Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning

Obama is coming soon. Protect Bradley Canberra Protest.

Update 8 November 2011: Some seats on the bus to Canberra may still be available. For more detail, see the Stop the War Coalition Get on the Bus page.

News links

Links to news and comment are selected by the Sydney Solidarity team. See also Bradley Manning Support Network News.

Recent news links

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

April, May, June 2011

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Free #BradleyManning banner at #occupysydney in Martin Place

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free-bradleymanning-banner-at-occupysydney-in-martin-place-gAtiwnoAqlkIcsioddlh.zip (352 KB)

Free Bradley Manning banner at Sydney Stop the War rally

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free-bradley-manning-banner-at-sydney-stop-the-war-rally-lwmfugqezgJycloCGyho.zip (1.95 MB)

Free Bradley Manning banner and other signs at the Stop the War rally in Martin Place, Sydney, on 8 October 2011, marking ten years of war, including Australian involvement, in Afghanistan.

One of WikiLeaks' major releases, allegedly provided to them by Bradley, was the Afghan war logs, 75,000 or more documents covering the period from 2004 to 2009 and revealing much about the war, including civilian casualties and abuse of prisoners.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the start of the war—with no end in sight—the Stop the War Coalition organised a protest rally, commencing at Sydney Town Hall Square and marching to Martin Place. Polling shows nearly two-thirds of Australians want our troops out of Afghanistan.

Actions to support Bradley Manning

We the People petition to free Bradley Manning

Please sign the "We the People" petition to the Obama administration to free Bradley Manning. The Terms of Participation do not restrict signatories to be US citizens. 5000 signatures are needed by 22 October 2011 to achieve review by the White House and an official response.

I am Bradley Manning

You can join the Bradley Manning Support Network's I AM BRADLEY MANNING campaign. Submit a photo signature: a picture of yourself holding an "I am Bradley" sign. See posts tagged “Australia”.

Other petitions and letters

Here are further online petitions and letters that Bradley Manning supporters might like to sign:

• Open letter to Bradley by US group Revolution Truth, which supports WikiLeaks and whistleblowers
• Avaaz petition: Stop Wikileaks torture (reached over 500,000 signatures after a few days)
• Stand with Brad petition (if you didn't sign on paper at 10 April or 1 May Sydney rallies)
• Firedoglake Stop the Secrecy letter: Allow official unmonitored visits to Bradley at Quantico (partially out-dated)

Other ways of supporting Bradley

You can contribute online to the Bradley Manning Defense Fund through Courage to Resist. In particular, you will be helping to fund the Bradley Manning Support Network's media outreach and advocacy campaign.

You can also send a message to President Obama about Bradley, either by ringing +1 202 456 1111 and speaking with a volunteer operator who will take down your words (this is cheap if you use a suitable phone card); or online at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ .

You can write to Bradley himself—for example, a post card. Address it to: Bradley Manning 89289, 830 Sabalu Road, Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027, USA.

Follow @SaveBradley and @syd4bradley on Twitter, and "like" the SaveBradley campaign and syd4bradley on Facebook.

There are more ideas at the Bradley Manning Support Network page What can I do?

News links for April-June 2011

Links to news and comment for April, May and June 2011 (in reverse chronological order), selected by the Sydney Solidarity team. For other periods, see the main News links page.

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

Open letter about Bradley Manning to US Ambassador to Australia

The following letter to the US Ambassador to Australia will be open for signature at the forum Bradley Manning versus the Culture of Revenge in the NSW Parliament House Theatrette on 2 August.

2 August 2011

His Excellency, Jeffrey L. Bleich
United States Ambassador to Australia
United States Embassy
Moonah Place, Yarralumla ACT 2600

Your Excellency,

We, the undersigned, wish to express our concerns for the well-being of the United States intelligence analyst, Private Bradley Manning, who has spent over 14 months in jail awaiting trial, charged with disclosing classified information to WikiLeaks. While we recognise that the conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention are reported to have improved since his transfer to Fort Leavenworth Joint Regional Correctional Facility in April 2011, we are still concerned about many issues, and wish to make the following requests.

