Birthday vigil for Chelsea Manning

by New Worker correspondent

 

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.

Bradley Manning deserves praise not jail!

A song or two for Bradley from Dave Rovics

  By Theo Russell

DAYS BEFORE the start of Bradley Manning’s formal court martial, 250 people gathered outside the United States embassy in London to demand his release as a conscientious whistle-blower after more than three years’ imprisonment.

Ben Griffin, a former SAS soldier who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq, refused to return to Iraq for reasons of conscience and went on to form Veterans for Peace UK, told the protest: “Young people going to fight in Afghanistan can see that Nato’s war is leading more and more Afghanis to join the Taliban, and soldiers are refusing to go on patrol and organising unofficial local truces with the Taliban.

“Bradley Manning is the most significant resister within the military in the last 10 years. He saw that what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan wasn’t just a few bad apples as our governments tell us, but a systematic policy.

“We need to start supporting these people who are opposing wars on the streets. We will encourage more resistance within the military and we will stop these wars.”

Former navy medic Michael Lyons of Veterans for Peace, described how he refused to obey orders to deploy to Afghanistan after reading information leaked by Bradley Manning. He then decided to educate himself about the war.

He served nine months in prison as a conscientious objector. Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: “Manning sought to make the US government accountable to the people so that they know the truth.

“He is one in a long line of good soldiers who refuse to follow orders when those orders are wrong”.

The meeting was also addressed by fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who warned of the threat to freedom of the press if Bradley Manning is convicted.

Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, and speakers from many other organisations addressed the rally.

Protest songs were provided by American singer and songwriter Dave Rovics, John McClean and Roland Gianstefani.

Free our hero Bradley Manning

demanding the release of Bradley Manning

 By New Worker correspondent

CROWDS of people gathered in Grosvenor Square outside the Unites States Embassy last Saturday   in a noisy and colourful assembly to demand the release of US Army Private Bradley Manning – the man who, allegedly, leaked thousands of embarrassing classified US army documents to Wikileaks, who published them on the internet.

 The event was part of a global day of action with more than 70 events in 15 different countries to mark Bradley’s 1000th day in prison without trial.

Organisations represented at the embassy picket included Friends of Bradley Manning UK, Veterans for Peace UK, Queer Strike, All African Women's Network, Women Against Rape, WiseUpAction.info, PayDay Men's Network, London Catholic Worker and Occupy London.

There were plenty of colourful banners and placards, not just for Bradley Manning but other political prisoners in the US, Israel and other places.

 The names Mumia Abu Jamal, Shaker Aamer and Julian Assange were mentioned, along with Samer Alissawi (Palestinian on hunger strike in Israeli jail) and Natan Blanc (19-year-old Israel jailed for refusing to be conscripted into Israel’s army).

 There were several placards with a picture and the slogan: “Bradley Manning – our queer whistle-blower hero”. And there was a cheer when comrades turned up with the Ecuadorean flag – from their constant solidarity picket outside the Ecuadorean Embassy where Julian Assange has been given asylum but is constantly besieged by police waiting to arrest Assange if he were to emerge.

 There was a long line of speakers. Ciaron O’Reilly of the London Catholic Worker told the crowd that Bradley manning will have been tortured and put under enormous pressure to implicate Assange in all manner of bad things. But though he is young and not very big and gay, Manning has not broken. He has shown enormous courage.

 A speaker from the All African Women’s Group said that many women in that group had come to Britain to escape from wars and “Bradley manning tells the truth about these wars, and it needs to be told.”

 An American war Veteran for Peace posed the question: “If truth is always the first casualty of war, can we win peace by telling the truth?”

Another speaker suggested world peace might be more attainable “if we water-boarded a few bankers”.

The African Women’s Group led a few sessions of very powerful, almost musical, slogan chanting.

 And London’s Hare Krishna community expressed their solidarity by supplying hot curry and hot drinks to all the protesters, which was very welcome given the freezing conditions and enabled people to stay with the protest for longer.

Bradley Manning’s leaking of classified US Army documents, now known as the "Iraq War Logs," to whistleblowing website Wikileaks revealed shocking details of war crimes committed by the US Army in Iraq, including the notorious "Collateral Damage" helicopter gunship cockpit video which showed American pilots indiscriminately murdering civilians and journalists.

 Denied a speedy trial, and having been subjected to cruel and punitive treatment in military prisons which have been classified as torture by Amnesty International and other Human Rights organisations, Manning's supporters are calling for the US Army's prosecutors to stop hindering Manning's legal team access to important evidence at every turn.

London news round-up

Bradley Manning’s motive

by New Worker correspondent

THE SIGHT of film footage of United States armed forces firing from a helicopter and deliberately gunning down children in Iraq was the motivation that inspired US serviceman Bradley Manning to leak hundreds of secret electronic communications to the Wikileaks website.

 Manning has been held under arrest since 2010 and in London last Tuesday around 25 protesters braved the weather to demonstrate outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square calling for his release.

 Manning was an intelligence analyst giving him access to thousands of emails and other electronic communications between the US government and its embassies around the world – some of which have proved very embarrassing to the US government and its allies after Wikileaks published them for all the world to see.

 The protest coincided with a preliminary hearing in the run-up to Manning’s court martial, due to begin in March.

 His defence had presented a motion that all charges against him should be dismissed on the grounds that he was motivated by his humanitarian conscience.

 He was held in extremely harsh conditions for the first nine months of his detention. The American Department has said Manning was a suicide risk and that it was only trying to keep him from hurting himself and others when it confined him to a tiny, windowless cell for 23 hours a day.

 He faces 22 charges, including aiding the enemy, which carries a maximum of life behind bars. The current pre-trial hearing focuses on whether Manning's motivation matters in the case.

 Prosecutors want the judge to bar the defence from producing evidence of his motivation in leaking a mountain of classified information. They claim it is irrelevant.

 The anti-war protesters in London plan to renew their demonstrations in Grosvenor Square on 6th March when Manning’s full trial begins – along with other peace protesters throughout the world who will protest outside their respective US embassies.

EDL leader sentenced

THE LEADER of the notoriously violent Islamophobic English Defence League last Tuesday was sentenced to 10 months in prison for passport fraud.

 Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who is better known to his followers as Tommy Robinson but also uses a number of other aliases, had tried to enter the United States using the passport of a friend, Andrew McMaster, who has a similar appearance – after he had been banned from that country because of his criminal record.

 Stephen Lennon, 30, pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with improper intention, contrary to the Identity Documents Act 2010, at Southwark Crown Court.

  He was detected by US customs officials who found his fingerprints did not match the passport.

The court heard that he was previously jailed for assault in 2005 and also has previous convictions for drugs offences and public order offences.

 Lennon has been held in custody since October and this will count as part of his sentence.

  The EDL has declined sharply over the last year after planned rallies were thwarted in Brighton, Bristol, Colchester, Walthamstow and other places mainly by local residents coming out of their homes to protest at the EDL presence and block its planned routes.

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.