This music video from the USA is called David Rovics – Song for Bradley Manning.
Lyrics are here.
Pfc. Manning, suspected of leaking 2 Wikileaks, is stripped naked each night by prison officials: here.
The Forced-Nudity Persecution of Private Bradley Manning: here.
Ray McGovern, Consortium News: “Is the U.S. Army stooping to Mafia-style tactics in seeking to imprison 23-year-old Private Bradley Manning for the rest of his life, essentially making him an example for other U.S. soldiers who might be tempted to put conscience and commitment to truth ahead of military discipline and going by the book? If the Mafia comparison strikes you as a tad over the top, perhaps a seven-year trip down memory lane may prove instructive. Remember what happened after the U.S. Army learned of the obscene and brutal treatment of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in early 2004?” Here.
Obama says torture of Bradley Manning is “appropriate”. Vietnam war whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg responds: here.
DC people: March for Bradley Manning at Quantico! Sun. March 20, here are the details.
Kieran Manjarrez, Woodchipgazette: “For a brief moment, December’s WikiLeaks scandal caused us to remember the forgotten Private Bradley Manning who was arrested in June 2010 and to this very day languishes in a perpetually lit white box, forbidden virtually all sentient stimulation or social contact… For two decades, extreme isolation and depersonalization have been standard and routine features in the American Gulag. The effects of these regimens both on individuals and on constitutional standards of justice are devastating”: here.
Human Rights Watch: US must explain treatment of Manning: here.
Marjorie Cohn, American Constitutional Society: “Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is facing court-martial for leaking military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material. He has been made to stand naked in the morning as other inmates walked by and looked. As journalist Lance Tapley documents in his chapter on torture in the supermax prisons in The United States and Torture, solitary confinement can lead to hallucinations and suicide; it is considered to be torture. Manning’s forced nudity amounts to humiliating and degrading treatment, in violation of U.S. and international law. Nevertheless, President Barack Obama defended Manning’s treatment”: here.
Even as the United States preaches the sanctity of human rights to the world—in order to disguise its efforts to prop up besieged dictatorships in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain and install a new client regime in Libya—President Barack Obama is defending the torture of a US citizen at home: here.
John Pilger, Truthout: “As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. Colonel Gaddafi is ‘delusional’ and ‘blood-drenched’ while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of ‘stability.’ But something has changed. Reality is no longer what the powerful say it is. Of all the spectacular revolts across the world, the most exciting is the insurrection of knowledge sparked by WikiLeaks”: here.
An Australian intelligence official told Julian Assange last August that the US counterintelligence campaign might include sexual entrapment: here.
Close to 2,000 people attended a public meeting at the Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday in support of WikiLeaks’ editor and Australian citizen Julian Assange and alleged American whistleblower, Private Bradley Manning. The meeting was sponsored by Amnesty International and other civil liberties organisations, with the assistance of the Sydney City Council. The large attendance demonstrated the outrage felt by a broad cross-section of the Australian population over the collaboration of the Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard with the US-led persecution of Assange and WikiLeaks: here.
PBS Frontline’s special segment on Bradley Manning closes with a title card that simply reports that Manning is currently being held in the brig at Quantico — without describing the conditions he is held under: here.
The British government indicated Tuesday it would press the US to moderate its inhumane treatment of Army Private Bradley Manning, who is being held on charges he leaked evidence of war crimes to WikiLeaks: here.
Tony Benn: Defend WikiLeaks & Assange (video): here.
John Pilger: ‘Silencing WikiLeaks is the aim, smear the method’: here.
Andrew Kennis, Truthout: “Through interviews with Truthout, experts and members of the public interest community characterized news media coverage of WikiLeaks as being poor, inadequate and more akin to soap opera-ish tabloid coverage rather than serious journalism assessing revelations of US foreign policy abuses. When news coverage was more serious, a friendly frame of reference to successive US administrations was often used, with concerns about the standing of US diplomacy – not its revealed disregard for democratic values – taking front and center”: here.
