Photo credit: AP/Patrick Semansky

What: demonstration at Ft. McNair, base of Convening Authority Maj. Gen. Buchanan

When: Friday, July 26, 3-5:30 PM

Where: Event starts at 4th St and P St SW, near the Waterfront metro, Washington DC

Hundreds of supporters of Army whistleblower Pfc. Bradley Manning are demonstrating July 26, 3-5:30pm, at Ft. McNair, Washington D.C., the base of Convening Authority Major General Buchanan, who has the power to reduce Bradley’s sentence.  They’re gathering shortly after the closing arguments of the guilt vs. innocence phase of Manning’s trial to ask Maj. Gen. Buchanan to free the Army whistleblower. The event will include colorful banners, protest puppets, speakers from the veteran and anti-war communities, and an attempt to deliver a petition to Maj. Gen. Buchanan himself. Additionally, the US Peace Memorial Foundation will attend to present Manning with their 2013 Peace Prize.

Last Thursday, Amnesty International called Bradley Manning’s prosecution a “travesty of justice.” Manning is facing a life sentence for releasing hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks because he wanted to promote “debates, discussions and reforms” concerning U.S. foreign policy. He has pled guilty to mishandling classified information, which carries up to a 20-year sentence, but he faces life in prison on charges of Aiding the Enemy, Espionage, computer fraud, and federal theft.   

Meanwhile, Manning’s trial in Ft. Meade, MD, is set to enter a new phase: the defense and prosecution will make closing arguments on Thursday, July 25, and the sentencing phase is scheduled to begin July 31. 

The military justice system dictates no minimum sentence, so as Convening Authority Maj. Gen. Buchanan has wide latitude to decrease a sentence. Supporters are hopeful he will take into consideration the fact that Manning was imprisoned three years before he was tried, including 9 months alone in a 6×8 ft cell, conditions which the judge determined to be “unlawful pretrial punishment” and which NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden referenced in his pursuit of asylum. Additionally, many supporters cried foul at the judge permitting Manning’s homophobic supervisor to testify last Friday for the prosecution, after they’d officially closed their argument.

View the event facebook page.

The Bradley Manning Support Network is responsible for 100% of Manning’s legal fees, as well as international education efforts. Funded by 21,000 individuals, the Support Network has mustered $1.3 million in Manning’s defense.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Nathan Fuller, 516-578-2628
press@bradleymanning.org

Manning trial: Judge lets Govt reopen case for baseless allegation

In an extremely rare, last-minute move weeks after the government rested its case, military judge Col. Denise Lind allowed prosecutors to expand their rebuttal case, making way for unsupported accusations against Pfc Bradley Manning. The late addition exceeded the usual limits of a simple rebuttal, once again raising supporters’ and journalists’ suspicions about the validity and fairness of the proceedings.

In a cynical move, the government prosecution recalled Specialist Jihrleah Showman, a former supervisor against whom Manning filed an Equal Opportunity complaint. Following Manning’s complaint Showman was admonished for her use of homophobic language in conversation and workplace signage. In the years since, she has vied for media appearances augmented by her own vitriolic Tweets attacking Manning as well as his supporters. Now, at the eleventh hour, she claims to recall a conversation with the 25-year-old army private in which he allegedly shared anti-American opinions.

Screenshot of Tweet:

http://www.alexaobrien.com/secondsight/images/jihrleah_showman_ATjwittshow_tweet_20120912.png 

According to the defense, however, Ms. Showman is lending an intentional and inaccurate spin to comments Manning made regarding his refusal to follow any authority blindly as an “automaton” (in Manning’s own words) so that they conform to the prosecution’s characterization of someone disloyal to the United States.

Meanwhile, no other witness from the prosecution or defense argument has testified that Manning ever shared any anti-American sentiment. In fact, several witnesses have offered just the opposite. Lauren McNamara, with whom Manning chatted socially online, testified that he said her was “concerned about making sure that everyone, soldiers, marines, contractors, even the local nationals, get home to their families.”

The alleged comments came during a routine one-on-one professional conference, the sort that superiors are instructed to document. Although Showman provided written documentation for other private conferences in the same time frame—apprising Manning of the unit smoking policy and the possibility of her recommending him for “soldier-of-the-month”—she failed to assign the same importance to these newly revealed comments until after Manning had been arrested on suspicion of sharing classified information with Wikileaks. 

