FREE BRADLEY MANNING!  Rally
Sunday at Quantico for BradleyJoin Courage to Resist and friends for a public rally in support of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning this Sunday, Aug. 8 near the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, VA where Bradley is being held in pre-trial confinement. Meet at noon, 550 Railroad Ave., Quantico VA. Defense fund established "Free Manning" campaign materials Photos of Bradley Manning (facebook.com/couragetoresist) The Nation: "WikiLeaks in Baghdad". By Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist, and Ryan Harvey. July 29, 2010 (thenation.com)
Rally in Support of Bradley Manning News sources have also speculated about Manning’s involvement in the leak of over 90,000 secret documents (collectively known as the Afghanistan “war logs”) made public by WikiLeaks on July 25. “Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime,” says former Marine Corporal Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, a group teaming up with the Bradley Manning Support Network to raise funds for Manning’s defense. The whistle-blower behind the Vietnam era’s Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a hero. ”I admire the courage of Bradley Manning for sacrificing himself to make the public aware of the futility of the war in Afghanistan,” says Ellsberg. “No top-level officials in the Bush and Obama administrations have been held accountable for their roles in dragging us into the Iraq war on the basis of lies or for potential war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. But whistle-blower Bradley Manning sits in jail in Quantico, facing up to 52 years in prison,” says Medea Benjamin of CodePink. “It’s totally unjust and that’s why we’re going to Quantico to call for Bradley’s release.” Members of Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, International ANSWER, and others are also encouraging supporters to attend this first of many public demonstrations worldwide now being planned in support of Bradley Manning. Quantico is an open military installation without access control. The Amtrak meeting location is at 550 Railroad Ave., Quantico VA 22134.
Bradley Manning defense fund established 
August 5, 2010 update - The Bradley Manning Support Network has accepted about 350 individual donations for a total of about $20,000 over the last week for the defense of Private First Class Bradley Manning (photo right). The Network (bradleymanning.org), a grassroots initiative formed to defend and support accused whistle-blower Pfc. Bradley Manning, has partnered with Courage to Resist, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting military objectors to host the fund. "WikiLeaks confirmed late Tuesday it will split with Courage to Resist, an Oakland, Calif.-based group, the expected $100,000 cost of hiring a civilian defense attorney to supplement the military lawyers assigned to Manning's case," noted the Associated Press this morning. As of this writing, Manning has not yet chosen a civilian attorney to defend him in the expected trial. "We have heard from the family and the military lawyers assigned to Bradley that the cost of his defense will be significant," said Mike Gogulski, an online activist and founder of the Bradley Manning Support Network. "We are also concerned that Bradley may choose his legal counsel based on his available funds. If he fears his family will absorb the cost of the trial, he might choose a less experienced, less expensive attorney. We're very concerned about the ramifications of such a decision." |
Private First Class Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst
stationed in Iraq, stands accused of disclosing a classified video
depicting American troops in Iraq shooting civilians from an Apache
helicopter in 2007. Eleven people were killed, including two Reuters
employees, and two children were critically injured.
