooning along to the tune(yes, some guys and girls, some lame guys and girls, walk to Adventure to grab something to eat after the Clintondale Majestic Theater lets out. They, of course, eat at the thoughtfully provided picnic tables although their orders are still taken by Sissy’s brigade). Nicely, although they are still nothing but lamos in the teen night social order.

But, getting back to Eddie and Ginny, see Sissy knows something that you and I don’t know just by the way Eddie placed his order as The Falcon’s doo wop serenade, Your So Fine, blares away from his radio in the Clintondale teen night. Sissy knows because, being a fox she has had plenty of experience (including with Eddie in the days, the junior high days when she and Eddie were nothing but walkers) that Eddie and Ginny (who was nothing but a stick when Eddie and she were an item, a stick being a girl, a twelve or thirteen year old junior high school girl with no shape, unlike say Sissy who did have a shape, although no question, no question even to Sissy Ginny has a shape now, not as good as her’s but a shape good enough to keep Eddie snagged) have been "doing it” after spending the early evening at the Surf, the lock rock dance hall for those over twenty-one (and where is liquor is served). The tip-off: Eddie’s request for all the trimmings on his hamburgers. All the trimmings in this case being mustard, ketchup, pickles, lettuce, and here is the clincher, onions. Yes, Eddie and Ginny are done with love’s chores for the evening and can now revert to primal culinary needs without rancor, or concern.

Sissy had to laugh at how ritualized (although she would never use such a word herself to describe what was going on) the teen night life was in Clintondale (and really just slightly older teens like the clients of the Surf rock club, Eddie and Ginny, who learned the ropes at Adventure Car Hop way back when). If a couple came early, say eight o’clock they never ordered onions, no way, the night still held too much promise. The walkers, well, the walkers you couldn’t tell, especially the young walkers like she and Eddie in the old days, but usually they didn’t have enough sense to say “no onions.” And then there were the Eddies and Ginnys floating in around two, or three in the morning, done (and you know what done is now), starving, maybe a little drunk and ready to devour Benny’s (the owner of Adventure) cardboard hamburgers, deep-fried, fat-saturated French fries, and diluted soda (known locally as tonic, go figure) as long as those burgers had onions, many onions on them. And as we turn off this scene to the strains of Johnny Ace crooning Pledging My Love on Eddie’s car radio competing just now with a car further over with The Elegants’ Little Star Sissy has just place the car tray on Eddie’s side of the car and brought the order and placed it on the tray, with all the trimmings.

Hands Off Edward Snowden !

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Hands Off Snowden Campaign

Hands Off Snowden Campaign

by Stephen Lendman

Snowden acted heroically. He did so at great risk. He exposed lawless US spying. He represents a noble tradition. Others did before him. Allies do it now. Legions more are needed. Hopefully they'll be emboldened to help.

Doing so exposes fascist state governance. People need to know. America's by far the worst. Activists want Snowden helped. More on that below.

He released a statement, saying:

"One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth."

"My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will."

"I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful."

"On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic 'wheeling and dealing' over my case."

"Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions."

"This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

"For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum."

"Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country."

"The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person."

"Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum."

"In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless."

"No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be."

"I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

Separately he said:

"I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest."

"No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world."

"While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the Government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel, and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression."

Perhaps Obama's intimidation campaign worked. Ecuador's Rafael Correa backtracked. He did so disgracefully. He considers helping Snowden a mistake. He distanced himself from earlier comments. He's not considering asylum.

"Are we responsible for getting him to Ecuador," he asked? "It's not logical. The country that has to give him a safe conduct document is Russia."

"Mr. Snowden's situation is very complicated, but in this moment he is in Russian territory and these are decisions for the Russian authorities."

Initially Correa suggested support, saying:

"We will analyze very responsibly the Snowden case and with absolute sovereignty will make the decision we consider the most appropriate."

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino criticized Washington, saying:

"The one who is denounced pursues the denouncer. The man who tries to provide light and transparency to issues that affect everyone is pursued by those who should be giving explanations about the denunciations that have been presented."

Snowden expressed gratitude, saying:

"I must express my deep respect for your principles and sincere thanks for your government's action in considering my request for political asylum."