Despite Showman’s assertion she passed this hearsay commentary on to her own superior, then Master Sergeant Paul Adkins, Adkins did not corroborate her version of events when he testified later that afternoon. After numerous sworn statements saying he could not recall Showman reporting such an incident, Adkins did eventually sign one written by his lawyer in June 2011 as part of an appeal his reduction in rank saying she had reported the incident and that he in turn reported it up the chain of command. 

In his previous statements, Adkins himself wrote and signed statements that mention no comments from Manning of a disloyal or anti-American nature. Other superiors in Manning’s chain, such as Chief Warrant Officer Kyle Balonek, testified he had never heard about this allegation, and that he would expect any incident of this sort to have been documented in writing.

This controversial testimony comes just after a defense motion articulating the prosecution’s lack of evidence to support its “Aiding the enemy” charge against Manning, and after several witnesses testified that Manning never displayed any anti-American sentiments.

Outraged by this shocking add-on to the prosecution’s extensive five-week case—including testimony and cross examination of Showman herself—hundreds of supporters across the world are planning actions on July 27. In Washington DC, supporters will converge at Ft McNair army base to appeal on Manning’s behalf to the court martial convening authority, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan. 

While it remains to be seen how much weight Col. Lind will place on this unconventional addition, in the court of public opinion it has largely weakened the prosecution’s argument. Showman’s latest testimony contradicts that of every other witness in this trial, including her own earlier statements. The proposition that Manning would be so open about his Humanist philosophy and patriotism with friends and anonymous online chat-buddies only to confide in a homophobic army supervisor simply doesn’t hold water for most listeners.

Showman’s performance on the stand ultimately seemed reminiscent of testimony earlier this summer from convicted hacker and government informant Adrian Lamo. In online chats where Manning confesses his actions to Lamo, the latter asks if this might make Manning a sort of spy.

“I couldn’t be a spy,” replied Manning. “Spies don’t post things up for the world to see.”

While Pfc. Bradley Manning stands trial at Ft. Meade, MD, pop-culture celebrities declare their support for the Army whistleblower, in a five-minute advocacy video released late yesterday. More than 20 Hollywood actors, musicians, and other well-known leaders appear in the new video, titled “I am Bradley Manning.” 

Filmmaker Oliver Stone; actors Russell Brand, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Wallace Shawn, Peter Sarsgaard; musicians Moby, Tom Morello, and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters; writers Matt Taibbi, Alice Walker, Chris Hedges; and activists Lt. Dan Choi and Angela Davis, and others speak out in the short film, explaining that Manning sought to expose war crimes and inspire debate and reforms. They condemn the “aiding the enemy” charge with which the military wants to imprison him for life, arguing it criminalizes what should be recognized as whistleblowing. 

Russell Brand said Manning “was motivated out of a different kind of patriotism: a genuine love of the people of this country and concern for the people,” in an interview published in Gawker at the time of the video’s release.

Brand continued, “[H]e’s brought palpable, tangible evidence of mendacious…conduct apparently for the protection or for the furtherment of the American people.” 

In the video, each participant holds a sign of solidarity, which read, “I am Bradley Manning.” 

Manning faces a potential life sentence for passing hundreds of thousands of classified documents, including war reports from Iraq and Afghanistan and State Department diplomatic cables, to the transparency website WikiLeaks. He said he’d hoped to “spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general as well as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan.”  

Visit the “I am Bradley Manning” website and submit a photo in support of the heroic whistleblower. 

Hundreds rally for Bradley at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

November 9, 2012. By the Bradley Manning Support Network

Army PFC Bradley Manning, awaiting trial for allegedly sharing thousands of classified documents with the transparency website WikiLeaks, offered to accept responsibility for a narrow set of offenses within the currently charged offenses this week during a pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland.

“PFC Manning is not pleading guilty to the specifications as charged by the Government,” noted PFC Manning’s attorney David Coombs on his blog. Nor is he “submitting a plea as part of an agreement or deal with the Government.”

“Like most supporters, I’ve backed Bradley Manning on the belief that he was the heroic whistle-blower in question,” explained Jeff Paterson of the Bradley Manning Support Network. “Now that Bradley appears to have acknowledged this in court, its reason to redouble efforts to support him leading up to his February court martial.”

