FiredogLake & Wired Magazine – 2012-02-09 02:42:30
http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/manning-nobel
ACTION ALERT: Award Pfc. Bradley Manning the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize!
Sign our letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Pfc. Bradley Manning has just been nominated
For the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize! (1)
(February 8, 2012) — Last week, Major General Linnington gave the final recommendation for Manning to face court martial on all 22 charges, including the vindictive aiding the enemy charge.2 Despite logging thousands of phone calls and emails to the Department of Defense, we were ultimately unable to convince the government to drop the charge.
But while the government can try and lock Bradley away for the rest of his life, they cannot suppress his story and what it means for other whistle-blowers. Fortunately, Bradley Manning’s nomination for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness for his case once more.
We’re starting a letter urging the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize and call attention to both his contributions and unjust treatment. Can you add your name to our letter?
Sign our letter urging the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award Bradley Manning with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 and call attention to both his contributions to peace as well as his unjust treatment by the US government.
What’s more ironic than nominating Bradley Manning for a Nobel Peace Prize while he stands trial for allegedly “aiding the enemy,” is that President Obama himself won the prize in 2009 — a few months before Manning was arrested in Iraq. This could be the first time a Nobel Peace Prize recipient has been inhumanely and unjustly imprisoned by a previous Peace Prize recipient.
If Bradley did leak these documents, he deserves at least a modicum of credit for all they have helped to inspire. That includes exposing official corruption and brutality in countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, which helped catalyze the Arab Spring movement and the popular uprooting of several well-entrenched despots across the region in just one year. Indeed, the Arab Spring has done more for justice and democracy in the Middle East than the War on Terror.
As Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsburg has said, Bradley Manning is a hero. If he really did leak these documents, we should recognize that there are likely few individuals who have made as great a contribution to justice and peace as Bradley Manning – and even fewer who have had to pay for it the way he has. Please help us rally more support for Bradley by urging the Norwegian Nobel Committee to give him this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Sign our letter urging the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award Bradley Manning with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.
Without you and the thousands of activists who have likewise rallied to Bradley’s side over the past year, it’s quite possible that very few people would know about his situation today. Thank you so much for all you’ve done and continue to do for Bradley Manning.
In solidarity,
Brian Sonenstein, Director of Online Activism, Firedoglake.com
The Letter
To the Norwegian Nobel Committee:
Please award the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to Wikileaks whistle-blower Pfc. Bradley Manning
Pfc. Manning was recently recommended for court-martial on nearly two dozen charges for allegedly leaking over 250,000 State Department cables to Wikileaks. The US government — under direction of 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner President Barack Obama — is making the punitive and destructive claim that Manning ‘aided the enemy’ by knowingly handing off documents for publication on the internet — a charge that will not only cost Manning his life in prison, but will have serious ramifications for journalists and whistleblowers alike going forward.
There has been much debate as to the national security implications of Manning’s alleged leaks, but it is clear that the revelations contained in those documents — especially with regards to official corruption and brutality of Middle Eastern despots — have helped to inspire global movements for justice, democracy and government transparency, most notably the Arab Spring. Are the brave souls behind these pro-democracy movements really our ‘enemies’ as the US administration would have us believe?
Pfc. Manning has yet to be convicted of any crime, yet he spent over 500 days suffering in inhumane conditions while awaiting trial. We believe awarding Pfc. Manning with the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize would not only serve to recognize his contributions to world peace, but rally support around his case and help insure he receives a just trial.
On behalf of thousands of his supporters, we urge you to award the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to Pfc. Bradley Manning.
Sources
1. Bradley Manning for Nobel Peace Prize? RT, 2/6/12.
2. Bradley Manning to Face All Charges in Court-Martial. Wired, 2/3/12.
Bradley Manning to Face All Charges in Court-Martial
Kim Zetter / Wired Magazine
(February 3, 2012) — WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning is headed for a general court-martial, according to the commander of the US Army Military District of Washington in an announcement released late Friday.
Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, the general convening authority for the district, made the determination that Manning will face all 22 charges leveled against him, include aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet knowing that it is accessible to the enemy, theft of public property or records, transmitting defense information, and fraud and related activity in connection with computers.
The most serious charge — aiding the enemy — carries a possible death penalty. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty. Instead, Manning faces life in prison if convicted of all the charges.
Linnington’s decision was no surprise to court watchers. In mid-January, the presiding officer of Manning’s Article 32 hearing, Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, recommended that Manning be court-martialed under all 22 charges, indicating that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Manning committed the offenses with which he was charged.
His recommendation was subsequently upheld by the special court-martial convening authority Col. Carl R. Coffman, commander of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, who passed his recommendation in late January to Gen. Linnington. Linnington’s is the final decision in the matter.
It’s not known when Manning’s court-martial proceedings will begin, but the speedy-trial rule under the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires that suspects be tried within 120 days of being arrested or 120 days of the “preferral of charges.”
It’s unclear how many days are left on Manning’s 120-day clock. He was arrested May 26, 2010, more than 400 days ago. But the countdown on his proceedings was halted at least twice, according to the Army. The first time was shortly after his arrest when his defense attorney requested a so-called “706-board” hearing to determine Manning’s mental health at the time of the alleged leaks. It was nearly eight months before the military conducted that hearing and several months more before it made its determination that he was mentally fit.
The clock also stopped for a period during which discovery evidence was being prepared and passed to the defense and security clearances were being obtained. The Army did not respond to inquiries asking how much time is left on the 120-day clock. A military expert with the Army told reporters last December that one of the first things Manning’s attorney likely would do if the court-martial goes forward is file a motion protesting the amount of time the military has held his client without a trial.
Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified and sensitive US government documents to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks, including the headline-making “Collateral Murder” video showing a deadly 2007 US helicopter air strike in Baghdad that claimed the lives of several innocent civilians including two employees of the Reuters news agency.
In online chats with former hacker Adrian Lamo, Manning boasted of leaking a separate video related to the notorious 2009 Garani air strike in Afghanistan that Wikileaks has previously acknowledged is in its possession, as well as the large databases that later formed WikiLeaks’ most high-profile releases. Those include over 250,000 US diplomatic cables, more than 400,000 US Army reports from the Iraq War and some 90,000 reports from the Afghanistan War.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
