Transparency & Democracy: Why the U.S. Should Free Bradley Manning 5DEZ10

BRADLEY MANNING, American hero, deserves our thanks, not prison. He has exposed the lies, propaganda, manipulation and deception our own government used and is still using to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has exposed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Enough of killing, maiming, and destruction in our name (when we all know it is for increasing the profit margins of the military industrial complex in America). Please support him by sending him birthday cards and Christmas cards and by supporting the fight for his freedom!

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On December 17, in a prison cell in Quantico, Virginia, Bradley Manning will be celebrating his 23rd birthday alone. Manning stands accused of releasing classified documents about America’s wars and foreign policies, including the Collateral Murder video showing American troops killing two Reuters employees and civilians who offered humanitarian aid to the wounded. Many speculate that Bradley Manning may be responsible for the Afghan War Diary and the Iraq War Logs, which show in frightful detail the scores of civilians being killed by America’s ongoing foreign wars and the inhumane tactics employed by our troops overseas. And last week, the biggest leak of all: the first wave of over 250,000 secret diplomatic cables that have brought to light America’s bullying imperialism and backroom deals.
Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and ex-Pentagon official KT McFarland are calling for Manning’s execution, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is vowing “aggressive steps” will be taken against those responsible for the leaks. As WikiLeaks scrounges to find a way to keep their site alive after being shut out by PayPal, Amazon and EveryDNS, Manning is held in prison, unable to meet with his family and prevented from getting the vast majority of his mail.
Reviewing the still-unverified chat logs between Manning and unscrupulous journalist Adrian Lamo prior to Manning’s arrest sheds light on the motivation and goals of the alleged whistle-blower. Manning stated that he hoped the publication of the diplomatic cables would spur “worldwide discussion, debates, and reform.”
Manning stated: “I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.”
This speaks to the real purpose of the leaks and the reason every citizen in America should care deeply about the fate of Bradley Manning.
America is a democracy. We take pride in the fact that all citizens have the right to participate in our government. Based on the promises, history, and positions of our politicians, we citizens make decisions about who we will elect to represent us.
But democracy is destined to fail if voters don’t know the truth about their government.
As the ACLU has pointed out, it is because of conscientious whistle-blowers that we now know about secret CIA prisons overseas, the level of civilian casualties in the Iraq War and the NSA’s warrantless wiretap program. This is information that can and should impact how the public feels about our government. It’s information that belongs in the public domain, even if it makes Washington politicians uncomfortable. Because when Americans become frustrated or disenchanted with their elected representatives, we have the right to replace them.
This is why transparency is vital to a democracy. Whether or not you agree with America’s wars, you must know the truth to form an educated opinion about them.
Informed citizens are the foundation of our society. In the last year, WikiLeaks has provided damning evidence detailing how the United States government has obfuscated, down-played and misrepresented the reality of our foreign policy. This is the unique, powerful, and necessary role of whistle-blowers: to shine a light in the darkness of corruption, secrets and falsehood.
If Bradley Manning is, in fact, the WikiLeaks whistle-blower, then we owe him our gratitude. He embodies the principles of democracy that would make our founding fathers proud.
For Bradley Manning’s birthday, to be celebrated in solitude in a military prison cell, we’re calling on all citizens who believe in democracy to sign a petition for Manning’s freedom and make a donation to our defense fund. Manning will be facing the full force of the United States’ wrath over the leaked documents. You can save him.

Sign the petition: www.standwithbrad.org
Donate to the defense fund: http://tinyurl.com/savebradley

Now is the time, for those who believe that transparency is central to democracy, to stand with Bradley Manning. Join us!

Twitter: www.twitter.com/savebradley
Facebook: www.facebook.com/savebradley

We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning from COURAGE TO RESIST 26OKT

JOIN the struggle for Bradley Manning's release from prison and against the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and against the abuse, corruption, deception and manipulation of the American public and the world by the pentagon and the military-industrial complex! Click the header or the link below to sign the letters of support for Bradley Manning!

"We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad... We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning."

The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist are launching a new campaign, and we wanted to give you a chance to be among the first to add your name to this international effort. If you sign the letter online, we’ll print out and mail two letters to Army officials on your behalf. With your permission, we may also use your name on the online petition and in upcoming media ads.