We call on the United States government to allow UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Méndez to conduct an official unmonitored visit with Bradley Manning to assess the conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia between July 2010 and April 2011. Reported conditions at Quantico included solitary confinement 23 hours a day for 10 months, sleep deprivation at night and during the day, and enforced nakedness during morning inspection. Yale Law School professor Bruce Ackerman has stated that the treatment reported “…is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee against punishment without trial.”

We request that the United States administration accord Bradley Manning the right to presumption of innocence unless and until proven guilty. We are disappointed that President Barack Obama declared in advance of any trial that Bradley Manning “broke the law.” We are concerned that this comment by President Obama will prejudice any trial, and demonstrates a failure to uphold standards for the fair and transparent application of the law.

We demand that crimes revealed in the documents published through WikiLeaks concerning US/NATO personnel or policy be transparently investigated, and that any perpetrators be brought to justice. These crimes include a shocking helicopter attack in Baghdad killing journalists and other non-combatant Iraqis, seriously wounding two children, and deliberately targeting and killing the wounded. They also include revelations that implicate the US/NATO forces in civilian deaths, torture of detainees and corrupted relations with warlords and officials in Afghanistan.

We call on the United States government to acknowledge that a whistleblower has acted with moral integrity by revealing information about war crimes and other offences. We call on the United States government to drop all charges against Bradley Manning. The United States government is a signatory to the Nuremberg Principles, which imply that every person has a responsibility to exercise moral judgment and refuse any complicity in actions that constitute war crimes. We believe that if Bradley Manning is the whistleblower who sent material revealing war crimes to WikiLeaks, he has acted in the spirit of the Nuremberg Principles, and in the public interest.

By fulfilling these requests, the United States government will demonstrate its commitment to its own constitution, international law and the right of every individual to be treated with dignity and respect.

Justice for Bradley Manning or the Culture of Revenge?

By Stuart Rees, 27 July 2011

On August 2^nd in the theatrette of the NSW parliament, the Australian support group Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning will take a major step in their campaign for justice for this US marine. But at a time of ugly politics in Australia, why should anyone be concerned about justice for a US citizen?

Bradley Manning is in custody on suspicion of leaking secret information to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. That information included the Afghan War Diaries, the Iraq War logs, more than 250,000 diplomatic cables and the 2007 video 'collateral murder' which showed the fatal shooting from a US Apache helicopter of eleven people and serious injury to two children in the streets of Baghdad.

Some would see Manning as a traitor. In the opinion of those who would not question the sovereignty of a State, who would not doubt the truth associated with mainstream opinion, he's guilty. A corollary to these views is that those who challenge such sovereignty should be derided and even punished.

Comments in response to a March 7^th 2011 article in the UK Guardian by Duncan Campbell, about Manning's arrest and imprisonment, include reference to the responsibility of enlisted soldiers whose 'Primary duty is to obey orders, regardless of the nature of those orders'. Another respondent wrote, 'Manning took an oath. He was bound by secrecy. He made a choice to break the oath.' Another requested all readers, 'Get a grip will you. This man is a professional soldier accused of stealing state secrets and should have understood the consequences of his illegal actions .'

Some respondents also want revenge. 'Manning is a bad guy who did a bad thing and put his country and other individuals in jeopardy because of his recklessness. If he gets capital punishment, that would be a fair punishment for such a treasonous act.' 'If Manning had released similar information during World War Two he would have faced a firing squad.'

The opposite of the 'punish him' , 'teach him a lesson' arguments include a commitment to those human rights principles which suggest that there's a higher law than the rules of a State and that the person who is a traitor to some is a patriot to others. To be loyal you have to be critical. The opposite view is that to be loyal, you should always obey.

