Private Manning And The Making Of Wikileaks

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Tuesday October 26, 2010 18:32

by pat c

While we hear of Wikileaks and Julian Assange, lets not forget about Private First Class Bradley E. Manning who made it all possible. He is the one who is suffering the consequences. Here is his story as told by Denver Nicks. Full text at link.

Midnight, May 22nd, 2010. Army intelligence analyst Private First Class Bradley E. Manning is sitting at a computer at Contingency Operating Station Hammer, east of Baghdad. He is online, chatting with Adrian Lamo, an ex-hacker and sometimes-journalist based in San Francisco. “Hypothetical question,” he asks Lamo. “If you had free reign over classified networks for long periods of time… say, 8-9 months… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?”

Outside of the chats, little is known about Bradley Manning. We know that he grew up in Crescent, Oklahoma, a town made famous by one of the biggest whistleblowing events in American history a decade before Bradley was born. Currently, he’s in solitary confinement at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, awaiting trial, and unable to speak to the press. His family and many of his close friends have been advised not to talk to the media. If the allegations against Private Manning are true, the 22-year-old from Oklahoma is responsible for the biggest leak of military secrets in American history.

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Comments (8 of 8)

indeed, lets not forget

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party

Wed Oct 27, 2010 14:01

We owe this man a debt of solidarity for his courage in taking on the corporate war-machine hydra, single combat. Up there with Mordechai Vanunu taking on the Zionist/Nuke mafia. And similarly, he must be made to disappear, lest we remember that it can be opposed.
If Manning was Iraqi or Afghani he'd be liquidated by now, as Vanunu would be if he were of non-taboo, non-Jewish, Semitic origin.

He's in There for Us, We're on the Loose for Him!

by Ciaron - Catholic Worker/Ploughshares

Wed Oct 27, 2010 19:48

The day of the first Wikileaks publication I attended a public meeting at Conway Hall, London, celebrating the release of Joe Glenton. Glenton had just served a sentence for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan with the British Army. He spoke well.

All the other sanctioned speakers were Labor Party, SWP and NGO heads. All speakers mentioned and celebrated Wikileaks...not one mentioned the name of Bradley Manning then in military detention in Kuwait...now in Virginia. There was no question time to raise the issue or mention his name and call for solidarity for Bradley Manning.

Ten yaers into this war we are left with an anti-war remnant in the West that remains largely clueless about solidarity with anti-war resisters in jail and before the courts.

Here is the link to Bradley Manning solidarity in the U.S. There are badges, stickers, t-shirts taht could be bought and distributed. or we could at least scrawl his name on a wall or make a placard for the next anti-war demo (whenever that may be?)

http://www.bradleymanning.org/

You are right Ciaron

Thu Oct 28, 2010 11:51

and sixty-five years on since Hiroshima and Nagasaki we still hear next to nothing about Vanunu and his solitary stand against the most dangerous tilt-switch in the nuclear arsenal; the expansionary, pseudo-democratic, militarised theocracy of Zion, imposed on the Palestinian and Middle-Eastern peoples to divert and deflect from the crimes of centuries of European persecution of the Jews.

On the same issue(whistleblowing) check out last night's Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4(should be a podcast, someone more techno-capable might get the link up)for the revelations of the military mindset and its anti-democratic necessity for secrecy for 'inside the box' torture operations. Finest piece of cynical Strangelove logic I've encountered for a wee while.Finishes by accusing Wiki of treason, no less.You can nearly hear the clicking of the jack-boot-heels. It would take a Colbert to convey the self-deluded idiocy and righteous conviction of moral and cultural superiority that proves the Raj is with us yet.
But the gunships have gone nuclear, and these wizards are straining at the leash to demonstrate to any challenger that the soft walk of Roosevelt's is over and its all big stick from here on in.

a modern day young hero

by V for vendetta

Thu Oct 28, 2010 20:59

His actions will save lives and throw the spotlight on the cockroaches of war and send them scurrying for cover. He and other whistleblowers are the real heroes of wikileaks which in fairness to Julian Assange, he has clearly acknowledged.

Here is the support site for Bradley for anyone interested in donating / giving messages of support etc.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Gk....org/

I've linked to the cached version as I've had a lot of trouble connecting to the actual page. (you can reach original from there)
I believe facebook have suspended the Bradley Manning support page too. Big surprise there. Clearly you can't rely on facebook in matters like this.

I agree about Vanunu. Another brave whistleblower we have not supported enough
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

Democracy Now (10 mins) Interview with Daniel Elsberg on Wikileaks Second Release

by Elsberg

Sat Oct 30, 2010 09:45

Democracy Now (10 mins) Interview with Daniel Elsberg on Wikileaks Second Release - Free Bradley Manning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1pTl8KdREk&feature=play...edded

*Bradley Manning is being held in military prison accused of being the source of the Wikileaks on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Solidarity letters and postcards to:

Bradley Manning
c/o Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave #41
Oakland CA 94610
USA

Letters will be opened, "contraband" discarded and then mailed weekly to Bradley via someone on his approved correspondence list.

Rap News Vs New World Order (The War on Journalism)

by Rap Vid (5 mins)

Mon Nov 01, 2010 04:37

Wikileaks Rap Vid (5 mins)

Rap News Vs New World Order (The War on Journalism)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXbCwq4ewBU

The Inhumane Conditions Of Bradley Manning's Detention

Thu Dec 16, 2010 16:21

More about Bradley Manning and his appalling prison conditions.

Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

long term psychological damage

Fri Dec 17, 2010 12:06

They have him on regular doses of tranquilisers.

I've seen a case of someone who was given large dosages of valium while doing time for hitting a british naval officer when he was a rating.

I met him several years after this and he could not control the constant tremors and shaking. They never broke him, but he was physiologically damaged, and it was not subsiding.

Terror tactics to discourage insubordination(a.k.a. democratic feedback). I think Vanunu did about 18 years solitary for his 'treason'.

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Private Manning And The Making Of Wikileaks

Comments (8 of 8)