OMNI
Chelsea (Bradley)
Manning Newsletter #7, August
13, 2015
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace and Justice.
(#1 Dec. 6, 2011; #2 June 29, 2012; #3 Feb. 24, 2013; #4 June 16,
2013; #5 Sept. 20, 2013; #6, March 28, 2014)
http://omnicenter.org/donate/
REMEMBER CHELSEA MANNING, EDWARD SNOWDEN, AND ALL WHISTLEBLOWERS
AND LEAKERS ACTING FOR DEMOCRACY
OBAMA: GIVE MANNING CLEMENCY; GIVE EDWARD SNOWDEN HIS
PASSPORT
What’s at Stake: These newsletters provide facts
and opinions regarding the many subjects of world peace, social and economic
justice, human rights, and democracy for the benefit of all who know a
well-informed citizenry is essential to a democracy. Chase Madar alerts us to the great danger of
the Manning trial and imprisonment to our democracy. “. . . the government now has even greater
incentive to prosecute as a spy any confidential source who passes classified
information to the press, criminalizing what has long been a vital. . .conduit
of essential public information. Such
collateral damage to the Fourth Estate will not be mourned by a government that
has become aggressively intolerant of leaks, whistleblowers and, it often
seems, a well-informed citizenry.” The Nation (Aug. 19/26, 2013). –Dick
For more on Manning see my Newsletters and Blogs on WikiLeaks
(Assange, Manning). My Blog: It's the War Department http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
Newsletters http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/
And
see my newsletters/blogs on Edward Snowden.
We should remember these heroes of democracy, of open government, every
day.
Contents of Nos. 1-6 at end
Contents Chelsea Manning Newsletter #7
Petition vs Solitary
Confinement
Manning Google Search
August 13, 2015, More on Solitary Confinement Threat
President Obama: Pardon Manning 2015
2014-2015 News
Reports
Manning Tells Her
Story in Cosmopolitan
Manning Sues Pentagon
for Medical Treatment
Manning’s Op-Ed to NYT June 2014
ACLU on Free Speech
Glennon on the
Egregious Power of the US Security State
 |
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:
1.
Chelsea Manning
Soldier
2.
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning is a United States Army soldier who
was convicted in July 2013 of
violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to
WikiLeaks nearly three-quarters of a ...Wikipedia
8.
Profiles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning
Wikipedia
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley
Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is a
United States Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations
of ...
In
the news
USA TODAY - 1 hour ago
Chelsea Manning, the transgender Army
private convicted of leaking national security ...
People
Magazine - 2 hours ago
The Guardian - 20 hours ago
https://twitter.com/xychelsea?lang=en
The latest Tweets
from Chelsea
Manning (@xychelsea).
Former Intelligence Analyst. Trans Woman. Prisoner. Tweets are my own opinions.
Fort Leavenworth ...
www.chelseamanning.org/
Chelsea Manning is being threatened
with indefinite solitary confinement over absurd prison infractions, including
having "political" magazines and toothpaste ...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/chelsea-manning
The
Guardian
The latest news and
comment on Chelsea Manning.
www.theguardian.com/.../chelsea-manning-solitary-confine...The
Guardian
20 hours ago - chelsea manning Chelsea
Manning's lawyer
says charges against her are 'utterly ridiculous' since US army soldier was
allowed to have books ...
7 hours ago - Chelsea Manning, the former Army
intelligence analyst convicted of giving a trove of secrets to WikiLeaks, is
serving a 35-year sentence inside ...
gawker.com/chelsea-manning-faces-indefinite-solitary-confinem... Gawker
15 hours ago - Chelsea Manning, who is currently serving
a 35-year prison sentence for leaking government documents to WikiLeaks, has
been threatened ...
Chelsea Manning
Could Face Solitary For Expired ...www.huffingtonpost.com/.../chelsea-manning-solitar...
The
Huffington Post
3 hours ago - Chelsea Manning could face
indefinite solitary confinement for sweeping food onto the ground, having a
tube of expired toothpaste and ...
www.nydailynews.com/.../chelsea-manning-faces-solitary-caitly...