If Bradley’s plea offer is accepted, the parties would likely be able to bypass weeks of forensics testimony that would be required to prove Bradley accessed and/or transmitted the classified documents at issue. The court martial proceedings might then focus on what Mr. Coombs has long contended: That the release of these documents brought little to no harm to U.S. national security, and that PFC Manning’s motives, if he did release them, were to expose crime, fraud, corporate malfeasance, and abuse.

The military has worked to preclude the defense from discussing harm, or lack thereof, in the merits portion of Bradley’s trial, seeking to prevent him from being seen as a military whistle-blower. However, Bradley has now opted to be tried by military judge Denise Lind alone. “Much of the ongoing litigation over the last year can now be looked at in a new light–as an effort to educate Judge Lind in regards to Bradley Manning’s whistle-blower motives,” offered Jeff Paterson.

“The Government may still elect to prove up the charged offenses,” explained Coombs.

The parties return to Ft. Meade on November 27 for a six-day hearing focusing largely on the defense’s motion to dismiss charges based on PFC Manning’s unlawful pretrial confinement conditions at the Quantico Marine Brig.

Following that hearing, Mr. Coombs will give his first ever public presentation, speaking at All Souls Church Unitarian (1500 Harvard Street Northwest) in Washington D.C. at 7:00pm on December 3.

Supporters march in San Francisco demanding Obama uphold his campaign promise to protect whistle-blowers.

By the Bradley Manning Support Network. September 7, 2012.

On the day of President Obama’s DNC nomination acceptance speech, protesters in 34 cities acoss the United States targeted local Obama campaign headquarters to demand the President free accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee PFC Bradley Manning. International supporters, in Australia and the U.K., also protested at U.S. embassies.

In each city, supporters delivered a letter to the campaign, outlining their demands. The letter called on President Obama to release Bradley Manning and account for the abusive treatment he endured in the Quantico Marine Brig.

Michael Thurman, of the Bradley Manning Support Network and Iraq Veterans Against the War said, “Bradley Manning showed great courage in risking his life to do what’s right, by exposing evidence of war crimes and corruption our own government had hidden from us. Now we’re waiting for Obama to show a little courage and make good on his promise to have ‘the most transparent government in history’ by freeing whistle-blower Bradley Manning.”

Campaign staffers in some cities, such as Sacramento, Washington D.C., and Tucson, were receptive to the efforts, forwarding the letter and discussing Manning’s case with demonstrators. In San Francisco, a DNC delegate offered to submit a resolution to the national DNC on the activists’ behalf.

Elsewhere, staff members refused to engage. In New York, building security wouldn’t let Manning supporters visit the office. In Concord, NH, staffers locked the campaign office doors and closed the blinds.

Though he’s spent 837 days in prison, Bradley’s trial won’t begin until at least February 4. On November 27, defense lawyers will argue a pretrial motion to dismiss charges, based on his unlawful treatment at Quantico.

In the meantime, Manning supporters encourage more actions at Obama campaign offices nationwide, calling on the president to live up to his 2008 promise to protect whistle-blowers.

Actions where organized in the following cities:  Anchorage, AK, Birmingham, AL, Tucson, AZ, Culver City, CA, Los Angeles, CA, Menlo Park, CA, San Francisco, CA, Sacramento, CA, Washington, DC, Orlando, FL, Tallahassee, FL, Honolulu, HI, Des Moines, IA, Chicago, IL, Boston, MA, Minneapolis, MN, St. Louis, MO, Charlotte, NC, Concord, NH, Albuquerque, NM, Santa Fe, NM, New York, NY, Syracuse, NY, Toledo, OH, Medford, OR, Portland, OR, Philadelphia, PA, Austin, TX, Dallas, TX, Roanoke, VA, Olympia, WA, Seattle, WA, Madison, WI, Milwaukee WI, Huntsville AL, Portland ME,

See more photos from the actions here.

See the letter protesters mailed to Obama here,

Featured reports:

Report from NYC action.  bradleymanning.org.
Report from Washington, DC action. bradleymanning.org
Reports from Toledo, Tallahase, Seattle and Boston. bradleymanning.org
 ”Protesters tell Obama to free Bradley Manning”. San Francisco Bay Guardian.
“Free Bradley Manning protest in Menlo Park”. indybay.org
“Protesters Occupy Obama Volunteer Center in Menlo Park”. patch.com
“Bradley Manning Demonstrations Planned for September 6″. The New American.

