Update 4/3/12: “The Passion of Bradley Manning,” and writing letters to Bradley
PFC Bradley Manning
Book on Bradley Manning is reviewed for Antiwar.com. As PFC Bradley Manning’s case moves further along the path to a court martial, books about the accused whistle-blower are emerging. Last week, The Nation’s Greg Mitchell and FireDogLake’s Kevin Gosztola paired up for a book on Bradley and the legal injustices he’s battled so far. Next month, Denver Nicks’ “Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History” comes out.
Now civil rights lawyer Chase Madar has a new book called “The Passion of Bradley Manning,” in which he argues that if Bradley did release documents to WikiLeaks, he did so out of political courage in the pursuit of justice. Kelley Vlahos reviews the book for Antiwar.com. She quotes Madar’s contention that the WikiLeaks-released documents belong in the public sphere:
“We need to know what our government’s commitments are. Our foreign policy elites have clearly demonstrated they cannot be left to their own devices …Thanks to the whistleblowing revelations attributed to Bradley Manning, we have a far clearer picture of what our country is doing,” Madar writes, going so far as to say this was a “gift to the republic,” deserving of a Medal of Freedom, and not the 50 years-to-life sentence (which Manning could receive) in a federal brig.
The book is officially out next week, April 11 – which is also opening day for the Wales play, “The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning,’ which looks at Bradley’s adolescence. (Read more…)
Bradley receives mail in Virginia, even though he’s currently in Ft. Leavenworth, KS. As WiseUpForBradleyManning reminds us, following the military’s refusal to disclose Bradley’s location, you can still write to Bradley in Virginia. We now know that Bradley has been moved back to Kansas, until his next court appearance April 24, but the military still directs mail to the Virginia address:
Commander, HHC USAG
Attn: PFC Manning
239 Sheridan Ave, Bldg 417
JBM-HH, VA 22211
USA
Write to Bradley today – send him a message of solidarity and support!
Supporter in Spain writes with thoughts on Bradley Manning and American justice.
“My name is Temple. I’m a performance artist, musician and video producer from Spain. I support Bradley because the world deserves to know when governments commit crime, and the American people deserve to know what is done in their name. I too believed Obama when he said there would be change. I believed him when he said he explicitly would defend whistle blowers. The people deserve to see he lied. And all people who serve their country and risk their lives deserve due process and and a presumption of innocence as much as any other citizen in the free world. There can be no fair trial once the president has declared someone guilty before trial. There is no option now but dropping all charges.”
You can always send in your photo to iam.bradleymanning.org.
He has been called a whistle-blower. Well that term is reserved for persons who find details or possible evidence that supports an assertion that criminal or unethical behavior is taking or has taken place inside an organization that they belong to, work for, or are associated with. Most or all use personal knowledge of wrong doings to accompany items they provide as proof.
To say that Manning had personnel knowledge of the contents of 500,000+ documents (some classified) is hard to believe if not patently absurd. Without knowing for sure (I have yet to fully complete the computations) I believe that he has spent more time in his young life listening to Lady Gaga’s music than reading any of the documents he so nonchalantly handed over to Julian Assange and company. He probably had no real idea of just what he was divulging to those that made it public knowledge. He simply had access to the material and was not involved in any activity that surrounded any of it. Therefore, he is not a whistle-blower, rather he is a misguided victim of his own desire to gain some sort of accolade at the cost of his honor and any patriotism he may have had. He seems to have knowingly divulged material that he took an oath to keep confidential without trying to use the proper channels in his command structure as a first resort (of course the retort will be that he could not trust them) to ease what he claims was an affront to his conscience. In my mind, having also had access to sensitive material in the past, that is questionable activity and, because of the sensitivity of the material and the possible harm its release may have caused the USA, grounds for a trial are certainly justified. I don’t know how he was approached or if he approached first but Manning is not blameless in this and he must be brought to trial to see if he still deserves the privilege of being called a citizen of the United States of America.
I am in my late eighties and my daughter is in her 60′s. We are both in total support of you. In my lifetime, I have never felt so ashamed and saddened by our own government keeping our citizens from the truth. We wish you well in every way, now and during your trial. We hope that you are well aware of the thousands of people who give their thanks for exposing truth.