Florida attorney and Bradley Manning supporter James Cerveny wrote the letter below and sent it to the editors of a number of newspapers in Florida.
Let’s hope it gets published. Letters such as these do not change public opinion or government policy overnight, but sustained campaigns have long used them as one tool in the kit that’s both cheap and potentially powerful.
Why not send a letter to the editors of papers in your area? You can find a substantial directory of their email addresses here: http://www.mapinc.org/perl/directory.pr
Bradley Manning, currently held in a military gulag by the US government, is an American hero. His “crime” was to release to WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website, a suppressed videotape of a blatant war crime in which US soldiers chortle with glee as they gun down unarmed civilians, including children. Manning has also allegedly released numerous diplomatic cables exposing massive corruption involving US officials as well as those of the puppet government we have installed in Iraq.
The government, and Manning’s detractors, claim that the release of the video jeopardizes “national security.” This rings false, as the video is over three years old. Rather, the government is charging him under draconian laws, including a statute typically used in espionage cases, to make an example of him for embarrassing our ruling class and for breaking through the tight censorship that has been increasingly successful in shielding the American people from exposure to the harsh realities of our illegal wars of aggression.
In case it hasn’t sunk in, the man was charged with espionage for revealing information to the American people that they should be entitled to have. This is what our “republic” has come to.
Two “journalists” from Wired magazine (both convicted felons), using grossly unethical methods of selection and omission in writing their article, conspired with each other as well as the government to silence Manning and to smear him as a “traitor.” Not surprisingly, the substance of this Orwellian hit piece has been parroted unquestioningly by our sycophantic mainstream media. Readers desiring a balanced approach to the Manning story should read the excellent article by Glen Greenwald in Salon.com.
The actions of the US government in prosecuting Manning, instead of the moral cretins in the helicopter and their superiors, are those of a tyrannical state. The actions of our media in their “reporting” of the story are like those of their counterparts in North Korea.
God help this nation.
James Cerveny
Gainesville FL
Your Introduction piece above is somewhat sensationalistic and contains untruths as follows: -
“a blatant war crime in which US soldiers chortle with glee as they gun down unarmed civilians, including children”
Whilst it is true that the journalists were unarmed there were armed personnel with them… the presence of a guy with a Camera does not in itself mean that they were jornalists, after all there have been a fair few videos shown around the world of attacks on Western Forces… what are these filmed on?… not all are filmed on mobile phones!
And whilst it is true that some elements of the US forces are gung-ho to put it mildly. This is not a ‘Blatant’ war crime. A very serious misjudgement and a high degree of callousness by the Aircraft crewmen yes!
And at what time did you, and hence the aircrew, see children in the video? and dont go bleating on about the fact that you can see a small arm in the vehicle… did you see it when the vehicle was first picked up by the camera or were you, as undoubtedly the crew were doing watching the guys trying to rescue the seriously wounded journalist….well we now know him to be a journalist but did the aircrew?…No I bet you didnt know there were children in the vehicle till it was pointed out to you in fact did you know there were joiurnalists in this video without being told up-front? Bet you didnt!
Bradley manning has a lot of courage for doing what he did. But a lot of naiivety if he expected to get away with it! He did break service regulations and he is being prosecuted for that. I mean what on earth did he expect after embarressing the US Military (his employers) and the US Government?
As for Draconian laws… most Military laws are ‘Draconian’… how many Civilians can expect to be puncihed for not polishing their boots? Military laws have to be strict to maintain discipline, no discipline means you have a poor Army indeed! In fact I am wondering Mr James Cerveny..have you ever served in the Forces to say these Laws are Draconian or not.
The video does not compromise Military security as pointed out it is three years old, but it WAS classified and it IS an embarressment to the US.. so right or wrong it was suppressed for General viewing by the Public and no the Public Does NOT have a right to see classified information until it becomes declassified….like it or not thats the rules!
To George: You said: “The video does not compromise Military security as pointed out it is three years old, but it WAS classified and it IS an embarressment to the US.. so right or wrong it was suppressed for General viewing by the Public and no the Public Does NOT have a right to see classified information until it becomes declassified….like it or not thats the rules!”
Right, just like it was the rules to kill Jews in the camps. Like it or not, the guards who went to trial were hung for following the rules.
If you are not able to listen to your conscience and speak out when attrocities are being commited, you are most certainly an accomplice to crime and history will hold you accountable.