The argument 'be loyal by being a critic' is expressed passionately. 'This guy is a fucking hero. Governments can no longer feed us lies and know they'll get away with it. If WikiLeaks had been around in 2003, would we be in Iraq ?' …'I hope this guy runs for office, he has more integrity in his pinky than all of the Congress and the Senate put together.' New York lawyer Chase Mader argues , 'At immense personal cost, Bradley Manning has upheld a great American tradition of transparency in statecraft and for that he should be an American hero, not an American felon.'

The chances of Manning not being convicted as an American felon may depend on the criticism that due process has not occurred, that his treatment in jail has abused his human rights.

What may appear to be rules of law about guilt or innocence are inseparable from social attitudes to punishment at one end of a continuum to ideals of humanitarianism at the other. The middle of this continuum is now peppered with discussion whether inhumane treatment of Manning in custody disqualifies a government's claims that the defendant could receive a fair trial. Former White House spokesperson P J Crowley would probably agree. In March 2011 he resigned after describing the Pentagon's handling of Bradley Manning as 'ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.'

From July 2010 to April 2011, Manning was held in maximum security at the Quantico Marine base. Following public outcry, he was moved to a military remand prison at Fort Leavenworth but it's the first ten months of his treatment which raise questions about justice. He was held in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day, had little or no exercise, was barred from reading newspapers and had to stand naked for everyday inspections. Such treatment aimed to punish and to weaken him into confessing that he did have direct links with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

In a recent interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Bradley Manning's friend David House has explained the conditions under which he visited Manning. 'You speak through bullet proof glass and there are three very large Marine guards standing ten feet behind him, just staring me in the eyes the whole time.' House also describes the deterioration in his friend's mental and physical health. 'To actually go through the process of watching a friend deteriorate in solitary confinement and actually witness first hand what the state is capable of doing to someone they want to punish politically has been a very eye-opening process for me.'

The American Government seems to want to watch Manning's friends because they might be useful informants. House has described the clandestine and clumsy behavior of government representatives.' I was working at MIT, living in Cambridge and one day I got a knock on my door, and there were four agents, two from Army CID and two from the State Department… At the end of the conversation they offered me a cash reward in order to …keep my ear to the ground about WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning.'

That Manning is a responsible citizen who should be thanked rather prosecuted, rests on the argument that his actions have had several beneficial effects. He has exposed war crimes, such as the casual taking of life in Iraq and Afghanistan. The WikiLeaks disclosures have been a catalyst for the revolutions across the Middle East. He has exposed the government's obsession with secrecy and the consequent over classification of public documents. Manning, Julian Assange and his colleagues have been doing the job which journalists could have performed if they had been more diligent, if their attitudes had not been so influenced by and tied up with establishment views.

Manning's defence will surely refer to the duty of any citizen to insist on the transparency in government, to challenge secrets, in particular when they appear to have concealed government illegalities. In 1950 the Nuremburg Tribunal ruled that under international law, even if an individual acted according to a government's orders, this did not relieve that person of the responsibility of making a moral choice. In 1960, a US Congressional Committee on Government Operations reported 'Secrecy – the first refuge of incompetents – must be at a bare minimum in a democratic society.'

Those arguments should include the reminder that the Pentagon Papers, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg during 1971, were classed at a much higher security clearance than anything Manning is accused of releasing. Ellsberg was not convicted of a single crime and became a national hero.

Even in Australia, if debate about Bradley' Manning's actions confronts those arms of government which aim to punish him, there's a chance that social pressures will influence the otherwise remote and invisible processes of military law. David House says, 'If the American public stand up and demand his release and demand a fair trial for him and his due process, I feel he may actually get a fair trial and he may not spend very long in prison at all.'

In the August 2^nd forum, Bradley Manning versus the Culture of Revenge, the group Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning will also be 'standing up' for the principle that in an independent Australia, fairness in the administration of justice also needs the commitment and outspokenness of responsible citizens.

Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees is Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation at the University of Sydney. The article originally appeared in ON LINE opinion under the title Justice for Wikileaking Bradley Manning?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License.

For more information about the forum, see Bradley Manning versus the Culture of Revenge.

