#FreeBrad Hall Of Shame: Lamo, Obama, Choike, Lind, Showman, et al.

“We are a nation of laws.  We don’t let individuals make decisions about how the law operates.  He[Bradley Manning] broke the law!” – President Obama

The rogues' gallery of those eager to participate in the persecution of whistleblower Bradley Manning will go down in infamy.

Source: http://www.indyposted.com/195764/hacker-responsible-for-reporting-bradley-manning-to-authorities-takes-stand-in-court-martial/

Adrian Lamo, the Über lame snitch who seized his 15 minutes of fame by ratting out a young soldier in Iraq who was troubled by conscience, made an early appearance in Manning's court martial trial.  Alleged chats between the two men had been circulating for years by then, and Lamo had given interviews gloating over the power he wielded after the naive Manning misplaced trust in an online friend. His appearance in court did nothing to change the impression of Lamo as someone incapable of experiencing remorse.

Credit: Courtroom artist Deb VanPoolen, bradleymanning.org

Col. Denise Lind, the judge presiding over the court martial, has cooperated with the government so well that historians will search in vain for evidence of blind, impartial justice being applied in the case. Her ultimate boss, the commander-in-chief, stated publicly years ago of Manning, "He broke the law," so that whichever judge was chosen to preside would have gone into the case with the clear understanding that President Obama expected a guilty verdict.

Presumably someone further down the chain of command gave Lind orders to read out the charges against Manning so rapidly that reporters were unable transcribe them accurately during the pre-trial hearings. And, the same government that came into office bragging about how transparent they would be also declined to produce a written transcript of the legal proceedings. (Crowd funding hired a stenographer for the people after that shameful display of bias, and full transcripts are available to us here.)

Lind denied many of the witnesses Manning's defense team wished to call. As the trial progressed, it became evident that the prosecution had a rather weak case -- which probably accounted for the 3+ year delay in bringing the court martial to trial, in clear violation of the military's own code of law which stipulates 120 days. No one could find the acceptable use policy allegedly signed and violated by Manning, and at least in public no one could demonstrate that any of the low classified or unclassified information Manning admits providing to Wikileaks caused harm to anyone. The prosecution was allowed to make the argument that Manning aided the enemy because he knew the information he shared would be available on the Internet -- and "Al Qaeda" uses the internet. Wow. The U.S. government would deserve to lose a 6th grade debate contest using that kind of logic.

Jihrleah Showman testifies by Clark Stoeckley @Wikileaks truck

Then, last week, at the 11th hour in the court martial trial and after the defense had rested its case, Judge  Lind allowed the prosecution to bring a witness in rebuttal who had suddenly "remembered" Manning making anti-American statements. From bradleymanning.org via the website Popular Resistance:

In a cynical move, the government prosecution recalled former Specialist Jihrleah Showman, a supervisor against whom Manning had filed an Equal Opportunity complaint. Following Manning’s complaint, Showman was admonished for her use of homophobic language in conversation and workplace signage. In the years since, she has vied for media appearances, augmented by her own vitriolic Tweets, attacking Manning as well as his supporters. Now, at the eleventh hour, she claims to recall a conversation with the 25-year-old army private in which he allegedly shared anti-American opinions. 

According to the defense, Ms. Showman is lending an intentional and inaccurate spin to comments Manning made regarding his refusal to follow any authority blindly as an “automaton” (in Manning’s own words) so that they conform to the prosecution’s characterization of someone disloyal to the United States. 

No other witness from the prosecution or defense ever testified that Manning harbored any anti-American sentiments, including Ms. Showman herself during previous trips to the stand in this case. In fact, several witnesses offered just the opposite.

And while we're constructing this hall of shame, let's not forget the corporate "news" outlets that spurned Manning when he tried to share the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs files prior to contacting Wikileaks. For shame, New York Times. For shame, Washington Post. For shame, Politico. You all only jumped on the publishing bandwagon after Wikileaks had stuck its neck out (and Julian Assange has been hounded ever since, residing today under virtual house arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he continues to do good work).