CertainQuirk how way off the mark can you possibly get? The Military, which you obviously knnow the square root of ’sod all’ about has security Classification for various reasons. None of them intrinsically sinister (except in the minds of people like you) all of them to protect the Military. What the Nazi’s did in WW2 cannot be compared to it.
“If you are not able to listen to your conscience and speak out when attrocities are being commited, you are most certainly an accomplice to crime and history will hold you accountable”
What the Aircrew did was rash and undisciplined, it was not a planned ‘atrocity’ as far as they were concerned these guys were armed (some at least) and in that particular ugly conflict situation in Iraq ‘fair targets’.. they should have shown more restraint, and they should have waited to see if these people were actually up to no good… they didnt and thier gung-ho attitude does not leave a glowing feeling about the Military. They should have been courts martialled and removed from Military service
But lets talk a little bit more about atrocities and conscience. You are undoubtedly quick to react when The coalition troops screw up…how many times have to put ‘pen to paper’ so to speak, when suicide bombers target innocent civilians? When The Insurgents kill unarmed people?
How many times have to protested about how the Shi’ites have been slaughtering the Suunis and how the Sunni’s have been slaughtering the shi’ites? I would wager that you havent…… its all good and well belating about ‘atrocities’ but is it all good and well when your protests are entirely one sided and purely to serve your own righteousness and self esteem?
To George: My statement above was quite simple. I’m not going to argue semantics about murder today and murder in the 1940’s, OK?
Neither am I obliged to discuss my conscience with you about suicide bombers, innocents, etc. You’ve made determinations about me already which are quite wrong. We can leave it at that.
To paraphrase, you said the military makes laws to protect itself…! The fox is making the rules for the henhouse guard and you’re perfectly fine with that? And I’M a mindless tin-foil? OK.
This is what I posted on Forbes just moments ago and also on the WikiLeaks, savebradley, and Save Tom Drake Facebook pages:
We’ve seen in recent years (mostly with the help of whistle-blowers) what the US Government and its Military Complex are capable of in the name of “Homeland Security.” As I write this today, most of the sacred human rights declared in the US Constitution have been abolished with the stroke of a despotic presidential pen. Without the consent of the people, they have declared war, conducted human torture, silenced free-speech and free-press, invaded property and privacy without warrant, suspended habeas corpus, and declared a right of assasination. We can only imagine what else they may be doing. American citizens (and others) have become no more than their property. We are now slaves.
In the tyrannical America of today, the threat to the lives of Bradley Manning and Julian Assange is as real as indefinite detention in Guantanamo is to a “suspected terrorist.”
I believe the attempted censorship and spin of events concerning these men, Manning and Assange, will have the Streisand Effect. That is to say, the more they attempt to silence it, the more it will become viral. As for myself, I can no longer remain silent and sleep at night, not when I know what Bradley Manning is most likely enduring right now. Not when I know Julian Assange is living his life a few steps ahead of true mortal danger. I’m certain I am not the only person who is feeling this way today.
Thank you, Forbes, for the continued exposure of these historical men and events.
Thank you certain quirk to show the difference between your opinon and Georges opinon. I stand with you with your opinon, and hope the blindfolded will take off their blind folds and see this as you have written here.
There is to many Americans that find comfort in only what they are told to believe and fear thinking out side the story that they have been spoon fed as truth.
You made good analogy, and listening to Georges comments reminds me of a twist on the story the Emperor has no clothes. George and any one with similar opinons, I can only hope you think about what you read here for clearer vision against tyranny.
George,
I agree with you that it is not apparent from the video whether a war crime occurred here. After reading the account of Ethan McCord, a soldier in one of the ground units during the attack who in fact rescued the children from the van, I deeply regret that I referred to the soldiers in the helicopter as “moral cretins.” Reading the account of someone who was there has changed my thinking in significant ways since I wrote the letter. I agree with you that the attack was overzealous, but I should not have been so quick to judge the actions of those subject to the kinds of severe psychological stresses and unimaginable fear on a daily basis that must have caused those young men to become so callous and trigger-happy.
That does not change the fact that this video, along with other information that is routinely suppressed solely because it embarrasses our government, should be available to the American people. Free access to information such as this is axiomatic to the functioning of a free republic. If government is allowed to sanitize war at its whim, we are not living in a free republic, we are living in a propaganda state that has more in common with the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany than it does with traditional ideals of what America should be.