Daily
News
15 hours ago - Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity
Fair cover could land Chelsea Manning in solitary after military prison officials deemed the mag
contraband.
Searches
related to Chelsea Manning
Learn
More Pardon Photos Supporters
We are PVT Manning
PRESIDENT
OBAMA,
PARDON
CHELSEA MANNING
BECAUSE
THE PUBLIC DESERVES THE TRUTH AND WHISTLEBLOWERS DESERVE PROTECTION.
1912
DAYS OF UNJUST CONFINEMENT IS ENOUGH!
[August 13, 2015 --Dick]
On
Sep. 3, 2013, Pvt. Manning filed a formal application for presidential pardon.
View the application: http://pardon.privatemanning.org/
Part
I: Pardon Cover Letter
Part
II: Pardon Request
Part
III: Amnesty International Supporting Statement
Now
join Amnesty International and the Chelsea Manning Support Network and sign a
petition supporting Pvt. Manning's request for pardon. Whistleblowing is not a
crime! http://pardon.privatemanning.org/
After
a prosecution which starkly showcased US government officials' misplaced
priorities when it comes to human rights, whistleblower and Nobel Peace Prize
nominee Army Private Chelsea [formerly Bradley] Manning was sentenced to 35
years in prison.
The
information that Manning gave to the public exposed the unjust detainment of
innocent people at Guantanamo Bay, shown us the true human cost of our wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and changed journalism forever. There is no evidence that
anyone died as a result of the leaked information.
Like
Manning, we believe a healthy democracy requires public information. What price
will future whistleblowers pay? It’s time for President Obama to pardon Private
Manning, and focus on preventing human rights violations instead of punishing
whistleblowers.
10
Reports on Manning April 2014 to August 2015
www.advocate.com/chelsea-manning
The
Advocate
The latest news
about Chelsea
Manning,
the transgender woman at the center of the WikiLeaks case. Born as Bradley
Manning, Chelsea
Manning came
out ...
MANNING TELLS HER
STORY IN COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE
www.cosmopolitan.com/.../chelsea-manning-may-2015/
Cosmopolitan
Apr 8, 2015 - For the first time, Chelsea Manning shares the details
of her story as an army private who leaked classified documents, went to
military prison, ...
MANNING SUES PENTAGON FOR MEDICAL CARE
Support
our coverage of Chelsea Manning 2014
Dick,
Kevin Gosztola
reports that Chelsea Manning is suing the Pentagon for denying her access to
therapy for gender dysphoria.1
Manning has struggled
for over a year to get treatment in prison. According to the lawsuit, she is
"experiencing escalating distress and is at serious risk of severe and
imminent harm, including resorting to self-surgery (auto-castration) or
suicide, because this medically necessary treatment is being withheld.”
Kevin and the
Firedoglake team are still reporting and organizing in support of Chelsea's
human right to medical care, but as an independent, reader-supported
organization, we need your help.
Can
you please donate $25+ to Kevin Gostzola's coverage of Chelsea Manning's case
and other struggles for justice?
As a new group of
wars begin in the Middle East, the woman who exposed the harsh truths of our
last military interventions is in a jail cell suffering needlessly for her
efforts.
Chelsea Manning
pursued almost all administrative 'remedies' available for treatment, and as
Kevin chronicles in his report, was systematically obstructed from receiving
care every time.
Yet despite these
cruel obstacles, Chelsea still manages to be a prescient voice on US military
action, and continues to shape the way we think and what we know about our
endless War on Terror.
The government would
rather you not know about the inhumane conditions of Manning's confinement.
They want her to be silenced, so you don't hear what she thinks about US
foreign policy and transparency in government.
That's why it's so
important to keep Kevin on this beat. With so few members of the media paying
attention, Kevin's work helps draw attention and amplify the outcry against her
situation.
Please
donate $25+ to Kevin Gostzola's coverage of Chelsea Manning's case and other struggles
for justice?
