Wednesday evening I joined with others in Seattle’s Westlake Center for a protest rally against the sentencing of a person most know as Bradley Manning (in the last couple days Bradley Manning has decided he wants to undergo a sex change and wishes to be called Chelsea Manning).
As most people now know, Manning was just sentenced to thirty-five years for leaking government “secrets” to the press. Manning’s supporters claim Manning is a whistle blower and shouldn’t be prosecuted. What Manning did was release a video of American soldiers gunning down civilians from a helicopter. The US covered up the incident and it was kept secret until Manning leaked it to Wikileaks.
About forty-five people were in attendance for this spur of the moment rally and a few got up and spoke. One such person was in attendance during much of the trial and claimed that Manning wasn’t allowed to turn her head to look at her supporters nor were they allowed to approach her. He also reported that the Taliban is getting stronger, not weaker and that the US is still covering up the killings of innocents through their drone strikes in Afghanistan because US imperialism works better if people are kept in the dark.
There is now massive pressure under way to urge President Obama to pardon Manning. There is outrage that Manning never received a fair trial. There were delays after delays over the course of three years, she was denied a court stenographer and periodically tortured. Meanwhile, real war criminals, if they are charged at all, generally receive an average of one year of incarceration. The priorities in this country are totally backward. Then there’s the chance of if Manning is paroled, she’ll be given a gag order.
Obama campaigned on a promise of more transparency and protection of whistle blowers, yet Obama has convicted more whistle blowers than any other US president combined. Meanwhile, real war criminals like Dick Cheney and George W. Bush walk free, George Zimmerman is acquitted, no one went to prison at BP after the Gulf Oil disaster and Don Blankenship, owner of the Upper Big Branch Mine that three years ago killed twenty-nine miners due to his command to remove safety requirements to increase his profits, walked away with a retirement package worth $80 million.
Yet Manning’s leaks hurt no one. Because of Manning we now know about hundreds of Iraqis who were gunned down at point blank range by US forces. Because of Manning we know which prisoners are on hunger strike. We have learned how contractors for theUS military were complicit in drug trafficking. Reuters learned how two US journalists were killed in Iraq after the US covered that up too.
Now Manning support groups are going around to high schools and showing students the videos Manning leaked. This has resulted in many disenfranchised youth deciding not to sign up for the military.
The speeches finished off by stressing the need to elect representatives who answer to the people, not the corporations (although we thought we were doing that when we elected Barack Obama). “You don’t bring the enemy to the peace table by bombing them or killing their civilians. This is the most dangerous military the world has ever seen.”
The rally then turned into a march a few blocks away to the nearest freeway (I-5) overpass. This was at the height of rush hour so there was no shortage of motorists out on the highway as well as the streets. Several honked in support as we stood there waving signs and holding up two fingers for peace, before marching up to Capitol Hill where I left the march.
I would like to add that Manning has had gender identity issues since childhood and has had emotional disorders as well. Manning stands just over five feet and barely weighs over 100 pounds. At one time, someone like this never would have qualified for military service, let alone been appointed a job to handle classified information. Where is the outrage over this? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be deemed criminal offenses and those who ordered these endless wars should be prosecuted in international courts. It is a well known fact that Haliburton, Dick Cheney’s company, got the no-bid contract for much of the services for these two wars and has to date made over $38 billion in profits. These were simply wars for profits and has done nothing to make the US safer. In fact they’ve done the opposite. We are much less safe now and as stated above, the Taliban is growing stronger.
I urge anyone reading this to write their elected officials and write to the president expressing their outrage that Manning is convicted while those who brought about these two illegal wars walk free.
