This week marks the first anniversary of the arrest and detention of Private Bradley Manning, the man who is accused of passing top secret United States diplomatic and military documents to WikiLeaks.
Even before he has gone on trial, Manning has been declared guilty by US President Barack Obama. When questioned in San Francisco in April by protestor and Manning supporter Logan Price, Obama declared: “He broke the law.”
The President, who is a former lawyer and so should know better, has prejudiced the case, declaring Manning’s guilt before he has been tried and convicted. This would constitute contempt of court in this country. Such a high level assertion that Manning is guilty must seriously prejudice the chances that he will get a fair trial.
It is alleged that Manning blew the whistle on war crimes and cover-ups by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. If this is true, the man deserves a medal. He is a defender of democracy and human rights. His actions are based on the principle that citizens have a right to know what the government is doing in their name. Manning should not be in prison. Instead, the US should put on trial those who killed innocent civilians and those who protected them.
Although his jail conditions have improved recently, for many months Manning suffered callous abuse at Quantico military brig, including solitary confinement and other severe deprivations. This abuse, which amounted to de facto pre-trial punishment, constituted illegal “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment”, contrary to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Eighth Amendment to the US constitution. Arguably, Obama should be indicted by the International Criminal Court. He bears direct personal and legal responsibility for the mistreatment of Manning. He knew about it, publicly endorsed it and did nothing to stop it.
Manning is a humanist and a man with a conscience. When he discovered human rights violations by the US armed forces and two-facedness by the US government, he became disillusioned with his country’s foreign and military policy. He believed it was betraying its professed democratic and humanitarian mission.
The abuse that first triggered Manning’s disillusionment was when he was posted to Iraq in October 2009 as an intelligence analyst. He discovered US military collusion with the repression of dissent in Iraq – in particular “watching 15 detainees taken by the Iraqi Federal Police for printing ‘anti-Iraqi’ literature”. The offending literature exposed corruption in the US-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. When Manning complained that US forces should not be assisting with the suppression of free speech and peaceful protest, he was told to keep quiet and that the US armed forces should be doing more to silence opponents of the Maliki regime.
He was further outraged to discover top secret video footage of a US Apache helicopter attack that gunned down 11 Iraqi civilians in 2007, including two Reuters journalists and men who had gone to the aid of the wounded. Two children were also gravely injured when the US helicopter opened fire on their van. The military video records US soldiers laughing and joking at the killings – and insulting the victims. Watch it here: www.collateralmurder.com
This slaughter had previously been the subject of a cover-up by the US armed forces, which claimed dishonestly that the helicopter had been engaged in combat operations against armed enemy forces. It is only (allegedly) thanks to Bradley Manning that we now know the truth about this killing of innocent civilians – and about the killing of hundreds of other civilians in unreported and undocumented incidents.
Manning is an American citizen but also a British citizen via his Welsh mother. Since he has been in detention, he has received no British consular support. Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg, have failed to help him. They have never spoken publicly against his maltreatment or, as far as is known, made any private appeals to the US government and military to halt the abuse that Manning suffered at Quantico. So much for the coalition’s professed commitment to human rights and civil liberties.
Take action – what you can do:
-Write to Bradley Manning: PFC Bradley Manning 89289. Fort Leavenworth Military Detention Centre, 830 Sabalu Road, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, KS 66027, USA.
-Sign the petition in support of Bradley Manning: www.bradleymanning.org
-Ask your MP and MEPs to urge the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary to ensure a British consular visit to Bradley Manning, and to press the US government to drop all charges. You can email your MP and MEPs direct via this website: www.writetothem.com
-Write to President Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500, USA