Bradley Manning versus the Culture of Revenge

A forum presented by Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning
in association with the Sydney Peace Foundation and the Greens NSW

Tuesday 2 August 2011 — 6 for 6:30 pm to 8:15 pm

Theatrette, Parliament of NSW
Macquarie St, Sydney

Chair: David Shoebridge, Greens MP
Panel: Prof Wendy Bacon, Dr Ben Saul, Prof Stuart Rees

US Army soldier Bradley Manning, allegedly the whistleblower who released much of the material published by WikiLeaks, has reportedly said:

I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.

The leaks—including the “Collateral Murder” video of a helicopter attack on journalists, children and other Iraqis, US State Department diplomatic cables, and documents on the Guantánamo Bay detainees—show a vengeful culture of war, incarceration, and distortion of the truth. Bradley Manning has himself become a target of this culture, harshly imprisoned for over a year without trial and subjected to demonisation in the media.

The forum will discuss the gulf between the principles of Bradley's apparent stand and the response to it from the US government and world media. It will consider how—if he is the leaker—his heroically sane example to humanity may help to instigate a change from a culture of secrecy and revenge towards an open, empathetic society, more able to face the great challenges of achieving peace, sustainability and social justice.

Each speaker will be allotted 15 to 20 minutes, and the panel will then answer questions from the floor.

Between 6 and 6:25 pm, people who would like to support Bradley will be able to create a “photo signature” for the I am Bradley Manning campaign, and/or add their name to a letter of protest to the US Ambassador to Australia.

Attendance is free, but to ensure there is room for you and to help with catering, registration is required for the quantity of seats you need.

The forum is now fully booked. Phone and email bookings are closed, but you can add your name and email address to the wait list by clicking on the link "Add to Waitlist" in the Ticket Information box above. If there are cancellations, seats will be released via email messages to people on the wait list. For enquiries, please email syd4bradley(at)gmail(dot)com.

To find the Theatrette: Enter Parliament House next to the State Library on Macquarie St (a bit south of and opposite from the top of Hunter St). Please allow time for the security check. Proceed up the Legislative Assembly front steps, then go straight ahead into the building and down the marble internal stairs to the Theatrette lobby. Assistance is available for mobility-impaired attendees. Tea and coffee will be available from 6 pm. The forum will commence at 6:30.

Details are subject to change.
Twitter hashtag: #s4bforum

Speaker biographies

David Shoebridge is a Greens MP in the NSW Parliament, serving in the State's Upper House. David's term commenced on 7 September 2010 when he was sworn in as an MP to fill a casual vacancy left by the resignation of Sylvia Hale. David was re-elected at the March 2011 State election. Since 2004, David has also been an elected Greens Councillor on Woollahra Council. Before entering Parliament David worked as a lawyer and barrister with a focus on employment, discrimination, industrial and tort law. David's portfolios include Justice, Planning and Heritage, Forestry, Firearms and Industrial Relations. David and his team are currently working on campaigns such as the abolition of the Game Council and an end to recreational hunting in NSW State Forests, an overhaul of NSW's broken planning laws, and the introduction of a Bill of Rights for NSW.

Professor Wendy Bacon is a Professor of Journalism based at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. A well known Australian investigative journalist and non practising lawyer, she publishes with The Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey.com and Reportage Online. Before joining UTS, she worked at Channel 9 (Sunday Program and Sixty Minutes), John Fairfax and Sons (National Times and Sun Herald) and SBS (Dateline). She won a Walkley feature writing award and Follow Me award for inspiration to women for her investigations into corruption. More recently, she has investigated a miscarriage of justice in the case of Roseanne Beckett and also investigated Australia's foreign aid program. Her current research interests include the reporting of humanitarian and environment issues, finding innovative ways to combine investigative journalism with scholarly research and developing e-learning projects around simulation games and blogs. She produces large group investigations with UTS undergraduate and postgraduate students including Spinning the Media, a study of the extent to which Australian news is driven by public relations. Professor Bacon has taught investigative reporting for John Fairfax and Sons and in PNG, Fiji, Vietnam and Indonesia. She is a contributing editor to the Pacific Journalism Review and the Sage journal Journalism, Theory, Practice and Criticism.

