OPINION: OBAMA DECLARES MANNING GUILTY BEFORE TRIAL

President Barack Obama said on April 21 that PFC Bradley Manning “broke the law.” (at :47 http://youtu.be/IfmtUpd4id0 ) This statement casts serious doubt on whether Manning can receive a fair trial from officers subordinate to Obama, their Commander-in-Chief.

“Members of the military are trained to follow orders. President Obama is the commander of all armed forces,” said Elliott Adams, president of Veterans For Peace. “Any officer who wants to advance in his military career would be wise not to contradict their commander-in-chief, especially after the military's brutal treatment of Manning this past year. The President seems to have forgotten what he taught his constitutional law classes about being innocent until proven guilty.”

The government has already violated Bradley Manning’s due process rights by keeping him in pretrial solitary confinement for nearly a year and the President bears ultimate responsibility for the abusive treatment Manning has endured since July 2010 at Quantico Marine Base, and possibly before that in Kuwait. He has been confined to a 6-by-12-foot cell for 23 hours a day, prevented from sleeping during the day, denied exercise, woken up constantly, given limited access to books and writing materials, stripped at night and forced to endure inspection naked, and deprived of his eyeglasses. Many mental health professionals characterize this as psychological torture. President Obama could have stopped this mistreatment at any time with one phone call.

The President made another critical misstatement in his comments. He claimed that Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, was less culpable because the documents he leaked were “not classified in the same way.” In fact, the Pentagon Papers were classified at the highest level of secrecy while the WikiLeaks documents were at the lowest level.

“It’s time to free Bradley Manning and pin a medal on the man,” said Leah Bolger, VFP vice-president. “He has already been punished beyond constitutional limits and now President Obama has made a fair trial impossible. If indeed he’s the one who released those documents, he is a hero for blowing the whistle on war crimes and other misbehavior by U.S. officials.”

Veterans For Peace Demands Apology From Secretary of State

Just minutes after Secretary Clinton began

a speech lauding freedom of the internet, two security personnel

forcefully removed an audience member wearing a Veterans For Peace

t-shirt who had silently stood and turned his back to her. Ray

McGovern, a 71-year old veteran, and former CIA analyst was violently

grabbed and forcibly removed from the auditorium in direct view of

Mrs. Clinton. According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney with the

Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, “For this peaceful expression of

dissent, he ended up bruised, bloodied, arrested, and jailed.

Secretary Clinton never paused, continuing her speech lecturing other

countries about the need to allow freedom of expression and dissent,

while Mr. McGovern was hauled out in front of her.”

Mr. McGovern is covered with bruises, and the metal handcuffs were

fastened so tightly that his wrists were cut and bloody. After being

held by local police, he was told that he was being charged with

“disorderly conduct.”

We asked Ray for a quick statement after his release. He wrote:

“I find myself wondering if this show of brutality may be a signpost

on a path to even wider and more brutal repression. I have been

comparing what happened during Clinton’s speech Tuesday with my

four-minute mini-debate with Donald Rumsfeld on May 4, 2006 in Atlanta

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MInHphR4zBg). Halfway through,

Rumsfeld gives the nod to a black-hatted security fellow to elbow me

away from the microphone.

I shout, ‘So this is America.’ Rumsfeld takes one look at the TV

cameras streaming live, makes a snap decision, and tells the security

fellow to let me stay. During that same speech in Atlanta, one

fearless witness stands dead-center in the audience with his back to

Rumsfeld for the entire speech and is not bothered, much less beaten

and jailed.

The contrast between the experience of May 2006 and February 2011 can

be viewed through the prism of the proverbial ‘boiling frog.’ There

does seem to be a subtle but successful campaign to get people

gradually accustomed to increasingly repressive measures; and many,

perhaps most, Americans seem oblivious.

After 9/11 Norman Mailer saw a ‘pre-fascist climate’ reigning in

America. If we don’t stand up for our rights, it may not be long

before we shall have to drop the ‘pre.’”

Veterans For Peace is proud of our member Ray McGovern, whose simple,

dignified action speaks volumes about the power of non-violence. We

abhor the actions of the security personnel who reacted violently and

in flagrant violation of Mr. McGovern’s First Amendment rights. We

also deplore the indifference of Secretary Clinton who didn’t bat an

eye and we demand that she apologize for her silence and hypocrisy.

Most importantly, we call on the American public to wake up to the

dark reality of what this country has become…a place where civil

liberties and freedom of expression are becoming increasingly

endangered, and the government’s response to every situation is

intimidation and force.

Call 202-647-4000 and write Sec. Clinton to protest:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5914