Bradley Manning Support Network in solidarity with Occupy Movement
Bradley Manning Supporters Among Those Arrested at Boston Occupation
The Bradley Manning Support Network issued the following statement of solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement today:
“The Bradley Manning Support Network stands in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread to hundreds of cities and town squares across America. We share a common commitment to exposing the corruption of corporate power upon our democratic system.
Over the last few weeks, organizers with the Bradley Manning Support Network have been on the ground at occupations in New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere, along with countless other supporters for the accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower.
Earlier this week, a veteran wearing a “Free Bradley Manning” shirt was among the first to be arrested in a police raid of the Occupy Boston encampment.
We condemn this crackdown on our fellow citizens and veterans in Boston and elsewhere around the country. There is no excuse to silence those who speak freely, assemble peacefully, and seek to petition their government.
Supporters of Manning at the Occupy Wall Street protest 10/4/11 NYC
We also stand for the right of the press to operate free from government harassment. For over 16 months, the Obama administration has withheld the freedom of PFC Bradley Manning in retaliation for allegedly exposing evidence of abuse via WikiLeaks and other media outlets. The administration’s unprecedented pursuit of whistle-blowers like Manning has created a severe chilling effect on those who seek to expose and correct wrongdoing.
The sustained campaign of civil liberties violations that began under the Bush administration continues to play a major role in undermining the public’s trust in our government. The Occupy movement presents a powerful way for citizens to reclaim control of our government by engaging nonviolently in direct democracy.
Many Occupy participants have drawn inspiration from the Arab Spring. The ongoing democratic uprisings across the Arab world have been fueled in part by access to previously-withheld evidence of abuse that has been released via WikiLeaks and other publishers supporting whistle-blowers. Countless anonymous activists have used their technical skills to relay this critical information to areas where governments have sought to cut off avenues of communication.
Now in the United States, we rely on each other to preserve our freedom to communicate in the face of authoritarian crackdowns on our rights.
Similarly to the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement can draw from information revealed by WikiLeaks that exposes corporate manipulation of our foreign policy. An October 2009 diplomatic cable shows how U.S. diplomatic officials shared sensitive intelligence with Shell to give the oil corporation unfair economic leverage in Nigeria. Shell executives privately boasted to U.S. diplomats that its agents had managed to infiltrate all of the major Nigerian government ministries. Another series of cables illustrate how diplomatic officials successfully squashed a proposed increase in the Haitian minimum wage. Pressure from U.S. diplomats on Haitian officials enabled major American clothing companies like Levi’s and Hanes to continue exploiting sweatshop labor in Haiti. Other cables show that Chevron executives worked in tandem with U.S. officials to avoid paying $18.2 billion in court-ordered damages after the energy giant acquired Texaco, which had dumped billions of gallons of waste in indigenous areas.
Taken as a whole, the material allegedly revealed by PFC Manning shows that an unjust accumulation of informational power runs parallel to widespread economic and political inequalities. In both the United States and abroad, 99% of the people are kept in the dark, while corporate elites use restricted information to manipulate government policies for their personal profit.
Our struggle for Bradley Manning’s freedom is a struggle for everyone’s freedom. The Occupy movement’s fight for true democracy is everyone’s fight. That is why we’re standing in solidarity, in person, as we Occupy everywhere.”
lets all free this innocent guy,our hero bradley!!!
Release him!
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Release him now!!!
For all those who find this site and the contents therein,…
may it not only bring you the awareness of the sacrifice Bradley M has made for all of us (Humanity), but just as significant, the courage and heart of souls who stand with him, be it in solidarity or next to him on another plane.
I must admit, this may be the first time in my life in which I have began to see how little I have been doing to make a difference in the world, on this level. I am currently unemployed in southern California and want to do more than just listen to my hearts cries about what we have been allowing to happen here in this once free country. Can someone share with me a little more on how I can help you speakers of “The language of the Heart?” I can no longer live happily in a reality where I just stand by and watch this terror continue, and not do, at least one small thing. If we all did just one little thing huh.. The possibilities..! Wow
P.S If it wasn’t for listening to Max Igan… I would still be just another … who knows.
WE LOVE your Bradley!!
@DOJ SET HIM FREE!
SHAME ON AMERICA!
IF WE ONLY HAD, ELECTED LEADERS, SO BRAVE AND TRUTHFUL!
Unfortunately, continued support of and commitment to the US system by way of military enlistment is furtherance of a corrupt oligarchical dictatorship countered principally only by apathy–a situation that is probably beyond actual remedy. If you join, at least know why you are joining. Ironically, where corrupt and lying government ends and “the public” begins is becoming increasingly difficult to discern. The public might as well be water-boarders in US “detention” camps and machine-gunners killing innocent civilians from helicopter bays because, figuratively, they actually are! The country is at the beginning of a long slide downward. How long did it take the Roman Empire to dissolve? It didn’t happen overnight and not as the result of just one cause. Bushus Cheneyus was well poositioned in the Roman Forum just as he was present in the planning of 9/11.
thanks for connecting the dots so clearly
ADD The OWS movement in LA is very civilized, the government is supporting them entirely. If you can, go there,lend your support to the OWS movement and take your I am Bradley Manning photo as large as you can print it. It is all part of the same problem, our hero bradly, assange, zeitgeist and ows. The world is being changed, don’t miss out on it.
WHY IS IT, ALL THE TRUE AMERICANS GET PERSECUTED, BY OUR GOVERNMENT, AND THE CROOKS AND EVIL DOERS, GO SCOTT FREE? SOME, EVEN GET THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZES.
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Free Brad. Jail the real killers.
It’s disgusting how a person can get a life sentence in place of the real murderers. Shame on you, Barack Obama.
Let me ask you a question. If you actually had possession of all the evidence necessary to solve the JFK/Oswald case such that, if it were brought before a duly constituted, non-corrupted jury, it would lead to conviction of actual still-living conspirators responsible for that atrocity, just what public official and organization–serving in ANY CAPACITY you want to name–would you ACTUALLY TRUST to handle such evidence fairly, properly, expeditiously, competently, and thoroughly in an entirely legal manner without that person’s being silenced, bought off, threatened with self or family disaster, or, in fact killed by forces you’re probably pretty much aware of? If you can answer this question HONESTLY, you’ll probably be a long way toward having an answer to why our country is in the mess it is in now and HAS BEEN for a long, long time and why Bradley Manning is in the situation he is in.
Free Bradley
I think he is in ten years free!
Any system that wants to hide its leadership-approved stealth-based helicopter-machine-gun slaughter of a group of innocent, unarmed young men standing in a town square and then punish a person who exposes such an atrocity for what it was–the SHAME of a nation– had better take a long hard look at itself in the mirror and see the demon staring back, whether in brass and braid or adorned with a president’s seal.
Please Mr. President, release Bradley. He’s just telling the truth!!!