No, I never have served in the armed forces, but I know when laws are draconian and unjust (if not unconstitutional). Just as I didn’t have to be incarcerated in Auschwitz to know how wrong that was.
James
I dont know the full account of what operations were being undertaken on that day in that part of Baghdad. I dont know if the Apache’s were on top cover for a specific operation or just on a routine Combat Air patrol in the area. I guessed there was ’something going on’ nearby in the way the group of men in the video including the journalists were behaving at the corner of the street…i.e. they were peering around the corner.
I havent heard of Ethan McCord until your post above so I googled his name and read his account… the following, in his words, is exactly the way I felt when I saw the video for the first time.
“However, when I did come up on the scene, there was an RPG as well as AK-47s there…. You just don’t walk around with an RPG in Iraq, especially three blocks away from a firefight…. Personally, I believe the first attack on the group standing by the wall was appropriate, was warranted by the rules of engagement. They did have weapons there. However, I don’t feel that the attack on the [rescue] van was necessary”
This is why, although the attack on the van was in my opinion an ‘overkill’ the episode cannot be deemed as murder! I also didnt know that Civilians are not supposed to come to the aid of the wounded (rightly or wrongly!) McCords words again.
“Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. But they could have been easily deterred from doing what they were doing by just firing simply a few warning shots in the direction…. Instead, the Apaches decided to completely obliterate everybody in the van. That’s the hard part to swallow”
It must go against the grain for any decent person to ignore injured and wounded people, to not treat aid or succor them. But I guess this video shows why. The forces out there do not know who is who when it comes to insurgents fighting them, the injured journalist could have been an insurgent, the van could have contained other insurgents coming to his aid. As an Ex soldier myself, my immediate view is why let a terrorist/insurgent/freedom fighter call them what you will survive to attack you another day? Harsh maybe but thats reality!
As for Military rules being draconian and unjust. Of course they have to be Draconian thats how you maintain discipline which is vital for cohesion within the unit. Thats how you get young guys to go out and face things that civilains at home cannot face.
Unjust rules? unjust for whom? those that break them perhaps?
I am not American and can only speak for the way British soldiers feel. When a certain regiment started a tour of operations in Iraq back in 2004 I think it was (may be wrong on that dateline though), they were shocked at the ferocity of the attacks that occured against them daily. The Insurgent attacks had only just started after the period of calm that followed the Coalition invasion. yet they showed remarkable restraint in the face of such attacks.
One concern they had was a legal issue over engaging ‘dickers’ (spotters for the enemy) When they were being mortared the sniper section would occasionally spot someone maybe as far as a kilometer away over the river adjacent to their camp, with binoculars and a cellphone, clearly spotting for the mortar team, these ‘dickers’ were not themselves armed! .They were frightened of shooting unarmed men because of a fear of punishment and/or imprisonment. This fear is because the media is so very very quick to label them as murderers… exactly what happened with the ‘collateral murder’ video dont you think? The soldiers in Al Amarrah were told, if you see a guy with binoculars and a cellphone at the time you are being mortared shoot him, he is clearly part of the team trying to kill you!
How far do you go to save your life or the lives of your fellow soldiers?… I know what I would do!
The US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are labelled as gung-ho bloodthirsty murderers because a few acts occur which are either outright atrocities (such as the rape of a 14 year old and the murder of her and her entire family commited by a small group of soldiers), blue on blue incidents (countless numbers of attacks on Coalition troops by US air units), or distastefull to civilians (such as the incident we are talking about,’Bradley manning collateral murder’ video.
Why should these military videos be made instantly available to the US public? in the name of Democracy? so that you can spike your troops in the back yet again with outcries of Imbecile, baby killer or just plain old Murderer? remember there have been hundreds of thousands of troops who have rotated through Iraq and Afghanistan. The numbers of so called atrocities is very very few indeed! yet you lable the hundreds of thousands for the acts of the few!
The reason we release these videos is to avoid all the anecdotal lines you and James just related above, those and secondhand sources.
If there is a question of murder… let me repeat, if there is a question of murder, then we need to know. We have every human right to know.
You may use “war” as justification all manner of deeds, but I don’t and I am not alone. I am one of many who insist that we WILL get to the bottom of all this and justice will be served. Otherwise, the irony of this “war” defeats itself.
Do you not understand that?
I need to be more succinct about my first line above: “The reason we release these videos is to avoid all the anecdotal lines you and James just related above, those and secondhand sources.”
