ACTIVISTS
gathered on the steps of St Martin in the Fields, in the corner of Trafalgar
Square, on Tuesday 17th December for a solidarity vigil for Chelsea Manning
(formerly Bradley Manning) on her 26th birthday.
She
is the former US soldier sentenced to 35 years in jail for leaking thousands of
documents to Wikileaks exposing US and other governments’ war crimes and
corruption.
Ever
since she was detained and tortured in 2010, international protests, including
from LGBT people, have demanded her release.
The
sentence imposed on Chelsea Manning is harsher than that of most soldiers
convicted of murder and definitely more than those found guilty of rape and
other torture.
The
US Government wants to make an example of Chelsea Manning to discourage
whistleblowing on any of their crimes including surveillance on all of us.
Defending
whistleblowers is vital to defending ourselves against these state crimes. And
defending Chelsea is vital to encouraging more whistleblowers to come forward.
Thanks
to Chelsea we know about:
* The “collateral murder” video of a US
helicopter crew killing Iraqi civilians;
* The cover-up of rape in Iraq and
Afghanistan;
* The extent of drone strikes;
* US dirty tricks in Haiti, Venezuela and
elsewhere
* The corruption of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali
that spurred the 2011 revolution
* Israel consulting Egypt and the Palestinian
Authority before invading Gaza.
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