Read the complete public letter and add your name at:
http://standwithbrad.org/

	Stand with Bradley! A 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst, Pfc. Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians to the website Wikileaks. Among the dead were two working Reuters reporters. Two children were also severely wounded in the attack. In addition to this "Collateral Murder" video, Pfc. Manning is suspected of leaking the "Afghan War Diaries" – tens of thousands of battlefield reports that explicitly describe civilian deaths and cover-ups, corrupt officials, collusion with warlords, and a failing US/NATO war effort. "We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal," noted Barack Obama while on the campaign trail in 2008. While the President was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans, Pfc. Manning's alleged actions are just as noteworthy. If the military charges against him are accurate, they show that he had a reasonable belief that war crimes were being covered up, and that he took action based on a crisis of conscience. After nearly a decade of war and occupation waged in our name, it is odd that it apparently fell on a young Army private to provide critical answers to the questions, "What have we purchased with well over a trillion tax dollars and the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?” However, history is replete with unlikely heroes. If Bradley Manning is indeed the source of these materials, the nation owes him our gratitude. We ask Secretary of the Army, the Honorable John M. McHugh, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General George W. Casey, Jr., to release Pfc. Manning from pre-trial confinement and drop the charges against him. Sincerely, Bradley Manning Support Network Advisory Board members: Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink: Women for Peace Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, board member for the National Whistleblower Center Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle blower Kathleen Gilberd, co-chair of the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and activist Michael Moore, documentary filmmaker Jose Vasquez, executive director of Iraq Veterans against the War US Army Colonel Ann Wright (ret.), former US State Department official Kevin Zeese, co-founder and executive director, Voters for Peace Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee members: Gerry Condon, national co-chair of the Veterans for Peace GI Resistance Working Group Mike Gogulski, founder of bradleymanning.org Jeff Paterson, project director of Courage to Resist Loraine Reitman, privacy advocate
			Add your name! I Stand with Bradley Your name (and title) as letter signer: We will mail these on your behalf and publish your name and title online. Postage donation required to use this form ($5 Suggested). $  Or, sign with no postage donation. Resources & info  Print petition, single signature  Print petition, three signatures  Donate to the defense fund  View Collateral Murder video  Shirts, stickers, buttons... Write a personal appeal  Hon. Mr. John M. McHugh  Secretary of the Army  101 Army Pentagon, Rm. 3E560  Washington DC 20310-0101  General George W. Casey, Jr.  Cheif of Staff of the Army  101 Army Pentagon, Rm. 3E672  Washington DC 20310-0200

