Anonymous supporters in San Francisco

Afghan massacre suspect brought to Fort Leavenworth – already with better treatment than PFC Manning. Robert Bales, the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 16 Afghan civilians in the night, 9 of them children, and burning some of their bodies, has been brought to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas – the same prison where Bradley Manning was transferred. We know that during the pretrial proceedings, Manning has been moved again to a Virginia jail, but Glenn Greenwald uses the occasion to reflect on the two suspects:

That likely means that there will be some substantial interaction between Bales and Manning. Think about that: if you expose to the world previously unknown evidence of widespread wanton killing of civilians (as Manning allegedly did), then you will end up in the same place as someone who actually engages in the mass wanton killing of civilians (as Bales allegedly did), except that the one who committed atrocities will receive better treatment than the one who exposed them. That’s a nice reflection of our government’s value system (similar to the way that high government officials who commit egregious crimes are immunized, while those who expose them are aggressively prosecuted). If the chat logs are to be believed, Manning decided to leak those documents because they revealed heinous war crimes that he could no longer in good conscience allow to be concealed, and he will now find himself next to a soldier who is accused of committing heinous war crimes.

Now that Bales has been brought to Leavenworth – notably not when Manning was brought there – CBS News provides some details on the facility.

Greenwald’s discussion of Bales and Manning comes amidst a post about grave ironies in the way American justice is carried out. (Read more…)

Kevin Gosztola spoke with Alexa O’Brien before Manning’s motion hearing about the trial. Gosztola also discusses the media coalition efforts to gain access to records kept secret throughout PFC Manning’s legal proceedings.

Whistle-blowers Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack discuss the Obama administration’s crackdown on Democracy Now. NSA whistle-blower Thomas Drake and the Government Accountability Project’s Jesselyn Radack denounce the Obama administration’s reversed policies on secrecy and whistle-blowing:

Radack says, “It is a … terrible precedent to go after journalists as a backdoor way to create an official secrets act which we’ve managed to live without in this country for more than 200 years, and I think it’s being done on the backs of whistleblowers.”

"My name is Lisabee, Bradley Manning is a hero and he should be commended not condemned. <3 Scotland "

iam.bradleymanning.org