"There are few world leaders who would risk standing for the human rights of an individual against the most powerful government on earth, and the bravery of Ecuador and its people is an example to the world."

"A temporary Ecuadorean travel document helped him. It substituted for his revoked US passport."

"The decisive action of your consul in London, Fidel Narvaez, guaranteed my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong.

"I could never have risked travel without that. Now, as a result, and through the continued support of your government, I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest."

Correa fell on his sword. He did so for Washington. He betrayed his alleged principles. Perhaps he lacked sincerity in the first place. Bending to America is shameless. Challenging it matters most.

Snowden remains unbowed. Few match his courage. He shames world leaders. He dares take on America courageously. Activists support him.

He applied to at least 21 countries for asylum. They include Ecuador (now denied), Iceland, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Russia (now retracted), China, India, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Finland, and Switzerland.

Nine countries rejected him. They include Ecuador, Brazil, India, Poland, Italy, Spain, Norway, Finland, and Austria. Rejections reflected pro-Western subservience.

Excuses are easy to make. Profiles in courage require tough-minded support what's right.

He's in limbo. He's a man without a country. He's in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport's transit area. He awaits word from one or more nations willing to accept him.

Maybe Venezuela will. On June 27, President Nicolas Maduro said:

"No one has requested us asylum for him, but if he wants, Venezuela is willing to protect this brave young man in a humanitarian way, so that humanity knows the truth."

On July 1, the International Business Times headlined "Maduro Offers Asylum to Ed Snowden During Official Visit to Russia; Is The NSA Leaker Going to Venezuela?"

Maduro's in Moscow. He's attending the second Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). He said:

"Nobody has asked us yet" for asylum. "(B)ut if he did, we would consider it very seriously."

He deserves a "humanitarian medal. If this young man is punished, nobody in the world will ever dare to tell the truth."

"Snowden is a man who told the truth and demands protection under international human rights law," he added.

Bolivia's Evo Morales said he's "ready to give political asylum to people who expose spying activities….If we receive a request, we are willing to consider it."

On July 2, RIA Novosti said Snowden withdrew his Russian asylum request. He did so in response to Vladimir Putin's conditions. On Monday he said:

"If (Snowden) wants to go (to another country) and is accepted, he can. If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his work aimed at harming our US partners, no matter how strange this may sound coming from me."

According to The Hill, "high level" US/Russian discussions involve "find(ing) a solution over the extradition of Snowden."

What's ongoing isn't clear. Earlier Putin said:

"Russia has never extradited anyone and is not going to do so. Same as no one has ever been extradited to Russia."

Hopefully he means it. Challenging America matters. So does protecting Snowden. Activists are on board to help.

RootsAction.org's petition campaign headlined "Mr. President, Hands Off Edward Snowden!"

"I urge you in the strongest terms to do nothing to interfere with the travels or political asylum process of Edward Snowden."

"The US government must not engage in abduction or any other form of foul play against Mr. Snowden."

Doing the right thing is its own reward. RootsAction urges Snowden supporters to sign its petition in his behalf. It's goal is 50,000 signatures. It has nearly 47,000. It's almost there.

It won't stop. Perhaps 100,000 or more is possible. Millions are needed. Signing shows support. We're all Edward Snowden.

A separate petition demanding Obama pardon Snowden has over 120,000 signatures.

Washington seeks unchallenged world dominance. It's waging global wars for it. It's ravaging one country after another.

It ruthlessly persecutes opponents. It targets whistleblowers unconscionably. It wants truth-tellers silenced. It wants its message alone heard.

It mocks democratic values. It spurns rule of law principles. It operates secretly and intrusively. It wants independent governments toppled. It's waging war on freedom. It's ravaging humanity globally.

Stopping it matters most. Humanity's survival depends on it. Restoring constitutional protections is essential. Freedom's too precious to lose.

Fundamental First Amendment rights matter. Without them all others are at risk. On July 1, the Electronic Frontier Foundation headlined "Restore the Fourth Campaign Organizes Protests Against Unconstitutional Surveillance."

