Global Bradley Manning Action Days Underway
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MEDIA ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Jeff Paterson
press [at] bradleymanning [dot] org
+1-202-640-4388
Individuals and activists plan events around the world to show support for the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower on March 19-20.
Washington DC, March 14, 2011, — On March 19-20, 2011, activist organizations and individuals will take to the streets to protest the U.S. government’s treatment of accused WikiLeaks whistleblower Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. Manning, 23, has been held in isolation for nearly 300 days, charged with releasing classified documents, including a video that shows American troops shooting and killing 11 people, including two Reuters employees, in 2007.
Organizers are calling on supporters around the world to take public action to protest Manning’s inhumane treatment at the Quantico brig, which P.J. Crowley, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s former assistant for public affairs, declaimed last week as “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.”
The primary rally will take place outside the brig in Quantico where Manning is being held. In addition to the Quantico rally, the Bradley Manning Support Network is pleased to announce events in cities around the world, including Minneapolis, London, Montreal, The Hague, Phoenix, San Diego, and Vienna.
“On March 2nd, Manning was stripped of his clothing and forced to spend the night naked, then stand for inspection the next morning without his clothes. This happened again the following night, and we don’t know how long this will keep going,” said Jeff Paterson, steering committee member of the Bradley Manning Support Network and project director of Courage to Resist. “This pre-trial punishment inhumane and un-American.”
Despite the recommendations of three forensic military psychiatrists, the MCB Quantico Commander refuses to lift PFC Manning’s Prevention of Injury (POI) status and change his confinement classification from MAX to Medium Custody In (MDI).
Manning’s imprisonment has resulted in an international outcry, and his conditions are the subject of an investigation by the UN special rapporteur on torture and a recent campaign by Amnesty International. Famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who will be speaking at a rally in Quantico on the 20th, has called Mr. Manning “a new hero of mine.”
More Information:
- See currently scheduled list of events.
- Details about the Quantico rally.
- Details are also cross-posted at WLCentral.
- Learn how to host a rally for Bradley Manning.
# # #
The Bradley Manning Support Network is a grassroots, nonpartisan organization which works to:
- Stop the extreme, inhumane and illegal pre-trial punishment of Bradley Manning
- Ensure that Bradley Manning receives top-notch legal representation from the lawyer of his choice
- Stop any effort by the United States government to hold a secret court martial trial, unchecked by public and media oversight
- Free Bradley Manning!
bradleymanning.org is way to slow (taking more then 30 seconds to load the home page) and I am getting more often than not 500 server errors from bradleymanning.org
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$ traceroute bradleymanning.org
traceroute to bradleymanning.org (173.236.222.85), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.194 ms 0.292 ms 0.411 ms
2 CORE1-fhrp-n64-253.aceinnovative.com (66.114.64.253) 24.456 ms 28.268 ms 32.224 ms
3 206.ge-1-3-0.mpr1.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.180.74) 32.753 ms 34.147 ms 35.120 ms
4 xe-1-1-0.cr1.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.26.161) 39.276 ms 39.925 ms 40.565 ms
5 xe-3-2-0.cr1.dca2.us.above.net (64.125.26.101) 44.745 ms 46.352 ms 47.232 ms
6 xe-2-2-0.cr1.iah1.us.above.net (64.125.29.37) 74.915 ms 55.896 ms 83.682 ms
7 xe-0-0-0.cr2.iah1.us.above.net (64.125.30.66) 61.328 ms 65.709 ms 66.371 ms
8 xe-2-0-0.cr2.lax112.us.above.net (64.125.25.18) 98.375 ms 99.940 ms 100.929 ms
9 xe-0-1-0.mpr1.lax7.us.above.net (64.125.30.5) 101.069 ms 101.431 ms 102.116 ms
10 64.124.196.90.t00867-01.above.net (64.124.196.90) 169.788 ms 171.371 ms 171.975 ms
11 ip-66-33-201-221.dreamhost.com (66.33.201.221) 120.054 ms 155.582 ms 155.733 ms
12 ps40360.dreamhost.com (173.236.222.85) 96.521 ms 92.710 ms 92.314 ms
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$ ping bradleymanning.org -c 4
PING bradleymanning.org (173.236.222.85) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ps40360.dreamhost.com (173.236.222.85): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=91.6 ms
64 bytes from ps40360.dreamhost.com (173.236.222.85): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=91.2 ms
64 bytes from ps40360.dreamhost.com (173.236.222.85): icmp_seq=4 ttl=53 time=89.7 ms
— bradleymanning.org ping statistics —
4 packets transmitted, 3 received, 25% packet loss, time 3000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 89.751/90.897/91.655/0.860 ms
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[...] this in a military jail in Kuwait. At the time of writing, Bradley has been held in isolation for over 300 days, charged with disclosing the ‘Collateral Murder’ video and releasing thousands of US Embassy [...]