“DNC Dispatch: Occupy Movement Marches in Support of Bradley Manning“. The Dissenter.
“Free Whistleblower Bradley Manning Protest in New York City“. Demotix.com.
Video from Sacramento protest.  Facebook.
 ”Protesters tell Obama to free Bradley Manning”. San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Photos from  Washington D.C. Democratic National Headquarters Bradley Manning Action Sept 6,2012.

By the Bradley Manning Support Network. September 7, 2012.

Yesterday, following speeches from Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, 100 protesters marched to the location of President Obama’s Official San Francisco Democratic Acceptance Speech Watch Party. In a room full of local Democratic officials, Obama activists and donors, they delivered a message demanding that the President free accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee PFC Bradley Manning.

Several of those attending the party stopped to ask the protesters about Bradley Manning.  One woman decided to come outside to join the protesters, and a San Francisco delegate even offered to send a proposal to the national DNC on their behalf.  Once President Obama began his nomination acceptance speech, the activists began chanting, “No more promises, free Bradley now!” Michael Thurman, of the SF Bay Area Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Bradley Manning Support Network explained, “We’re tired of President Obama promising what he refuses to deliver. Bradley Manning exposed war crimes, corruption, and abuse. He’s the type of whistle-blower Obama vowed to protect.”

The San Francisco action was part of an effort to target the Obama campaign in 34 cities nationwide.  The protests ranged as far as Hawaii, Alaska, and even Texas.  Protesters hope that through reaching out to American citizens, and those in the Obama campaign in particular, they can pressure the President to take a public stance in support of Manning.

Though he’s spent 837 days in prison, Bradley Manning’s trial won’t begin until at least February 4. On November 27, defense lawyers will argue a pretrial motion to dismiss charges, based on extreme imprisonment conditions at Quantico that were declared “inhuman and degrading” by the UN.

In the meantime, Manning supporters encourage more actions at Obama campaign offices, calling on the president to live up to his 2008 promise to protect whistle-blowers.

See more photos of the actions here. 

Read the letter protesters mailed to Obama here.

By the Bradley Manning Support Network. June 26, 2012.

PFC Bradley Manning at Ft. Meade, MD.

FORT MEADE, Maryland — Judge Denise Lind ordered military prosecutors to provide a detailed account of their discovery of evidence that could help PFC Bradley Manning’s defense. The ruling came in response to a motion by lead defense counsel David Coombs, who cited misleading statements made by government lawyers about their efforts to locate required materials.

“The Obama administration can’t hide from reality forever” said Jeff Paterson, a lead organizer with the Bradley Manning Support Network. “Any ruling in favor of the truth is a victory for Bradley Manning, because the government’s strategy of abuse, obfuscation and outright deception simply won’t stand the light of day.”

Judge Lind also ruled that the government must provide impact assessments and other reports from the CIA, the FBI, the Department of State, and the Office of the National Counter Intelligence Executive (ONCIX). Coombs complained that he was only made aware of an additional assessment produced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the last round of hearings concluded on June 8.

“They knew DHS was doing an assessment for ONCIX and didn’t tell the court,” said Coombs, citing earlier suggestions made by prosecutors that there was no ONCIX assessment. “The court needs to pull at the string of this argument, because if you do, it falls apart.”

PFC Manning’s lawyers contend that these documents would show that there was no substantive harm posed to national security by the WikiLeaks releases.

On Sunday, hundreds of supporters of the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower marched in LGBT Pride Parades in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Supporters are preparing for another round of demonstrations to coincide with pre-trial hearings scheduled for July 16 to 20 at Fort Meade.

Writing on behalf of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Executive Director Lucy Dalglish urged the Defense Department to adopt at least the same level of media access as was recently extended to trials at Guantanamo Bay. She argued that these reforms are necessary “to ensure that military personnel tried stateside have the same rights to a public trial as those afforded accused terrorists.”

Read the full letter:

“The Obama administration is trying to hide their shameful and unjustifiable retaliation against Bradley Manning,” said Jeff Paterson, a lead organizer with the Bradley Manning Support Network. “The Pentagon’s carefully orchestrated show trial could veer off script if journalists were able to publicly engage critical evidence related to over-classification, abusive pre-trial confinement, and misleading public comments about Bradley Manning.”