Dr Ben Saul is Associate Professor of International Law at the Sydney Centre for International Law at The University of Sydney and a barrister. Ben is internationally recognised for his work on terrorism, human rights, the law of armed conflict and international criminal law. He has published five books and over 200 publications, and delivered hundreds of seminars. Ben has taught law at Oxford, Sydney, UNSW, and in China, India, and Cambodia, and conducted training for the governments of Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Laos, Nepal and Bhutan. He has been involved in human rights cases concerning South Africa, Peru, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Israel, Macedonia, Fiji and the United States (in particular Guantanamo Bay), including before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, UN Human Rights Committee, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and Israeli Supreme Court. Ben is a member of the International Law Association’s International Committee for the Reparation of Victims of War and President of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in Australia, and was previously a legal expert for a UN General Assembly’s committee on Palestine and an international lawyer delegate for Amnesty International. He has a doctorate in law from Oxford, and honours degrees in Arts and Law from Sydney.

Professor Stuart Rees is Emeritus Professor at Sydney University and Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation which earlier this year awarded the Foundation’s medal for human rights to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Rees began as a probation officer/social worker in the court system in London and worked in mental health, and community development programs in British Colombia, India and Sri Lanka and in the War on Poverty projects at the University of Southern Colorado. He was Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Sydney until 'retirement' in 2000. Rees co-founded Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and was Director from 1988 to 2006. In 1997 he co-founded the Sydney Peace Foundation. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Australia for service to international relations. Rees is author and co-author of ten social science, social welfare texts and two anthologies of poetry: The Jury's Return (1992), Tell Me The Truth About War (2004). His last scholarly work on peace with justice issues was Passion for Peace: Exercising Power Creatively (2003) Sydney, UNSW Press.

About syd4bradley

Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning is a US Army soldier accused of passing information to Wikileaks, including the Collateral Murder video of an American airstrike killing two journalists and 9 other Iraqis and wounding two children; the Afghan War Diary; the Iraq War Logs; and over 250,000 diplomatic cables many of which reveal vast differences between the public statements and the actions of numerous governments.

Bradley was arrested in May 2010, and from July 2010 to April 2011 was held awaiting trial in maximum security at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. He is facing charges carrying sentences of up to 52 years' jail, and in theory the death penalty. The conditions of his detention at Quantico, including solitary confinement and forced nakedness, were widely criticised as inhumane or even amounting to torture. On 20 April 2011, still awaiting trial, Bradley was moved to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility, a new prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

More information is available through our links page.

syd4bradley

Sydney Solidarity for Bradley Manning (or syd4bradley for short) is a small, informal group which organises rallies and other activities in support of Bradley, with the aims of raising awareness of his alleged whistleblowing in the service of humanity, and building advocacy and pressure for his humane treatment and freedom. The group was initiated by organiser and convener Michele in March 2011. Others who came to rallies have joined in.

Further information is available on our events, news and actions pages.

Funding kindly donated by rally attendees is mainly directed to the Bradley Manning Defense Fund at Courage to Resist. So far we have passed on $A237.68 ($US250) to the Defense Fund, and reserved $A53 from the donations towards past and future rally expenses.

Credits

We'd like to thank all our rally speakers; donors at rallies and elsewhere; musicians who've allowed us to use their songs about Bradley; Bradley Manning Support Network for the rally banner; Wikileaks Coalition for expenses contribution and support; Kate Ausburn for reporting and videos; Colin for sound amplification; and both Sydney Peace Foundation and the Greens NSW for organising support.

Contact

You can subscribe or unsubscribe to our mailing list, or offer to contribute to organisation, by sending a message to syd4bradley(at)gmail(dot)com . [If you put your name on a list at one of our rallies but haven't yet heard from us, please send email: we may have misread your writing:-] You can also follow our Twitter account @syd4bradley, or visit our Facebook page.