IVAW responds to Wikileaks' Iraq War Logs 26OKT10

IVAW responds to Wikileaks' Iraq War Logs The latest release by Wikileaks of the Iraq War Logs is the largest leak in U.S. history and reveals in extensive detail what Iraq Veterans Against the War has been saying since our founding in 2004.  The U.S. has presided over a bloody occupation for seven years where war crimes are a common offense, civilian casualties have been grossly under-reported, and corporate contractors run amok.  See our official statement on the Iraq War Logs below. IVAW Statement on the Iraq War Logs - A Call for Accountability The recent Wikileaks release--The Iraq War Logs--has shed important light on the high rate of civilian death and widespread atrocities, including torture, that are endemic to the war in Iraq. As veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are outraged that the U.S. government sought to hide this information from the U.S. public, instead presenting a sanitized and deceptive version of war, and we think it is vital for this and further information to get out. Members of IVAW have experienced firsthand the realities of war on the ground, and since our inception we have spoken out about similar atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are asking the U.S. public to join us in calling on our government to end the occupations and bring our brothers and sisters home. The U.S. government has been claiming for years that they do not keep count of civilian death tolls, yet the recent releases show that they do, in fact, keep count. Between 2004 and 2009, according to these newly disclosed records, at least 109,032 Iraqis died, 66,081 of whom were civilians. The Guardian reports that the Iraq War Logs show that the U.S. military and government gave de facto approval for hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and murder by Iraqi soldiers and police officers. These recent revelations, along with the Afghan War Diaries and Collateral Murder footage, weave a picture of wars in which the rules of engagement allow for excessive violence, woven into the fabric of daily life with the U.S. military presence acting as a destabilizing and brutalizing force. The Iraq War Logs, while crucial, are reports produced in real time and themselves may be slanted to minimize the culpability of U.S. forces. Still, they represent an important part of evidence in assessing the reality of the Iraq war, evidence that can only be improved by the further release of documents and information and corroboration by individuals involved. To this end, our members are reviewing both Wikileaks' Afghanistan War Diaries and the Iraq War Logs to identify incidents we were part of and to shed more light on what really happened. IVAW has been speaking out about these atrocities and abuses since our inception. Our organization is comprised of over 2,000 veterans and active duty troops who have served since September 11, 2001. We demand immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, reparations for the people of those countries, and full benefits for returning veterans, including mental healthcare. At our March 2008 Winter Soldier hearings in Maryland, more than fifty veterans and active-duty service members publicly testified about the orders they were told to carry out in these countries, sharing stories of excessive violence, trauma, and abuse. Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord, two IVAW members who were in the unit captured in the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" video, have spoken out about how the incidents caught on film are not isolated cases of 'a few bad soldiers' but rather, part of the nature of these wars. "There has been little accountability in the wars that my friends and I once thought represented everything that was noble about our country," wrote Stieber in anticipation of the Iraq War Logs. In an open letter, Stieber calls for policy makers to "take accountability for these wars and the full truth about them." As veterans, we know that the violence documented in the Iraq War Logs traumatizes the people living under occupation. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also have been marked by staggering rates of military trauma and suicide among the troops tasked with carrying out these orders. Last year, 239 soldiers killed themselves and 1,713 soldiers survived suicide attempts; 146 soldiers died from high-risk activities, including 74 drug overdoses. A third of returning troops report mental health problems, and 18.5 percent of all returning service members are battling either Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression, according to a study by the Rand Corporation. Our Operation Recovery campaign, launched on October 7, seeks to end the cruel and inhumane practice of redeploying troops suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Military Sexual Trauma, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other mental and physical wounds--a practice that underlies the continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Critics attacking Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's character are attempting to use ad hominem arguments to detract from the real issues and divert public attention from the content of the Iraq War Logs. We urge honest and thorough discussion of the content of these documents, and we think this discussion must not be sidelined. Furthermore, with past Wikileaks revelations, U.S. administration and military authorities were quick to vilify Army Specialist Bradley Manning who is being accused of leaking these documents to the public. Yet we insist that it is the right of the U.S. public to have accurate information about wars that are being fought in our name and funded by our tax dollars, and we support the public sharing of this information. Exposing war crimes is not a crime. Government deception is inexcusable. Authorities have kept this information secret in the name of 'national security,' but what they really are afraid of is public opinion, which they know will turn against them if the truth about these wars gets out in the mainstream. An accurate count of Iraqi dead, acknowledgment of torture, and full disclosure of the role of private contractors are facts that should be made public in a democracy. We believe that real national security is created where government transparency and accountability, free press, and an end to spending on illegal wars and occupations are the norm. Continued silence and secrecy is a grave threat to the security of the Iraqi and Afghan people, and we demand openness, accountability, and real discussion of these revelations. We grieve for the Iraqi and Afghan lives that were lost and destroyed in these wars. We also grieve for our brothers and sisters in arms, who have been lost to battle or suicide. The Iraq War Logs bring home part of the harsh reality of these wars, a reality that we--as veterans--live with everyday. We demand a real end to both wars, including immediate withdrawal of the 50,000 "non-combat" troops who remain in the Iraq. The Iraq War Logs underscore the urgent need for peace, healing, and reparations for all who have been harmed by these wars. The first step is to bring our brothers and sisters home.

Iraq Veterans Against the War is a 501(c)(3) charity, and welcomes your tax deductible contributions

© 2010 IVAW 630 9th Avenue Suite 807, New York, NY 10036. All Right Reserved. | Contact Us

IRAQ WAR LOGS, 2004-2009 from WIKILEAKS 22OKT10

ALSO AVAILABLE, WITH OTHER INFORMATION, ON THE AFGHAN WAR DIARIES PAGE ON THIS BLOG.
WarLogs.Wikileaks.org is a website which provides an easy way to search through the Iraq War Logs, which were made public by Wikileaks on 22nd October 2010. The documents are a set of over 391,000 reports which cover the war in Iraq from 2004 to 2009.
From here, you can browse through all of the documents that have been released, organized by type, category, date, number of casualties, and many other properties. From any document page, clicking on the green underlined text will open a popup that links to other documents that contain those phrases, making it possible to see important search terms and connections that you might not otherwise notice.
Our hope is that this tool will be helpful to reporters and researchers who are interested in learning more about the US's war in Afghanistan and making sense of this important database. If you wish to support this work, we encourage you to make a donation to wikileaks.
Source code for this website is freely available on github – we welcome any contributions, improvements or suggestions.

On to the documents.