Update 8/24/13: Alexa O’brien’s interview with defense lawyer David Coombs, NYT calls sentence “excessive”
Journalist Alexa O’brien interviewed David Coombs after the crushing sentence announcement earlier this week. Watch the entire interview:
The Sentencing of Chelsea Manning: Alexa O’Brien’s Exclusive Interview with Attorney David Coombs from Sparrow Media on Vimeo.
For a defense lawyer, a sentence of one-third the potential maximum is usually not a bad outcome. But from where we sit, it is still too much, given his stated desire not to betray his country but to encourage debate on American aims and shed light on the “day to day” realities of the American war effort.
And the new White House petition to grant clemency to Manning has passed 12,000 signatures. It must reach 100,000 signatures within the next 30 days in order for the White House to respond. Please sign the petition today and share it widely!
Here is what I am sending out to my netsworks
We Need 100, 000 Signatures-Sign The On-Line Petition -President Obama Pardon Private Manning – Free Chelsea Manning- The Heroic Whistle-Blower Formerly Known As Bradley Now!
On August 22, 2013 David Coombs announced that as of that date Private Bradley Manning, the unjustly imprisoned heroic Wikileaks whistle-blower wants to be called Chelsea and to be referred to by use of the feminine pronoun. How this change affects the language used in campaigns like the Amnesty International/Bradley Manning Support Network’s petition to President Obama remains to be seen but for now we will use Pardon Bradley Manning. More later.
Link to announcement-
http://www.today.com/news/i-am-chelsea-bradley-mannings-full-statement-6C10974052
The draconian 35 years sentence handed down by a military judge on August 21, 2013 marks a new focus on the campaign to free Private Manning. The central theme of the day and of the new campaign is –“President Obama Pardon Bradley Manning.” An immediate task is to begin organizing around the call by Amnesty International and the Bradley Manning Support Network to sign an on-line petition directed to the President. The goal is to get 100,000 on-line signatures by September 20, 2013 to make our case loud and clear. All pardon petition efforts should focus on the on-line petition to send that message as one voice.
Below is a link to the Amnesty International/Bradley Manning Support Network to sign the on-line petition. The process is a little more cumbersome than other such petitions, including having to set up an account with an e-mail but since they (and you know who the they are (first letter N) have all our e-mail addresses anyway push on. This is for Chelsea/Bradley.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-united-states’-human-rights-record-and-grant-clemency-pvt-bradley-manning/L7zHZv4r
“Excessive”?
Try insane… try travesty of justice.
The NYT has become so afraid of saying something controversial that they’re now virtually worthless.
Bradley Manning does not deserve this punishment. Go after the real war crime people starting with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
I lived under Communist Dictator and anyone saying anything against the Party Line was called a “TRAITOR” and given a shovel and forced to dig a whole along with others so called traitors. The solders came shot them all and forced the next group to burry them and dig the next hole.
I came to this FREEdom loving country and wonder what is happening now. Where is the next DEMOCRATIC loving country?
Chelsea Manning deserves the Nobel Prize, not 35 years. I long to see the day when Chelsea is free, and justice is done.