Bradley Manning Puts US On Trial

Private First Class Bradley Edward Manning (born December 17, 1987) is a US Army soldier who was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to the website WikiLeaks. He was ultimately charged with 22 offenses, including communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source and aiding the enemy. (Wikipedia)

Matt Sledge of The Huffington Post writes today:

Three years ago the transparency website WikiLeaks released a video of a U.S. Apache helicopter gunning down Reuters journalists on a Baghdad street.

It was just one chilling public revelation from a cache of 700,000 documents a young Army private first class named Bradley Manning gave the site. Soon after would follow sobering field reports from the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and candid diplomatic cables from the U.S. Department of State.

To Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Manning is “an embodiment of what sort of person I would like to be.” An activist as well as a politician, she helped edit the so-called “Collateral Murder” gun cam video.

“I would like to have the same courage, the same sense of justice, the same integrity as Bradley Manning,” she said. “He in my opinion is in the exact category as [Pentagon Papers whistle-blower] Daniel Ellsberg and other fighters for freedom of expression.”

Now, as we begin a heavily censored political show trial of Bradley Manning,  another trial will be going on outside the military courtroom. This other trial will be going on around the globe in the hearts and minds of humanity. And in the US will be trying ourselves whether we know it or not.

Who are the patriots and who are the war criminals in this case? If the US population allows Bradley Manning to be crucified for his moral and civic heroism, if we fail to save Bradley Manning and we fail to prosecute the real war criminals and real traitors to the US Constitution, can we be blameless?

Ultimately it is we who are on trial. We the People. The US.

PR

Daniel Ellsberg Speaks on Behalf of Whistleblower Bradley Manning

Related articles

• Daniel Ellsberg: WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning deserves to be seen as a hero (rawstory.com)
• Bradley Manning Trial Begins – Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com)
• US protests continue ahead of Bradley Manning trial (Press TV)
• Worldwide protests ahead of Bradley Manning’s Monday trial (endthelie.com)

‘Manning trial exposes attack on press freedom’