Friday, June 29, 2012

Supporting Bradley Manning



by New Worker correspondent

DEMONSTRATORS gathered outside the US embassy in London on Monday for a protest picket in support of Bradley Manning, the American veteran of the Iraq war accused of leaking secrets to WikiLeaks.
 The demonstraors are supporting a campaign and nomination initiated by Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir for Bradley manning to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
            Manning, who allegedly passed on a huge tranche of classified information to WikiLeaks when he served in the US army of occupation in Iraq, was arrested in May 2010 and charged with leaking secrets including the “collateral murder” video film of a US helicopter gunship mowing down civilians and two Reuters war correspondents.
The UN special rapporteur on torture has formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Bradley Manning, who was held in solitary confinement for almost a year on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source.
This week a US military judge ordered prosecutors to share more documents with Manning after his lawyers accused them of hiding information that could help their client's case.
For months, Manning's defence team has demanded access to reports by US government agencies, including the CIA, which assessed the effect of the leak of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. Manning’s lawyers believe the reports will show the alleged disclosures had no major effect on American national security.

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