On July 4, concerned Americans will mobilize on streets nationwide. They'll do in support of Fourth Amendment rights. It protects against lawless searches and seizures.

Out-of-control spying threatens them. Restore the Fourth matters. Americans are on their own. If they won't challenge US lawless, who will?

If they won't mobilize for Fourth Amendment protections, no one will do it for them. On July 4 and every day, get involved for freedom.

Sign the Stop Watching Us petition. It states in part:

NSA spying "represent(s) a stunning abuse of our basic rights. We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs."

"This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy."

"This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens' right to speak and associate anonymously, guard against unreasonable searches and seizures, and protect their right to privacy."

"We are calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt this surveillance and provide a full public accounting of the NSA's and the FBI's data collection programs."

"We call on Congress to immediately and publicly:

1. Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the US is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court.

2. Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance.

3. Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance."

Nothing less is acceptable! Not now! Not ever!

A new update shows over 500,000 people signed the Stop Watching Us campaign. Perhaps over a million will.

A Final Comment

July 4 protests are scheduled in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Washington, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont (July 3), Virginia (July 1), and Washington (on July 6).

Major city protests include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, Hartford, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Indianapolis, Boston, Louisville, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Albuquerque, Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Charlotte, Raleigh, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Portland, OR, Philadelphia, and Chattanooga.

Hopefully millions will mobilize across America. And not just on July 4.

It bears repeating. If ordinary people won't fight for their rights, no one will do it for them! Precious ones are too important to lose. Restoring them matters most.

People power alone can do it. Doing so makes government of, by and for everyone possible. The alternative's too grim to accept.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

http://www.dailycensored.com/hands-off-snowden-campaign/

***On “Now” Photos For The AARP Generation-Take Two

For Robert Flatley, North Adamsville Class Of 1964

Peter Paul Markin, North Adamsville Class Of 1964, comment:

“’Cause I’ve memorized each line in your face, and not even death can ever erase the story they tell to me”-a line from the folksinger/songwriter Iris DeMent’s hauntingly beautiful song, After You’re Gone.

Guys, you are probably wondering what the heck some old timey arkie angel country girl lyrics are doing as a lead-off to a quick little comment, well maybe not quick but a comment in any case, about where all the time has gone since we left the hallowed halls of citified old North Adamsville High back in 1964. Just to let you in on my motivation I have been thinking, and maybe you have too, a lot lately about the cold hard fact that our fiftieth anniversary class reunion is fast approaching and I wanted to get out ahead of the curve on one question, the question implicitly posed by the title of this comment, the one about, ah, the vagaries of being of a certain age. And see too I have by very devious means been able to grab a copy of the old yearbook, theMagnet, and that really got me to wondering how we went from fresh-faced bobby socks and sneakers, bee hive –haired, vital young women and sturdy, white socks and loafers, plaid-shirted, black chino-ed young men to the dissipated old folk of today.

Now that I am on the case no more can you Bob F. pretend that you are fifty-something when hanging around the bars at Falmouth but should go gentle into that 55 plus retirement village good night like a nice fellow. Or you Lenny trying to get that job at the supermarket bagging groceries like you were some schoolboy. Or you Diana saying that you have never used Botox in your life (or come to think of it you too Bob) and that permanent plaster-etched smile was always that way and maybe I have just be forgetful or over the rages of time. Or you, oh well, you get my drift and if you don’t then next time I will use last names (maiden last names since I don’t want to confuse everybody with the proliferation of hyphenated names and/or the third divorce last names gathered from our stormy needs to have it all).

That “certain age” observation became painfully apparent when looking, looking quickly as the “now” photos on our class website, the one set up and run by Richie Jones, the old techie guy from our class who apparently has a lot of time on his hands these days to produce such herculean efforts (under the direction of The Committee, the pompous Central Committee like we were in Russia in the old days or something, the class reunion committee which has made no bones about the fact that they control the editorial policy of the site and everything else just like always). And while I cannot off of that quick perusal of Rich’s work recite from memory each line in each face I think I am on to something in Iris’ line, something about the story behind those lines and our hard fought battles, life battles, to get the lines that is.