The letter, which has been signed by at least 46 media outlets, comes as the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower faces another hearing at Fort Meade on March 15. PFC Manning’s defense team is continuing to pursue motions that would allow depositions of key witnesses, as well as access to documents such as WikiLeaks impact assessments that showed no harm to national security.

Last week, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez condemned the Obama administration’s ongoing refusal to allow a private meeting with PFC Manning. Mendez is seeking to conduct an investigation into what he called “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” during the eight months PFC Manning was held in solitary confinement at a brig in Quantico, Virginia.

The Bradley Manning Support Network organized hundreds of calls by supporters to Jeh Johnson’s office last week, urging the top Pentagon attorney to stop blocking a meeting between PFC Manning and the U.N. investigator.

Related content:

“Bradley Manning’s treatment was cruel and inhuman, UN torture chief rules”.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-manning-cruel-inhuman-treatment-un

“Call top Pentagon attorney Jeh Johnson”.  http://bradleymanning.org/news/call-in-top-pentagon-attorney-jeh-johnson

FORT MEADE, MARYLAND — Shortly before 6:00 PM on the third day of Bradley Manning’s Article 32 pre-trial hearing, Lt. Colonel Paul Almanza, the investigating officer presiding over the hearing, permitted the government’s request to remove journalists and the public from portions of hearings set for today. An objection by PFC Manning’s lead attorney, David Coombs, was noted in the record without any further action.

The Bradley Manning Support Network is deeply troubled by the imposition of an unexplained media blackout without any avenue for redress. The investigating officer has already prevented Manning’s defense from considering internal administration assessments that found these materials didn’t pose a threat to national security. Now he is seeking to prevent journalists and the public from reporting on testimony related to materials that are already in the public domain. Notably, even members of the public who hold relevant security clearances are expected to be removed from viewing the proceedings. Amy Jacobsen of the Center for Constitutional Rights and cooperating counsel for WikiLeaks — who holds the highest level of Top Secret security clearance — is also expected to be denied entrance. We are concerned that representatives of unnamed “relevant government agencies” will be permitted to remain in the room. Lt. Col. Almanza should at a minimum be transparent about which government agencies he has deemed relevant to this matter. In particular, he needs to disclose whether he will permit representatives of the Department of Justice to remain in the room during the blackout. The Department of Justice is the investigating officer’s permanent employer and is also conducting an ongoing investigation into WikiLeaks. 

For more information on the appeal by the Center for Constitutional Rights to guarantee access to WikiLeaks attorneys:

http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/ccr-appeals-denial-of-guaranteed-access-manning-hearing-wikileaks-attorneys

Report on Bradley Manning to be Released Soon

NEW YORK — Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, confirmed yesterday that the Department of Defense has blocked his requests for an unmonitored meeting with PFC Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower. He told reporters gathered at a U.N. General Assembly committee on human rights that he would be issuing a report on Bradley Manning’s case “in the next few weeks.”

Mendez noted that the Obama administration had offered the possibility of a meeting, but only under “conditions in which they could not confirm the confidentiality of my conversations with him.”  He said that, according to the rules of his U.N. mandate, “that is a condition that we cannot accept.”  Mendez explained further that he nevertheless offered to meet with PFC Manning, but that “he also chose not to waive his right to have a private conversation with me.”

“The Special Rapporteur’s report on Bradley Manning’s conditions of confinement unfortunately won’t be complete so long as the Obama administration prevents them from having a private conversation,” said Kevin Zeese, a legal adviser with the Bradley Manning Support Network. “The administration owes an explanation to the American people why they won’t let a U.N. official investigate evidence of Eighth Amendment violations committed against a U.S. citizen.”

Juan Mendez condemned the use of solitary confinement at yesterday’s press conference, arguing that under no circumstances should it be employed for longer than 15 days in excess of 22 hours a day. PFC Manning was held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day during the eight months he was detained at a brig in Quantico, Virginia.

Supporters of Bradley Manning recently surpassed a signature threshold on a new White House petition website demanding unmonitored access to Manning for the U.N. investigator.  According to the website’s rules, the administration must now issue an official response to the request.