Ret. Col. Daniel Choike, Quantico Brig commander when Manning was imprisoned there (Sketch by Clark Stoeckley)

Manning's pre-trial detention produced many a shameful episode as well: being caged outdoors in the desert in Kuwait for several days, a place Manning felt sure he would die. Then nine months of solitary confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia where the ghosts of Jefferson and Madison might well have cringed to see a young soldier standing naked at attention outside his cell -- allegedly to prevent him from suicide. Many of those responsible remain nameless -- but they know who they are.

Ditto the man or woman who denied UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez an interview with Manning. (Mendez was also denied an opportunity to testify in Manning's trial as a witness for the defense.)

I leave you with Manning's immortal words:

We are all human and we are killing ourselves and no one seems to care.

Might Makes Right vs. Democracy

Source: Tweet June 4, 2013 by grinch1969 MARJİNAL ÇAPULCU #EylemVakti TURKISH police are erasing their id numbers on their helmets before torture citizens pic.twitter.com/h8j4Bln2EE

In a democracy, the police and military are public servants. Their actions are accountable -- to be monitored and reviewed by those who pay their wages. To further this accountability system, they are required to wear identification on their uniforms as they perform public duties.

When state violence is turned against the people, what happens to those systems of accountability?

First, identifying marks are erased so that citizens have no way to identify the individual police or soldiers harming them.

Second, watchdogs, whistleblowers and journalists are especially targeted for repression and brutality.

Third, official lies are broadcast 24/7. One of my favorite tweets from June 2 as Taksim Square was being raided violently by Turkish police:

Gokce Piskin ‏@gokcepiskin
If millions are uprising but TV channels are broadcasting only Erdoğan, something's are wrong. Seriously wrong. #occupygezi #turkishspring

Fourth, communication channels used by the people are shut down: cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, even the entire Internet. It's a bit of a last resort, because it often backfires as those angered by feeling the heavy hand of repression on their own information feed spill into the streets, swelling the numbers of those protesting.

Source: Tweet on June 4, 2013 by NameDerRose Melikeall Arınç says that the government can shut the Internet down in a second! #Anonymous #opturkey #EylemVakti pic.twitter.com/bFKcg8kgBt

And if, like the Erdogan government, you've already got this kind of mass mobilization rising

Source: Spanish Revolution blog "June 1. The people crossing the Bosphorus at dawn. Photos via occupygezipics.tumblr.com"

you're in deep doo-doo. Even before the Confederation of Public Workers' Unions (KESK) calls a two-day solidarity strike citing "state terror implemented against entirely peaceful protests...continuing in a way that threatens civilians' life safety." The translation of today's trending hashtag #EylemVakti is "time for action."

It must be hard for ruling systems posing as democracies to know when to keep holding on to the illusion, maybe by having violent militias that appear to be acting independently do some of the regulating and terrorizing for you, at the risk of not being able to rein them in later. How do they decide when the time has come to stop pretending to be a democracy that fewer people each day can bring themselves to believe in?

From Agence France-Presse:

Erdogan has dismissed the protestors as “vandals” stressing that he had been democratically elected..."for me, democracy comes from the ballot box,” he said.

What's not difficult for repressive governments posing as democracies is knowing that truth must be suppressed as effectively -- and quietly -- as possible.

source: Salon.com article about the infamous Collateral Murder video which Bradley Manning admits he leaked.

Shout out today to epic leaker Bradley Manning, whose court martial trial enters its second day following 1,100 days of pre-trial detention with barely a whisper of corporate press attention. Press Freedom Foundation has published the first rush transcript made by a crowd-funded court stenographer denied access to the courtroom, and housed in a location with an audio feed that cuts in and out.

Watchdogs like the Center for Constitutional Rights keep pressing for more transparency in Manning's historic trial.

And the lies just keep rolling on...

Labor Mural Wants to Be Free

3 of 11 panels from the mural: The 1937 Strike Scenes from an unsuccessful strike attempt to create better conditions for women workers. Frances Perkins FDR's  Labor Secretary, and untiring labor activist, a Maine Labor icon. Rosie the Riveter Maine's version of WWII women workers participated as ship-builders.

Control of information is where the battle for hearts and minds is being waged in the 21st century. That's why Bradley Manning is being tortured for allegedly leaking the Collateral Murder video and other raw truths about military occupation. That's why Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is a wanted man for distributing the information. And that's why Maine's governor took down the mural depicting labor history created by Judy Taylor for the lobby of the Department of Labor.

