Monday, April 30, 2012

Bradley #Manning Trial to Begin September 21st April 26, 2012...

 

An Army judge ruled this afternoon that the court martial of 24-year-old Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website, will begin in five months time on September 21, 2012. Manning has been in pretrial confinement since being arrested nearly two years ago on May 25, 2010 at his post in Iraq.

Colonel Denise Lind, the presiding judge at today’s hearing at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, also rejected all of the motions by Manning’s civilian lawyer David Coombs to dismiss the charges against Manning. The most serious charge is that Manning provided aid and comfort to the enemy by disclosing classified information. If found guilty on this charge alone, Manning could face the death penalty. But the lead Army prosecutor in the case has already said that he will not ask for the death penalty if Manning is convicted of this charge.





Uploaded by on 3 Apr 2010

Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well.

The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths ocurred. Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting documents on April 5th 2010 on http://collateralmurder.com

Thursday, April 12, 2012

#BradleyManning : An Evening With Craig Murray In Support Of Bradley Manning - Look Forward To Seeing You There.

Monday 16 April 2012

Why Do We Need Whistleblowers in a Democracy?

An Evening with Craig Murray

Ex Ambassador, Author, Broadcaster, Whistleblower and Human Rights Activist

Small Chemistry Lecture Theatre, Main Building, Cardiff University

With Bradley Manning’s impending court martial hearing and the recent WikiLeaks controversy, Craig Murray will be discussing why whistleblowing is necessary in a democracy. He will draw on his experience as former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, until 2004 when he was removed from his post for exposing grave human rights abuses as well as about his experiences in Africa.
This event is held in partnership with Bradley Manning Support Events (Wales). For more details of events taking place for the Manning campaign in April, see


wiseupforbradleymanning.wordpress.com

Please contact Naomi Blight at
naomiblight@wcia.org.uk or call 029 20228549 if you are able to attend.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/04/an-evening-with-me-in-support-of-bradley-manning/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

#Iraq :#BradleyManning Video News: Crackdown on Manning supporter David House, the erosion of privacy, and a puppet show for Bradley

Andrew Rosenthal calls the U.S. crackdown on Bradley Manning supporters “an outrageous abuse of power.” At his New York Times blog, Rosenthal chronicles the efforts of the Support Network’s David House to sue the U.S. government for seizing his electronic equipment solely for his political affiliations. He provides more detail about the case before denouncing the government for trying to chill First Amendment-protected speech:
From the use of customs as a pawn in what is obviously a political game, to the seizure of Mr. House’s computer devices, this is an outrageous abuse of power. But the government didn’t think Mr. House deserved even a day in court. It demanded that the court dismiss Mr. House’s claims that the search and seizure violated his Fourth and First Amendment rights.
The court said Mr. House had a legitimate claim concerning the 49-day delay in returning his property. And it granted him the chance to argue that the entire search and confiscation was based solely on his association with the Bradley Manning Support group, and therefore violated his First Amendment rights.
Judge Casper did the right thing by assessing this case on its merits, and not on the propaganda of fear that has dominated the national security debate since Sept. 11, 2001.
House’s case proceeding to trial is a minor but important victory for free speech, whistle-blowing, and political dissent. The government cannot be allowed to silence those who merely seek to expose the truth. (Read more…)
Bradley Manning supporters Birgitta Jónsdóttir and Mike Gogulski discuss the erosion of privacy and increasing surveillance. Jónsdóttir, of the Icelandic Parliament, and Gogulski talk about advocating for WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, and the U.S. government’s crackdown on their supporters. The interview starts at about 1:40:....Video at link...