The need for these video leaks (as the military is not forthcoming) is to know if there are questionable actions being taken in the name of these “wars.”
The step further that I left out is this: The video itself is not proof, however after it has called an episode into question, we can then submit it to a court of law with FACTS.
If we do this each and every time with each and every question we can reduce the number of these issues knowing that the military is better policing itself because it knows it is being watched.
If these were “wars” that I was not coerced into paying for, we could let a free-market world decide their fate. My guess is, the “wars” are unjust to begin with and there wouldn’t be an ounce of support for them.
However, as long as I am coerced to pay for all this killing in the name of something other than my own ideals, I will continually question and expect answers to the extent my “liberties” will permit.
Mr Quirk ‘If there is a question of murder’ These men were apparently engaged WITHIN the rules of engagement. it now apperas that however harsh it was the ‘rescue van’ was probably engaged WITHIN the rules of engagement. so what more do you need to know?
The shooting of the guys on the street corner was fair and withi8n reason in my view, the shooting of the rescue van wasnt!
So why do you have a right to know Mr Quirk? so that maybe you can protest and feel all righteous? The question of whether the War out there was right or wrong is besides the point unless you are going to start rambling on about ‘well if the War is wrong then every act within the War is wrong’ as that is just semantics.
As for the ‘anecdotal lines’ these are paraphrasing guys who were their…. whom are you paraphrasing? Were you there? You see a video its claimed that this and that happened and because it stirs your obvious anti-government sentiment you jump on it like a starving dog and claim it for your cause.
Why dont you take a worthwile cause to fight? I am sure there are many wrongly convicted prisoners in the US whom could use your fervour? many homeless people whom could use your fervour… but guess it aint righteous enough if it isnt against the heart of government eh?
And Furthermore re your “The video itself is not proof, however after it has called an episode into question, we can then submit it to a court of law with FACTS.”
In this particular case, whom are you going to take to court? and where are you going to get the FACTS from?
This site, I beleive is about Bradley Manning, he broke Military Regulations and the Military hierachy are a vengeful lot, he WILL be punished for it. The only thing to see is how severe that punishment will be!
Whether or not the military laws are draconian, harsh or unfair is beside the point. He signed on the dotted line when he joined and furthermore as a defence intelligence analyst he probably signed a few more forms which your ordinary soldier doesn’t have to sign.
I can’t speak for US Troops but in the British Army we had to sign the Official Secrets Act, whether you were a storeman or the General Officer Commanding of a Divison. You signed up front on joining the military and you have every opportunity NOT to sign ansd then hence NOT join!
Bradley Manning signed the US version of the Official Secrets Act. He knew full well what he was doing, had he not liked the military Rules and Regs he should have left.
Its rather sad actually because your ‘fighting’ for his cause will not help him in any way, it’ll just annoy the Military even more and probably lead to an even harsher sentence than he would otherwise have got or deserved.
In my view a Courts Martial and dismissal from service is all that should happen to him… bet he gets more than that though!
OK George, you’ve made your points and I’ve stated mine. We don’t agree. Since we don’t, I will stay here and continue to support Bradley Manning, and I will continue to question all the pertinent issues that are in question.
You, on the other hand, do not belong here because you do not support Bradley. (You may not have noticed, but the name of the page is “Help Bradley Manning” and not “SHOULD WE? Help Bradley Manning.” You’re entitled to your perspective, of course. Perhaps you should start your own site to NOT support him? Or better yet, since you are not in the US, maybe you should mind your British business instead? In the meantime, I have nothing more to say to you.
Shawn Fair
Fleming, Colorado, USA
Fair enough, I actually initially found a link to this site on facebook. It was linked a couple of times by Briotish friends of mine who support Bradley. Guess they should mind their own British business too should they, I am sure Bradley would appreciate you for helping him with his cause like that!I know why not set up a vetting system on who has the right to support him or not, Judged by YOUR criteria obviously!
And for your info I really do hope Bradley gets the minimum of punishment, its not like he actually hurt anyone now is it. But unfortunately for him you cant pick or choose which Military Regs you will abide by if you are in the Military!
Good luck with the ‘Murder’ prosecution I really look forward to seeing that one in court!
For the record: Bradley Manning is imprisoned NOW, and it has nothing to do with my criteria.
It does, however, have quite a bit to do with an arbitrary and covert military system, and statist detractors.
For the record: I openly accept all *SUPPORT* from any country, culture, or race of human beings.