Catholic Workers Blockade London Court as Julian Assange Extradition Verdict Recited

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Saturday February 26, 2011 09:42

by London Catholic Worker - Giuseppe Conlon House/ London Catholic Worker

London, England

Free Manning! Free Assange! Free all War Resisters! End the War!

Feb. 24th. -Associated Press Photo (Matt Dunham) - Catholic Workers Ciaron O'Reilly, left, and Roland Gianstefani, right, are removed by police and security officers after sitting in the road after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange departed after his extradition hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in London, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011.
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/3/20110224/img/pwl-britain-wik....html

O'Reilly and Gianstefani blockaded the entance to the court calling for an end to the war and freedom for Bradey Manning, Julian Assange and all anti-war prisoners. They held signs stating
"End the War: Free Julian Assange and Bradley Manning!" and "If they come for the innocent without stepping over your body, cursed be yor religion and your life!"

After being dragged from the entrance, O'Reilly refused to co-operate sitting on the road surrounded by police and a huge media scrum. From that position he addressed the media and the police stating, "Bradey Manning is presently being tortured in Quantico U.S. Marine Base, and Julian Assange is being pursued and persecuted here in London, for one reason only, their resistance to these immoral, illegal unwinnable wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. The footage that Manning is accused of leaking, and Assange has published, exposes the massacre of people like you unarmed journalists doing their job in Baghdad as you are doing yours today. The footage reveals the barbarism of the United States war machine in Iraq showing the slaughter of unarmed journalists and civilians, followed by the attack on the Iraqi adults and children who come to tend the wounded and bury the dead. The United States has made the acts of mercy a capitol offence. As Cathic Workers we refuse to tolerate this!

This war has infected every instirution in our society from the housebroken silence of our churches to the censorship of the media to the conivance of the courts such as this one here today in service of the U.S. military!"
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/3/20110224/img/pwl-britain-wik....html

A dozen Catholic Workers had gathered outside Woolwich Court/Belmarsh Prison with another dozen members of Anonymous and WikiLeaks Support respectfully reading out the names of British military and Afghani civilian war dead as Assange's extradition was being recited in the court.

O'Reilly had recently returned from Ireland where he was campaigning, in the leadup to the Irish elections, to grant citizenship and offer sanctuary to Bradley Manning. Like most U.S. troops invading Iraq, Manning departed to the war on Iraq through Shannon Airport, County Clare, Ireland.

Ciaron O'Reilly soapbox speaking Grafton St. Dublin Ireland.......
Part 1
http://eirereal.mirocommunity.org/video/110/on-the-stre...ist=7

Part 2
http://eirereal.mirocommunity.org/video/111/on-the-stre...ist=7