Bradley Manning supporters engage new WhiteHouse.gov petition site

Sign the petition at http://wh.gov/40y

September 27, 2011. By the Bradley Manning Support Network.

Accepting the White House’s challenge to hold the Obama Administration accountable using their new “We the People” site, the Bradley Manning Support Network is officially launching a petition on Tuesday morning. In addition to calling for freedom for alleged WikiLeaks whistle-blower, PFC Bradley Manning, we demand that the Administration allow official UN access to Manning.

Speaking this past week at a forum on open government at the United Nations, President Obama claimed that his administration is working to support government transparency, saying:

“We’ll work to reform and expand protections for whistle-blowers who expose government waste, fraud and abuse.”

Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/20/president-obama-open-government-essence-democracy

Supporters of PFC Manning countered that these claims were empty rhetoric, considering Manning’s treatment. Kevin Zeese, an attorney with the Bradley Manning Support Network, noted the irony in a statement:

“While Obama lauds hypothetical whistle-blowers, an Army private who is accused of blowing the whistle on illegal government actions is now in his 16th month of confinement.”

Link: http://bradleymanning.org/news/obama-rhetoric-on-whistleblowers-doesnt-match-reality

Promising to show tangible results on their newfound commitment to government accountability, the Obama White House has launched a new website claiming that any petition reaching 5,000 signatures within 30 days will prompt an official response. The Bradley Manning Support Network will formally challenge the Obama Administration to defend government retaliation against the alleged WikiLeaks whistle-blower, in light of the Obama Administration’s stated support for transparency.

Link to the Bradley Manning Support Network’s White House petition:
http://wh.gov/40y

The petition also specifically calls on the Obama Administration to honor official requests from United Nations investigators to meet with PFC Bradley Manning in an unmonitored setting. In July the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, repeated his request to meet with PFC Manning:

“The question of my unfettered access to a detainee goes beyond my request to meet with Mr. Manning – it touches on whether I will be able to conduct private and unmonitored interviews with detainees if I were to conduct a country visit to the United States.”

Link: http://bradleymanning.org/news/releases/top-un-official-on-torture-still-denied-unrestricted-meeting-with-manning

The Administration has not publicly acknowledged these requests. Juan Mendez has been in private negotiations with government officials since first asking for a meeting at the beginning of this year. The Department of Defense has offered to allow a monitored meeting between Mendez and Manning. Manning and his legal team declined the offer of a monitored meeting.

LINK TO WHITE HOUSE PETITION SITE:
http://wh.gov/40y

# # #

Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

14 thoughts on “Bradley Manning supporters engage new WhiteHouse.gov petition site

  1. There’s already another petition to free Bradley Manning that has been started. It has a lot more signatures. We should not divide our efforts. Go to http://wh.gov/gDL and sign it. A few more signatures and it will be visible to all.

  2. I’ve been trying to get on the petition site to sign things since it was launched. It will not let me sign anything. Whenever I hit the sign button the box saying create an account comes up–but I did, long ago, and have reset my password, tried everything. Same stupid thing happens again when I try to sign anything.

  3. i can’t even sign in, after creating an acct. that white house petition site sucks. you shd create a private petition and then present it. you need a very easy process, because eve a stalwart supporter like myself will walk away when overly frustrated w the process.

  4. The longer the US denies UN access to Manning, the more it looks like they are trying to cover up his treatment. Same with denying a visit by Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

  5. Bradley Manning is a true American patriot and hero he not only deserves to be released but also needs a formal apology from those who wrongfully imprisoned him and maybe a medal or two and a couple of trophies for his bravery, integrity, honesty and dedication to exposing the truth.

  6. See comments from Peter Van Buren about his book, We Meant Well, and the Dept of State access that was provided to the documents allegedly leaked by Pvt. Manning. This is truly Through the Looking-Glass behavior.

  7. @ tracey: i figured it out. you have to sign out after creating acct, then the link to sign the petition will be working on the bradley manning page. it will prompt you to sign in then. dumb, but it did work.

  8. (just sent the following request to whitehouse petition site)…

    The “Sign Petition” button is not working for me to sign the petition.

    Am unable to sign the Bradley Manning petition at wh.gov/40y , because the button to click to sign the petition is not working.

    I created an account, and I signed in, and still the only 2 buttons at the end of the petition that are highlighted for me to click are the “Sign In” and “Create Account” buttons.

    The “Sign Petition” button is not highlighted, and I cannot click it.

    I tried these several times, and still the “Sign Petition” button doesn’t work. I also tried switching to a different browser, and it still doesn’t work.

    Can you please fix this so I can sign the petition.

    Thank you.

    Sincerely,

    Sally Kline

    My email is [email protected]

  9. (it finally worked here… after trying several times…

    was unaware that you had to sign in and sign out and sign in again… all in same that successive order… all on that same page…

    thank you cindy prince for the hints…

    maybe it would be more helpful if the sign-in/sign-out/sign-in info was a little more explicit at the end of the article here)…

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