Well, of course, those hard-wire lyrics, and those abundant lines only apply to our male classmates. After all Iris is singing about her gone man. (See complete lyrics below.) Her long gone but not forgotten man, her walking daddy who left her for who knows what reason, or maybe she left him but she was certainly busted up by whatever happened. She’s from strong stock though and will weather that storm and move on. But I do not, this age of sexual equality notwithstanding, want to extend the part about the lines anyway to our sister classmates because I do not need to have every cyber-stone in the universe thrown at me. But those same lyrics do finally bring me to the purpose for today’s comment.

As part of getting a 'feel' for writing about our days at old North Adamsville High like I said I have perused some of the class profiles the infernal 1964 class reunion committee has provided me. I, innocently, answered an e-mail from Sally Price, our old time class secretary who seems to have time on her hands as well, or has assumed that once a high school class officer that that job has life-time tenure (or life servitude),who asked me to write a couple of small things for the class reunion newsletter. You know stuff like –Did your high school dreams come true? Did your stay at North provide you some wherewithal to face life’s battles? Stuff like that, stuff that in the old days I could go on and on about without even working up a sweat so she knew who she was dealing with. Apparently once you answer a couple of off-hand questions about your doings (or not-doings) over the past half century you are fair game for every possible form of interrogation. Interrogations that would shame even the most hardened CIA or NSA bureaucrat. I don’t know about you but I am thinking of hiring a lawyer and putting a stop to this maddening harassment, and possible constitutional violation. But that is a subject for another day. For now, forward.

Lately Sally has ordered, and I do not use that term lightly, under some unspoken penalty, those brave classmates who have current (“now”) photos to post them to the class reunion website. A number of you have placed your current photos on the profile pages thoughtfully provided by said committee, although a number of people, including myself, are apparently camera-shy or have failed to provide for some reason. I admit to not being particularly camera-shy but rather to being something of a technological luddite (look that word up on Wikipedia if you do not know it) in that I do not own the digital camera or smart phone required to upload a snappy photo, have no immediate intention of owning either one, and would, moreover be helpless to do such a tortuous task as uploading a photo. Truth.

Some, however, like the Chase brothers are not. Not camera shy or luddites that is. They have their collective pictures blasted all over the site under every known condition including, well including being a little under the weather as we used to say. (By the way, Jim and John, and others as well, what is up with wearing hats these days? We are un-hatted Kennedy-era boys and hats, any hats, most definitely were not part of our uniform.) Or how about born again "muscle man" (read: huge, belly huge) Bill Bailey, the star cross- country runner and track man from our class, whom I have has previously written about as slender-strided and gracefully-gaited and who now looks like he could rough up some sumo wrestler . That photo-readiness on the part of some classmates gave me a powerful urge to smite some dragons down. Those who are photo-less can breathe a sigh of relief-for now.

I have to admit too that I have been startled by some of the photos. Many of them seem to have been taken by your grandchildren just before their naps. Or maybe by you just before your naps, or some combinations of the two especially for those who are performing grandparental (is there such a word?) duty as “babysitters” in a world where both parents, your sons and daughters, are forced by hard-time circumstances to work to make ends meet these days. Isn’t the digital age supposed to have made the camera instantly user-friendly? Why all the out-of-focus, soft-focus, looking through a fish tank or a looking- glass kind of shots. And why does everyone seem to be have been photographed down the far end of some dark corridor or by someone about six miles away? Nobody expects Bachrach-quality photos but something is amiss here. [Bachrach’s was the photograph studio that took our individual class pictures for those who don’t remember or didn’t otherwise know.-Markin]

In contrast, a new arrival on this class committee profile page interrogation wall (sorry), Robert Flatley, has found just the right approach. Initially Robert placed a recent shot of himself on his profile page. Frankly the old codger looked like he was wanted in about six states for “kiting” checks, or maybe had done a little “time” in some far-off county farm or state prison for a gas station armed robbery. More recently, however, his page has been graced with some kind of stock photo, maybe provided by Flickr, a tastefully-shot, resplendent wide old oak tree. Automatically I now associate Robert with the tree of life, with oneness with the universe, with solidity, with the root of matter in him, and with bending but not breaking. Wise choice, Brother Flatley. Now, moreover, I do not have to suppress a need to dial 911, but rather can think of Robert as one who walks with kings, as a sage for the ages. And nothing can ever erase the story that tells to me.