Thank you so much for
your continued generosity.
In Solidarity, Brian Sonenstein
Campaign Director, Firedoglake.com
Source: 1. Chelsea
Manning Sues Pentagon for Denying Her ‘Urgently-Needed’ Medical Care for Gender
Dysphoria, Kevin Gosztola, The
Dissenter, 9/24/2014
SundayReview | OPINION
The Fog Machine of War, NYT (June 15, 2014)
Chelsea
Manning on the U.S.
However, the concerns that motivated me have
not been resolved. As Iraq erupts in civil war and America again
contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to
the question of how the United States
military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan.
I believe that the current limits on
press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans
to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance.
If you were following the news during the
March 2010 elections in Iraq United States military operations had succeeded
in creating a stable and democratic Iraq
Those of us stationed there were acutely
aware of a more complicated reality.
Military and diplomatic reports coming across
my desk detailed a brutal crackdown against political dissidents by the Iraqi
Ministry of Interior and federal police, on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki. Detainees were often tortured, or even killed.
Early that year, I received orders to
investigate 15 individuals whom the federal police had arrested on suspicion of
printing “anti-Iraqi literature.” I learned that these individuals had
absolutely no ties to terrorism; they were publishing a scholarly critique of
Mr. Maliki’s administration. I forwarded this finding to the officer in command
in eastern Baghdad
I was shocked by our military’s complicity in
the corruption of that election. Yet these deeply troubling details flew under
the American media’s radar.
It was not the first (or the last) time I
felt compelled to question the way we conducted our mission in Iraq
Among the many daily reports I received via
email while working in Iraq
in 2009 and 2010 was an internal public affairs briefing that listed recently
published news articles about the American mission in Iraq Baghdad
The more I made these daily comparisons
between the news back in the States and the military and diplomatic reports
available to me as an analyst, the more aware I became of the disparity. In
contrast to the solid, nuanced briefings we created on the ground, the news
available to the public was flooded with foggy speculation and simplifications.
One clue to this disjunction lay in the
public affairs reports. Near the top of each briefing was the number of
embedded journalists attached to American military units in a combat zone.
Throughout my deployment, I never saw that tally go above 12. In other words,
in all of Iraq , which
contained 31 million people and 117,000 United States
The process of limiting press access to a
conflict begins when a reporter applies for embed status. All reporters are
carefully vetted by military public affairs officials. This system is far from
unbiased. Unsurprisingly, reporters who have established relationships with the
military are more likely to be granted access.
Less well known is that journalists whom
military contractors rate as likely to produce “favorable” coverage, based on
their past reporting, also get preference. This outsourced “favorability”
rating assigned to each applicant is used to screen out those judged likely to
produce critical coverage.
Reporters who succeeded in obtaining embed
status in Iraq
There have been numerous cases of reporters’
having their access terminated following controversial reporting. In 2010, the
late Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings had his access pulled after
reporting criticism of the Obama administration by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal
and his staff in Afghanistan
If a reporter’s embed status is terminated,
typically she or he is blacklisted. This program of limiting press access was
challenged in court in 2013 by a freelance reporter, Wayne Anderson, who
claimed to have followed his agreement but to have been terminated after
publishing adverse reports about the conflict in Afghanistan
The embedded reporter program, which
continues in Afghanistan and wherever the United States sends troops, is deeply
informed by the military’s experience of how media coverage shifted public
opinion during the Vietnam War. The gatekeepers in public affairs have too much
power: Reporters naturally fear having their access terminated, so they tend to
avoid controversial reporting that could raise red flags.
The existing program forces journalists to
compete against one another for “special access” to vital matters of foreign
and domestic policy. Too often, this creates reporting that flatters senior
decision makers. A result is that the American public’s access to the facts is
gutted, which leaves them with no way to evaluate the conduct of American
officials.
[REMEDIES –D]
Journalists have an important role to play in
calling for reforms to the embedding system. The favorability of a journalist’s
previous reporting should not be a factor. Transparency, guaranteed by a body
not under the control of public affairs officials, should govern the
credentialing process. An independent board made up of military staff members,
veterans, Pentagon civilians and journalists could balance the public’s need
for information with the military’s need for operational security.
