WIKILEAKS NEWS #8, 2011
Contents of #7
New Restrictions on Manning
IVAW Actions
NYTimes Article on Manning
CIA Use of Nakedness
Importance of WikiLeaks
Excessive Secrecy by US
Contents of #8
Manning: 8th, 5th Amendments Violated
Two New Books on WikiLeaks
Greg Mitchell’s new Blog, E-Book, and Book
Greg Mitchell on Ethan McCord
New Film on McCord
Finis
Manning: 8th and 5th Amendments Violated and Probably More illegal
“Private Manning's Humiliation”
Bruce Ackerman and Yochai Benkler, The New York
Bruce Ackerman and Yochai Benkler write
The sum of the treatment that has been widely 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. If continued, it may well amount to a violation of the criminal statute against torture, defined as, among other things, “the administration or application…of… procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality.”
: "President Obama was once a professor of constitutional law, and entered the national stage as an eloquent moral leader. The question now, however, is whether his conduct as commander in chief meets fundamental standards of decency. He should not merely assert that Manning's confinement is 'appropriate and meet[s] our basic standards,' as he did recently. He should require the Pentagon publicly to document the grounds for its extraordinary actions - and immediately end those that cannot withstand the light of day."
READ MORE http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/369-wikileaks/5583-private-mannings-humiliation
TWO NEW BOOKS 2011 on WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE (AND MANNING)
Reviewed in The Progressive (May 2011).
Inside Wikileaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Hostile to Assage personally, yet retains belief in value of free information..
WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by The Guardian. Positive focus on the freedom of information and leaked documents as servingl the people of the world.
MITCHELL’S BLOG, EBOOK, AND BOOK, THE AGE OF WIKILEAKS
The WikiLeaks News & Views Blog for Thursday, Day 145 (April 21, 2011)
(http://www.thenation.com/blog/160080/wikileaks-news-views-blog-thursday-day-145?rel=emailNation
THE AGE OF WIKILEAKS: From Collateral Murder to Cablegate (and Beyond)
By GREG MITCHELLNow in updated second edition, available in print only here at Blurb -- for E-book (just $4.99), go to Amazon: http://bit.ly/hbIqUM
"From the moment I discovered Greg Mitchell's amazing WikiLeaks blog it has become indispensable. 'The Age of WikiLeaks' follows in the footsteps of his brilliant books on nuclear threat, the
'Highly recommended." -----DON VAN NATTA, Jr., investigative reporter, The New York Times
This acclaimed book and e-book charts the incredible rise of WikiLeaks, and its political and media impact, from April 2010 to February 2011 -- and what it means for the future -- written by award-winning author Greg Mitchell. His WikiLeaks blog at The Nation has gained a vast worldwide audience and praise from Bill Moyers and many others.
Includes gripping, revelatory chapters on every major WikiLeaks release of the past year, from
"One of the nation's most insightful journalists, Greg Mitchell, tackles in this book one of the most fascinating and important political controversies of the last decade: WikiLeaks. Few commentators know more about this vital topic. Mitchell's daily blog has been a must-read for anyone following the WikiLeaks saga." ----- GLENN GREENWALD, Salon.com
Daily blogger for The Nation. Longtime editor of "Editor & Publisher" magazine. Author of ten books for major publishers, including "The Campaign of the Century" (winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize), "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits …
Publish Date February 02, 2011 Dimensions Black and White Text Pocket 158 pgs
Tags WikiLeaks, leaks, Obama, spying, controversies, CIA, scandal …
One Year Later: Soldier in WikiLeaks Iraq
April 20, 2011
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Today marks the first anniversary of the day we first heard the name Ethan McCord. Two weeks earlier, WikiLeaks started to become a household name in the U.S. Baghdad
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Greg Mitchell
Greg Mitchell writes the Media Fix blog for TheNation.com. A new edition of his book The Campaign of the Century: Upton
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New WikiLeaks cables: How U.S.
