Ethan McCord's eyewitness testimony of Wikileak's
5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
On July 6, 2010, Private Bradley Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the United States Army in Baghdad, was charged with disclosing this video (after allegedly speaking to an unfaithful journalist). The whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a 'hero'. He is currently imprisoned in Kuwait. The Apache crew and those behind the cover up depicted in the video have yet to be charged. To assist Private Manning, please see bradleymanning.org.
We, the Undersigned, call for the immediate release of US Army PFC Bradley Manning, incarcerated as of 18 June 2010.
Media accounts state that Mr. Manning was arrested in late May for allegedly leaking the video of US Apache helicopter pilots killing innocent people and seriously wounding two children in Baghdad, including those who arrived to help the wounded. The video was released by WikiLeaks under the name "Collateral Murder". Pfc. Manning is also identified by the Defense Department as a "person of interest" in the investigation into WikiLeaks obtaining 90,000 battlefield reports describing thousands of civilian deaths inflicted by occupation forces in Afghanistan, collusion with warlords, corruption and an unvarnished view of our decade-long war.
If these allegations are untrue, we call upon the US Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.
If these allegations ARE true, we ALSO call upon the US Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.
The leaked video, released by WikiLeaks under the title Collateral Murder, clearly shows that official statements from the multinational force in Baghdad that "there is no question that Coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force" were blatantly false. The leaker of this video blew the whistle on two crimes: the murder of civilians and an official coverup. Exposing these crimes was a moral and legal obligation and a service to the international community. The leaker deserves our respect and thanks—not prosecution.
We express our support for Mr. Manning in any case, and our admiration for his courage if he is, in fact, the person who disclosed the information. Like in the cases of Daniel Ellsberg, W. Mark Felt, Frank Serpico and countless other whistleblowers before, government demands for secrecy must yield to public knowledge and justice when government crime and corruption are being kept hidden. If the United States government demands to use our tax dollars and our own children to fight this war, then we must demand full disclosure of the facts, no matter how unsettling. We demand that the government stop the misinformation and we honor heroes who fight for transparency.
Free Bradley Manning!
Sincerely,
San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice (SDCPJ)
San Diego Alliance for marriage Equality (SAME)
Activist San Diego
San Diego Branch of The International Socialist Organization (ISO)
Green Party of San Diego
San Diego Pride at Work
Progressive Democrats of America Metro San Diego Chapter (PDA)
Democracy for America San Diego Meetup
San Diego Chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP)
Vietnam Veterans Against the War San Diego (VVAW)
The San Diego Puppet Insurgency
Mark Gabrish Conlan and Zenger's Newsmagazine
San Diego Military Counseling Project, a member group of the G.I. Rights Hotline
(List open for additional endorsements. Contact Gabriel Seth Conaway for additions: indigabe@hotmail.com 619-446-9889)
- Other ways you can help!
- Get involved with the Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist (www.couragetoresist.org)
- Be a part of the media campaign and educate others
- Join our media group writing or distributing literature
- Show your support for Bradley on your Facebook page
- Spread the Collateral Murder video and Afghan War Diary on your blog or Facebook page
- Write the editor of your local paper
- Make a donation to the defense fund at www.bradleymanning.org to ensure Bradley Manning has the resources necessary to mount a vigorous defense
- Sign the petition to free Bradley Manning – available at www.bradleymanning.org
- Soldiers and Veterans: Join Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Institute for Public Accuracy in humanizing the Afghan War Diary with your experiences
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition calls on all its members, supporters and people of conscience to contact the White House to demand that the Obama administration direct the Israeli leadership, currently in Washington DC, to immediately release and end the systematic and institutionalized abuse of all Palestinian children in Israeli prisons in accordance with international law. The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.