The Maine labor mural had a hearing in Federal District Court in Bangor today on a charge that the governor violated citizens' First Amendment right of access to the mural by removing it.

Appropriately enough, the court proceedings were open to the public, and we were treated to an entertaining show. Judge Woodcock was clearly enjoying himself, and he hinted broadly that it would not have been unwelcome if either the plaintiffs or the defendant had filed for discovery in order to produce the mural in the courtroom. The judge rightly noted that few present had actually ever seen it, and that they are unlikely to now that it is believed to be stored “in a broom closet.”

The case seems to hinge on whether or not the mural's removal can be considered “government speech” which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld 1st amendment rights for; as a legal concept, the judge noted, government speech is pretty freshly minted. Would a person viewing the mural reasonably think that it contained a message from his or her government? Or just a personal vision expressed by the artist? He speculated that portraits of the founders of giant paper companies and ship builders may be planned to replace the mural, according to the governor.

The plaintiffs argue it is the latter, while the state argued through its lawyers that it had spoken (perhaps less than eloquently) when the mural was removed last month under cover of darkness.

Despite expressing the reluctance of federal courts to interfere in state business, the judge had prepared  some interesting questions for both sides. To the plaintiffs: Doesn't each successive administration remove art from the walls of public buildings, and put up other art, and doesn't this constitute a benefit of democratic governance, wherein the people are supposed to have spoken at the ballot box that brought the administration to office?

Counsel for the plaintiffs: If the art had been removed because the color scheme was displeasing, yes. If it is removed because the content is deemed unwelcome – as the governor clearly stated in the verbal pissing match that led up to the mural's removal – then that is a violation of the right, not just to speak, but to listen.

Judge Woodcock then asked counsel for the defendant: Suppose the governor were to enter the state library, find a number of books there on the history of labor objectionable, and burn them? Would that be permissible?

In a room full of oldsters, it's pretty clear what that hypothetical referred to.

The judge promised to render a decision quickly, but he's known for writing long opinions – so don't hold your breath. Other avenues remain, including a pending demand from the U.S. Dept. of Labor for a refund of its $60k contribution via grant whose terms have now been violated; the fact that the state museum actually has responsibility for the art in state buildings; and the breach of contract with the artist, who is entitled to be consulted in the event of her work's removal, and wasn't.

At a rally that followed the hearing, in Peirce Park under a monumental statue of lumberjacks at work, artist Nathasha Mayers spoke dressed as a truck with Maine open for  business  exploitation painted on the side. Artist Rob Shetterly said the mural deserved to be seen because it showed the truth  about labor history in Maine. And several speakers represented labor, none more eloquently than retired RN Kathy Day. The nurses at Eastern Maine Medical Center have been struggling for a contract that guarantees adequate staffing levels, and Kathy clearly explained how society as a whole often benefits from workers' struggles.

Kathy Day, Food AND Medicine, Bangor, April 19, 2011

Not enough nurses to provide adequate care? Not enough air traffic controllers to spell each other through the wee hours? Weak protection for child laborers? Eventually, somebody's going to get hurt.

LOUD whining

Jon Stewart says we're too loud & we should get a life. CODEPINK in particular was singled out, using a fairly well known image of bloody (painted) red hands confronting a lying war criminal in a congressional hearing. Click here to support getting Medea Benjamin invited on the Daily Show.

Then the vice president claimed today that people just need to stop whining. He followed it up with a whopper about how much the president has changed things since taking office. Or maybe he meant to say how much the president has changed since taking office. Oh, wait, he said only Democrats need to stop whining. Phew.

Minimizing the informed voice of concerned citizens is all in a day's work for these clowns.

Meanwhile Ethan McCord is in Europe answering journalists who wonder why no major news outlet in the U.S. interviewed him to corroborate the "Collateral Murder" leaked video. I've heard Ethan speak, and he speaks softly but with a powerful truth.

The mass media's job these days is to drown truth in a flood of meaningless information.

There are things to be very concerned about. Here is my LOUD WHINE list:

Israel has boarded yet another humanitarian ship bound for Gaza, the Irene, and confiscated relief materials carried by its international Jewish aid workers. The U.S. says and does nothing. Israel could board a ship in international waters and kill people, and taxpayers would continue sending them billions in credits to buy U.S. made weapons each year.