Artist: Dement Iris
Song: After You're Gone
Album: Infamous Angel Iris Dement Sheet Music

There'll be laughter even after you're gone.

I'll find reasons to face that empty dawn.

'Cause I've memorized each line in your face,

And not even death can ever erase the story they tell to me.

I'll miss you.

Oh, how I'll miss you.

I'll dream of you,

And I'll cry a million tears.

But the sorrow will pass.

And the one thing that will last,

Is the love that you've given to me.

There'll be laughter even after you're gone.

I'll find reasons and I'll face that empty dawn.

'Cause I've memorized each line in your face,

And not even death could ever erase the story they tell to me.

Free Bradley Manning Now!

Call the new general’s Public Affairs Office at 202-685-2900

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Remind General Buchanan that Bradley Manning’s rights have been trampled – Enough is enough!

By the Bradley Manning Support Network. July 3, 2013.
Last week Major General Jeffery S. Buchanan succeeded Major General Linnington as the new Convening Authority in Bradley Manning’s trial. In the military court martial system the Convening Authority has absolute power to reduce any sentence or ruling against a service member. Let’s remind General Buchanan that this system should be about justice and due process, and that these things have been absent from US v. Manning so far.
Bradley has been imprisoned for over three years now. If the military requires punishment for an act of civil disobedience, they already got that. Given that Bradley spent nearly a year in solitary confinement that the UN described as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”, it is reasonable for General Buchanan to join us in declaring enough is enough! It’s time to free Bradley Manning.
The convening authority can reduce the sentence after the Judge makes her ruling. Let’s Remind Maj. General Buchanan:

• that President Obama has unlawfully influenced the trial with his declaration of Bradley Manning’s guilt.
• that the media has been continually blocked from transcripts and documents related to the trial and that it has only been through the efforts of Bradley Manning’s supporters that any transcripts exist.
• that under the UCMJ a soldier has the right to a speedy trial and that it was unconsciable to wait 3 years before starting the court martial.
• that absolutely no one was harmed by the release of documents that exposed war crimes, unnecessary secrecy and disturbing foreign policy.
• that Bradley Manning is a hero who did the right thing when he revealed truth about wars that had been based on lies.

Remind General Buchanan that Bradley Manning’s rights have been trampled – Enough is enough!

Call the new general’s Public Affairs Office at 202-685-2900

If that number stops answering, try calling Col. Michelle Martin-Hing, Public Affairs Officer (202) 685-4899.
And try emailing Maj. Gen. Buchanan at jeffrey.s.buchanan@us.army.mil

Bradley Manning Trial - Day 13

Government concluding merits case against Bradley Manning: trial report, day 13

 

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In what’s expected to be the last day of the government’s merits case, prosecutors read stipulations of expected testimony and fact, largely regarding their “aiding the enemy” charge. They’ll call their final witness today. We’ll update this post this afternoon. See all previous courtroom reports here.
By Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network. July 1, 2013.

Danny Lewis, DIA. Sketched by Debra Van Poolen.