Yes, BradleyManning.org has been slow, and occasionally down, over the last week. Over the next two weeks, we’ll have a team of folks taking steps to significantly improve the situation for the website going forward. This will include a complete redesign and migration to a new server host. We also expect to bring on board a paid intern to work on the site daily so that our diverse grassroots actions and efforts are better represented here (see job posting on the home page).
It is very difficult to “be nice” and use polite words to describe the the anger and extreme disgust I feel every time I think of the infamous way in which this young man, Bradley Manning is being maltreated, threatened, humiliated and kept in appalling conditions under which not even animals in zoos are kept.
If Bradley was a female and subjected to the humiliation of having to stand naked in front of the male henchmen at Quantico, the outrage among feminists from all political persuasions, creeds, races and ages would be overwhelming. The extreme arrogant and cruel behavior of that female, Denise Barnes shows that she is a sexual pervert, either out of homophobia, the fascist mentality in which she has been trained and “educated” or that she simply is one more of the millions of people in the US who have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the fascistic FOX NEWS, and by other extreme right wing radio and TV hosts that pour pure venom into the ether.
That President Obama “believes” the word of the Commander of what has become a hell on earth, namely Quantico, that the treatment given to Bradley “meets basic humane standards” is either extremely naive and gullible on his part, or much worse, that he, the president, has become a black version of George W. Bush and other Republican politicians. I am extremely disappointed in this man.
I am 91 years of age, so I won’t be able to attend the rally on March 19, but my thoughts, my love and my solidarity are with this beautiful boy Bradley.
It’s time that this disgrace stops!
I turn 60 next week. I cannot believe the way the direction this country has gone in since the Bush v. Gore election. Deep down I always believed in this country, in our democracy. But lately I have this sunken feeling that we are moving towards an “1984″ Nazi style regime. Everything that has been going on from the years and years of isolation that prisoners suffer in supermax prisons, to the acceptance of torture, to the unwillingness of our congress to deal with our “selection” system, to the dismantling of our manufacturing and the resulting joblessness, to the takeover of media by a few corporations, to the growing “brown shirt” movements by groups like the Teaparty, to the fraud that Obama turned out to be, to the Patriot Act and their disregard for the Bill of Rights. It is so depressing. Danial Ellsberg wasn’t treated this way. Bradley Manning is a courageous young man. The heliocoptor massacre should have been a scandal on the level of Abu Grab or the Mi Lai Massacre. It should have been the buzz for weeks. But no. If I didn’t watch “Democracy Now” (I know few people who do) I would never have heard of Bradley Manning. The news blackout is disturbing in this country. I am glad I’m 60 and don’t have to watch the downfall of our civilization or even the destruction of this planet much longer. The only thing that gives me a glimmer hope is the rise of democracy in South America.
@ Jeff Paterson
i came hoping to write a note to Bradly. is he ever allowed to read and respond to emails?
saw your dad, brad! he’s a great guy. i have a son suffering ptsd. we’re all to some degree suffering with you.
lin