Drones continue bombing civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and are now patrolling the border of the U.S. & Mexico (and soon the Canadian border as well). My neighbors do not appear concerned about robot killers filling the skies at their expense.

There is no jobs program other than the military for low income youth. Immigrant youth are pressured into enlisting in order to earn a green card. Legislation to pour more billions into the war industry sails forward year after year, creating a sea of red ink for decades to come. The deficit, however, is blamed on programs like social security that fund themselves.

Public education is ever more unequal, underfunded, and under attack. Those in charge of dismantling local control of education demand more rigor while withholding more funds from schools in low income areas. For rigor read more standardized testing.

The FBI kicks down doors and confiscates digital resources from peace activists. The people in power make no mention of it, so it must be ok. Ditto the unlawful detention of Muslims on the grounds of crimes they might have commited, in special prisons where they are incommunicado.

Hate radio sounds more and more like Rwanda before the genocide. The concept of freedom of religion guaranteed by the 1st amendment to the Constitution is held especially cheap. Racism and sexism are rampant and unabashed. Death threats against “liberals” are commonplace and viewed as entertainment. Financiers and corporate interests fund media outlets that exploit the angry, broke, confused masses by deflecting their anger onto scapegoats.

Ok I am done whining. For the moment.

Bravest Man I Know

l to r: Joe Lombardo, Kathy Kelly, Medea Benjamin, Dahlia Wasfi, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Ethan McCord

How much courage does it take to give the speech that Ethan McCord gave at the Albany National Peace Conference in July?

In it he talked about the day of the events shown in the Wikileaks video "Collateral Murder" which he witnessed from the ground as a soldier pulling bleeding children from the rescue van where their dad lay dying. He walked us, step by step, through the video and explained what was happening. He told us: "If this video disgusts you, it should. It happens daily."

I met Ethan in Albany when he spoke briefly at the opening news conference. It was clearly difficult to talk about something that had happened years ago but that he says he lives with every day.

When we have to talk to a crowd of strangers about things that touch us deeply, most of us are afraid we will break down and cry. You could hear Ethan's voice tremble at times when he spoke. He was taking responsibility for his participation in a military occupation he has come to see as inhuman and immoral. That is hard to do in public also.

I can't think of a better way to bring the truth of military enlistment to young men seduced by the barrage of glamorous ad campaigns, and subjected to the sophisticated hard-sell tactics of recruiters who prey on them. Recruiters are in your shopping centers, on your websites, and in your public schools, in the lunchroom even.

How to be a man when you will not find a steady job to maintain a home and contribute to a family? How to afford even transportation to go out and look for work? How to get a college education without the G.I. bill? These are the choices young American men face today.

Young women face hard economic choices, too. But nobody implies they are less of a woman for not enlisting. There are special problems young males have in this messed up culture of ours. Ethan testified that when he told his commanding officer he wanted to talk to someone to get help for his PTSD he was told, "Stop being a pussy. Get the sand out of your vagina and get back to duty."

My youngest son just told me the other day he would like to have a T-shirt that World Can't Wait is selling as a fundraiser. It says "MILITARY RECRUITERS, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" on the front and "We are not your soldiers" on the back. I went online here and ordered him one.

Personally I'm thinking about making and wearing a T-shirt of my own: "Proud to be a Pussy."

My heart goes out to everyone caught in the military machine our society has become. Support our troops -- bring them home. And hope they get to talk to someone brave like Ethan McCord when they return to us.

Truth 1st Casualty of War

photo credit: Laurel Jensen Photograpy

About 100 people turned out for a rally to support PFC Bradley Manning, the leaker of the "Collateral Murder" video from Iraq among other truths. It is unclear whether or not he had a hand in the recent Afghan War Diary released by Wikileaks. He's being held in military prison Quantico, VA now and CODEPINK helped organize the rally, which was covered by the NYTimes even. You can contribute to Brad's defense fund plus learn more here.

It is totally clear that this kind of bravery is needed for world citizens to learn the truth about war crimes. Watch the Rethink Afghanistan video about official NATO accounts vs. eyewitness accounts on the bombing of civilians (including infants) in Sangind on July 23 that killed 52 people. One witness said that one or two members of nearly every family in the village died in the attack; NATO denied any civilian deaths, and sent no medical help following the bombardment.

Your tax $$ at work...