Today is likely the final day of the government’s merits (guilt or innocence, pre-sentencing) portion of its case against Pfc. Bradley Manning. Prosecutors read final stipulations of fact and expected testimony, and will call their final witness after today’s lunch break.
Before those stipulations, prosecutors announced that they had subpoenaed Mr. Butler from the Internet Archive, to testify about the nature of the Archive’s capturing of websites at a given point. They need his testimony to help verify a 2009 WikiLeaks ‘Most Wanted Leaks’ list, which Judge Denise Lind rejected for lack of authentication last week. Defense lawyer David Coombs said he’d spoken to Butler and will talk to him again today at the lunch break, and may withdraw his authentication objection afterward.
Judge Lind also noted that she would rule on whether to take judicial notice of several items from each party. The government wants to admit that Julian Assange was working in Iceland in 2010, a Lt. Col. Lee Packnett quote in the New York Times, and a 2010 New Yorker profile of Julian Assange. The defense objects to these on hearsay (not first-hand knowledge) and relevance grounds.
The defense wants to admit the fact that Congress believed over-classification was an issue and therefore passed legislation, which “contained not only just findings but also specific statutory initiatives to address that issue.”
The defense also wants to admit statements by J. William Leonard, director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), declaring that an ISOO report concluded that “even trained classifiers, with ready access to the latest classification and declassification guides, and trained in their use, got it clearly right only 64% of the time in making determinations as to the appropriateness of continued classification.”
Finally, the defense wants to admit correspondence between Senator Carl Levin and Defense Secretary Robert Gates regarding the impact of WikiLeaks’ releases. Sen. Levin wrote a letter inquiring about potential damage, and Sec. Gates responded, claiming “the review to date has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised by this disclosure.”
Judge Lind is expected to rule on these items later today.
Aiding the enemy stipulations
Today’s stipulations are part of the government’s case for its “aiding the enemy” charge, for which it has to prove “actual knowledge by PFC Manning that by giving the intelligence to WikiLeaks, that he was actually giving intelligence to the enemy through this indirect means.”
The first stipulation was expected testimony of Youssef Aboul-Enein, a U.S. Navy commander who has advised the Department of Homeland Security on militant Islam. His testimony provided background information on Al Qaeda, a recounting of its attacks on America, and its practices.
Aboul-Enein says that Al Qaeda has used the internet since the 1990s, uses “all publicly available websites,” and specifically uses sites that research U.S. operations.
Prosecutors read a stipulation of fact regarding a July 3, 2011, video featuring Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al Qaeda. In the video, Gadahn cites material released by WikiLeaks, and plays part of the WikiLeaks-released ‘Collateral Murder’ video. He encourages his listeners to use the internet to make use of “all means possible” to carry out jihad. That stipulation also referenced the fourth issue of Inspire Magazine, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) publication. That issue says “anything useful from WikiLeaks” can be archived, and that archiving large amounts of information is useful for Al Qaeda and AQAP.
The government also read a previously read-aloud stipulation of fact regarding Osama bin Laden’s computer, affirming that in the U.S. of OBL’s compound, on May 2, 2011, agents obtained digital media. That media included a letter from OBL to another member of Al Qaeda, requesting Department of Defense information posted to WikiLeaks. That member responded in a letter, attaching the Afghan War Logs. The remainder of that stipulation is classified – as is the entirety of stipulation of expected testimony.
Notably, both pieces of evidence were found well after the government charged Manning with “aiding the enemy,” on March 1, 2011. They’ll be used to confirm “receipt” of U.S. defense intelligence by the enemy, an element required to prove that charge.
After a long lunch break, the government will call its final witness, Defense Intelligence Agency’s Daniel Lewis, whom it will attempt to qualify as an expert on counterintelligence. Part of that testimony will be conducted in a closed session to elicit classified information.
Update — closed session

The court is now in a classified session, closed off to the press and public, for two hours (expected to run until 4:30pm ET), to continue questioning DIA’s Daniel Lewis. The parties questioned Lewis about his counterintelligence (CI) work briefly in open court first. The government had him recount his 29 years of CI experience, including offensive operations, and his awards for CI success.
The government wants to use Lewis’ testimony to support its 18 USC 641 – federal larceny – charges, specifically the claim that Manning “stole” documents worth more than $1,000.
The defense does not believe he’s an expert on valuing classified information. Defense lawyer Maj. Hurley questioned Lewis, establishing that Lewis has never had to put a specific monetary value on a classified document, and he’s had no specific training or guidance on the issue. Lewis said that he could instead tell the court, from experience, what a foreign adversary would pay for certain classified information, but couldn’t look at a document and determine its value.
The government asked to move to a closed session to continue building a foundation for Lewis’s expertise. After that questioning, Judge Lind will make a ruling, and if he’s qualified as an expert, we’ll continue in open court.
Update — 4:42pm ET — returning tomorrow at 11 AM
We’ve just been told the parties are still in closed session but won’t return for an open session today. We’ll resume in open court tomorrow morning at 11 AM.