Inside WikiLeaks—an attack from a former supporter: here.
U.S. ambassador to Mexico resigns after WikiLeaks revelations: here.
Ellsberg: All the Crimes Nixon Committed Against Me Are Now Legal: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
From: Emma Ruby-Sachs – Avaaz.org
Subject: Tortured for Wikileaks Leak
Date: Friday, April 8, 2011, 3:56 AM
Dear friends,
Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning is being subjected to brutal torture in a US military prison, part of a broader effort to silence and intimidate those behind any further leaks. The government is split on Manning’s abuse. President Obama cares about the US global reputation — a massive global outcry can push him to stop the torture:
Sign the petition
Right now, Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning is being tortured in a US military prison. Manning is subjected to utter isolation that can drive many people insane, with short periods each day where he is stripped naked and abused by jeering inmates.
Manning is awaiting trial for releasing secret military documents to Wikileaks – including a video of US soldiers massacring Iraqi civilians. And his brutal treatment appears to be part of an intimidation campaign to silence whistleblowers and crack down on Wikileaks. The US government is split on this issue, with diplomats publicly criticizing the military for Manning’s treatment, but President Obama has stood aside so far.
Obama cares about the US’s global reputation – we need to show him that it’s at stake here. Let’s build a massive global call to the US government to stop torturing Manning and uphold the law. Sign the petition below — our message will be delivered through hard-hitting ads and actions in Washington DC as soon as we reach 250,000 signatures:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/bradley_manning_1/?vl
On paper, the United States opposes torture. The US Constitution forbids “cruel and unusual punishment”. And, along with almost a hundred other countries, the US has signed an international convention promising to treat all prisoners “with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person”. But today, Bradley Manning is utterly isolated in a cell without sheets, not allowed to exercise and is being subjected to brutal humiliation that is causing serious mental harm. This violates US and international law.
Bradley is being held under ‘prevention of injury’ status despite 16 reports from military mental health professionals that he should be removed from these severe conditions. His lawyers are trying to enforce his basic constitutional and international human rights in court, but so far the military tribunal responsible for Bradley’s fate has ignored his suffering.
There has been a crack down on Wikileaks since the explosive revelations of US military crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many speculate that this brutal pressure on Bradley is intended to force him to implicate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. But Obama promised Americans and the world that he would protect, not persecute, whistleblowers:
“Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled.”
Bradley’s cruel treatment does the opposite and sends a chilling message to others who may want to expose important information. Let’s act quickly to put massive international pressure on the United States government to honor its commitment to human rights, the protection of whistleblowers and end the shockingly cruel treatment of their own citizen. Sign the petition below:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/bradley_manning_1/?vl
Bradley Manning claims he is a patriot and has admitted to releasing information that he felt the world had a right to know. While reasonable people can disagree about the approach of Wikileaks and the the rights or wrongs of those who delivered information to them, the illegal torture of Bradley Manning, who has yet to receive a fair trial or be convicted of any crime, is a shameful violation of human rights and human dignity.
With hope and determination,
Emma, Ricken, Pascal, Janet and the rest of the Avaaz team
Sources:
Check out Obama’s statement on the importance of whistleblowing released on his official website http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/
PJ Crowley resigns over Bradley Manning remarks, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/pj-crowley-resigns-bradley-manning-remarks
Soldier’s inhumane imprisonment, LA Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/10/opinion/la-ed-manning-20110110
US: Explain Conditions of Bradley Manning’s Confinement, Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/16/us-explain-conditions-bradley-manning-s-confinement
Stripped naked every night, Bradley Manning tells of prison ordeal, The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-bradley-manning-prison
WikiLeakers and Whistle-Blowers: Obama’s Hard Line, Time
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2058340,00.html
The Implications of the Inhumane Treatment of Bradley Manning, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-kane/bradley-manning-obama_b_832933.html
U.S. Pledges Rights Improvements, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/19briefs-ART-Nations.html
Bradley Manning: charge sheet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/interactive/2011/mar/04/bradley-manning-charge-sheet
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