Reporters should have timely access to
information. The military could do far more to enable the rapid
declassification of information that does not jeopardize military missions. The
military’s Significant Activity Reports, for example, provide quick overviews
of events like attacks and casualties. Often classified by default, these could
help journalists report the facts accurately.
Opinion polls indicate that Americans’
confidence in their elected representatives is at a record low. Improving media
access to this crucial aspect of our national life — where America
Chelsea Manning is a former
United States Army intelligence analyst.
A version of this op-ed
appears in print on June 15, 2014, on page SR4 of the New
York
National Security and Double Government: Professor Glennon Speaks at the Cato
Institute Date: November 21, 2014
At a book talk hosted by
the Cato Institute on Friday, November 21, 2014, Michael Glennon, Professor of
International Law at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, spoke about his
new book, National Security and Double Government. Other
participants in the panel discussion were Gene Healy, Vice President of the
Cato Institute, and Jeremy Shapiro, Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Justin
Logan, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, introduced the
panel and served as moderator.
In National
Security and Double Government, Glennon examines the continuity in U.S.
national security policy from the Bush administration to the Obama
administration.
Glennon explains the lack of change by pointing to the
enervation of America’s “Madisonian institutions,” namely, the Congress, the
presidency and the courts. In Glennon’s view, these institutions have been
supplanted by a “Trumanite network” of bureaucrats who make up the permanent
national security state. This is his adaptation of Walter Bagehot’s theory of Double
Government, which explained the operation of 19th Century in terms of
“Dignified Institutions,” which the public believes governs, when most of the
actual governance is carried out by “Efficient Institutions” – mainly the House
of Commons.
Whereas Bagehot argued
that this structure of Double Government functioned through the existence of
“exceptions,” where the Dignified Institutions are seen as engaging in
governance, Glennon argues that the United States has moved in the opposite
direction, replacing a top-down Presidency with a middle-up Executive Branch
from which policies “percolate up” to land on the President’s desk. This is not
to say that exceptions do not exist, or that the President no longer makes key
decisions, but he has become "more presider than decider." The first
time the Justice Department asserted the State Secrets privilege during Barack
Obama's Presidency, for instance, President Obama himself only learned about it
in The New York Times.
Since the passage of the
National Security Act by President Truman, national security policymaking has
progressively come to be removed from public view and largely insulated from
law and politics. This is no conspiracy, and the persons involved in this
decision-making process are not villains; the process is, however, subject to a
number of legal and political incentives which distort its results. Glennon
warns that leaving security policy in the hands of the Trumanite network
threatens Americans’ liberties and the republican form of government.
Watch the full lecture Michael Glennon
© 2015 The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
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Newsletters 4-6
Contents #4 June 16, 2013
RSN: Reporting his Trial
Support Journalist Access to Trial
The Nation v. Obama, Call for Protest
Protest Charge of Aiding the Enemy, Call Gen. Linnington, the
Pentagon
Thank Manning
TomDispatch: Madar, Passion
of Bradley Manning
Chris Hedges, We Are Bradley Manning
Hedges, Legal Lynching
Drinnan, Human Rights Contexts
Contents
#5 Sept. 20, 2013
Wright, Manning Receives International Peace Bureau Award
Manning Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Sgt. Bales and Pfc. Manning
Madar, Article in The Nation
Aug. 19
Madar’s Book, Who is
Bradley Manning?
Stoeckley’s Graphic Account of the Trial: Sketches and Transcript
Truthout, Obama:
Surveillance of the People, Secrecy for the Government
Contents Chelsea Manning Newsletter #6
Action: Firedoglake Letter
to New York Times Editorial Board
Sam Adams and Oxford
Manning Wins Sam Adams Award, Google Search, March 18
Manning and Snowden, Google Search, March 18
Manning and Ray McGovern
Contact President Obama
Nos. 1-6
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