After a flurry of publicity, the episode soon faded from the media, although three major WikiLeaks releases followed last year, all allegedly coming via Private Bradley Manning, now sitting in near-solitary confinement in the brig at Quantico
But largely thanks to one soldier who was in the thick of things on that day in 2007, the incident is far from over.
He is Ethan McCord, who spoke out in an interview published by Wired online on APril 20, 2010, after the release of the video to testify that he was on the scene that day and helped rescue two badly injured children (who were riding in a van driven by their father who had tried to helped the wounded only to be killed himself) and carry them to a vehicle that took them to a hospital. He has since continued to protest what happened that day -- and the war in Iraq
Now he is featured in a film short that will debut this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival, with three more screenings to follow. Here is a link to the film's site which includes background, a trailer and a director's statement in which he reveals he is now working on a feature length film and hopes to talk with the triggerman.
My colleague Kevin Gosztola talked to McCord last month. McCord says that he has turned over all photos from that day and they will air soon. Here is the audio and transcript.
One key quote from McCord: “The video was released on April 5th of 2010. However, the entire incident was written about in a book by David Finkel called The Good Soldiers. So, they’re stating that this was classified, but it was already released back in 2009 through a book so how is it classified if it’s already for released? I mean, word for word this video is described in the book The Good Soldiers so yet we’re going to charge Bradley Manning for releasing classified information. Shouldn’t we also be charging David Finkel for writing this book detailing the entire engagement in his book in 2009?”
Finally, below, here is an excerpt from my The Age of WikiLeaks book—recounting the surprising interview McCord gave nearly one year ago.
* * *
He was Ethan McCord, 33, the father of three who had left the Army after seven years and was now living in Kansas
McCord described his shock at seeing people “destroyed” on the ground and finding the badly injured children in the van, helping a medic take the girl to a nearby building, and then coming back for the boy. After carrying Sajad to a Bradley, “I got yelled at by my platoon leader that I needed to stop trying to save these mf ’n kids and go pull security….
“After the incident, we went back to the FOB [forward operating base] and that’s when I was in my room. I had blood all down the front of me from the children. I was trying to wash it off in my room. I was pretty distraught over the whole situation with the children. So I went to a sergeant and asked to see [the mental health person], because I was having a hard time dealing with it. I was called a pussy and that I needed to suck it up and a lot of other horrible things. I was also told that there would be repercussions if I was to go to mental health.
“I’ve lived with seeing the children that way since the incident happened. I’ve had nightmares. I was diagnosed with chronic, severe PTSD. [But] I was actually starting to get kind of better.… I wasn’t thinking about it as much. [Then I] took my children to school one day and I came home and sat down on the couch and turned on the TV with my coffee, and on the news I’m running across the screen with a child. The flood of emotions came back. I know the scene by heart; it’s burned into my head. I know the van, I know the faces of everybody that was there that day.
“I did see a video on YouTube after the WikiLeaks [video] came out, of the children being interviewed.… When I saw their faces, I was relieved, but I was just heartbroken. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. Knowing that I was part of the system that took their father away from them and made them lose their house…it’s heartbreaking. And that in turn is what helped me and Josh write the letter, hoping that it would find its way to them to let them know that we’re sorry. We’re sorry for the system that we were involved in that took their father’s life and injured them. If there’s anything I can to do help, I would be more than happy to.
“Personally, I believe the first attack on the group standing by the wall was appropriate, was warranted by the rules of engagement. They did have weapons there. However, I don’t feel that the attack on the van was necessary…. And where the soldier said [in the video], ‘Well, you shouldn’t take your kids to battle.’ Well, in all actuality, we brought the battle to your kids.
“I think that the bigger picture is what are we doing there? We’ve been there for so long now and it seems like nothing is being accomplished whatsoever, except for we’re making more people hate us.
“I don’t say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn’t…. I think it is good that they’re putting this stuff out there. I don’t think that people really want to see this, though, because this is war.… It’s very disturbing.”
Greg Mitchell's latest book is Bradley Manning: Truth and Consequences.
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