Rights Action - January 18, 2011
USA Global Impunity Watch
BELOW: Report on protest at "Quantico" US Marine base, where Bradley Manning is being illegally help, in solitary confinement.
To read & view: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/19/937413/-Marines-Try-to-Snatch-Author-at-Bradley-Manning-Action,-Crowd-Takes-Him-Back
Manning is the US soldier alleged to have released US military documents, that were then released by Wikileaks, that document - amongst other things - US participation in war crimes in Iraq.
MORE INFORMATION / TO GET INVOLVED: http://www.bradleymanning.org/
Please forward this information widely.
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UPDATE III -Marines Try to Snatch Author at Bradley Manning Action, Crowd Takes Him Back
by Ralph Lopez
Wed Jan 19, 2011 at 12:14:37 PM PST
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/19/937413/-Marines-Try-to-Snatch-Author-at-Bradley-Manning-Action,-Crowd-Takes-Him-Back
FINAL UPDATE III: Many eyes are on this, someone must know someone at Quantico. I hope an officer or guard there shows the simple human kindness to throw Bradley an iPhone with this video playing on it, showing him what was happening outside the gates on his behalf, showing him he has not been forgotten. No one deserves to be driven insane even after being found guilty, nevermind before. Free Bradley Manning. BREAKING: Former Commander of Quantico HQ Company Protests Treatment of BM
VIDEO BELOW: Quantico Marine Base on MLK Day. In attendance was Coleen Rowley, Ray McGovern, Cindy Sheehan, and dozens of Vietnam, Iraq, and other war veterans. Also author and Kos contributor David Swanson (War is a Lie) who almost got disappeared to who knows where, it's marked by a bit of jostling at 2:27 when the shot drops to the ground, and David is being pulled away by Marines.
David reports:
On Monday, two U.S. marines grabbed me and began pulling me away from a crowd of protesters...
For a split second I was certain I would be locked up and charged with some made-up offense, such as failure to obey an unlawful order, or disrupting the war. But that was only for a split second, because without any hesitation the people I was with grabbed me and pulled me back.
These were people who have pull.
This happened at Quantico, Virginia, where we were protesting the cruel and unusual pre-trial isolated confinement of Bradley Manning, the young man who allegedly did his legal duty and made public through wikileaks the evidence of numerous felonies.
When I had been successfully pulled away from the marines, one of my rescuers was hauled off - for a split second. Then he was rescued as well -- without the slightest hesitation, and without aggression or exacerbation of tensions. No one was taken prisoner. No one was hurt.
It turns out that people have pull when they simply choose to pull others out of a jam.
Manning is being held in isolation (no matter what the military calls it) under conditions designed to break his mind. He has been in a 6ft by 12ft cell for 23 hours a day for eight months now, forbidden to exercise in his cell, with no sight of daylight or natural rhythms, no clock, constant silence except for 1 hour of "approved" television per day, no personal items (such as photos of loved ones,) constant light. If he begins to nap between the hours of 5a.m. and 8p.m., will is made to sit up or stand. If he begins to do push-ups or any kind of exercise he is forced to stop. His one hour of "exercise" outside of his cell consists of walking figure eights in shackles, in a dog cage...
Under a bogus "prevention of injury" watch a guard must ask him every 5 minutes "are you ok?" to which he must answer affirmatively. At night when he tries to sleep, if his face is not clearly visible, he must be awakened and his face turned clearly in the proper direction. His friend David House who visits him reports that Manning's physical appearance and behavior have changed, and that he has trouble "focusing" on some subjects.
Bradley Manning, like any of us, is supposed to be presumed innocent until found guilty, and has not been convicted of a solitary thing.
All I have to say to that Marine officer is that he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States above all other duties. The Oath of an officer does not require him to obey any officer, including the commander-in-chief, if he is giving an illegal order. The constitution guarantees "speedy trial" and forbids "cruel and unusual punishment." It is this officer's duty to release Bradley Manning. We will be ruled by laws, not men.
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To read & view: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/19/937413/-Marines-Try-to-Snatch-Author-at-Bradley-Manning-Action,-Crowd-Takes-Him-Back
MORE INFORMATION / TO GET INVOLVED: http://www.bradleymanning.org/
Please forward this information widely.