Bradley Manning supporters march on news of pre-trial hearing in SF

Nov 23rd, 2011 by Jeff Paterson indybay.org

On November 21st, the US Army scheduled an Article 32 pretrial hearing
for PFC Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist accused of
releasing classified material to WikiLeaks. The pretrial hearing will
commence on December 16th at Fort Meade, Maryland. This will be PFC
Manning’s first appearance before a court after 18 months of pretrial
confinement. Bradley is a 23-year-old, openly gay soldier who faces
life in prison. He is accused of sharing the following with WikiLeaks:
a video of the killing of civilians by a US helicopter in Iraq, the
Guantanamo Files, the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs and
revealing US diplomatic cables. In short, he's been charged with
telling the truth about controversial wars, foreign policies and
corporate and government corruption and tyranny. Supporters rallied
and marched last night, November 22nd, to support Bradley along Market
Street in San Francisco.

PFC Bradley Manning is accused of uncovering the facts behind a system of
foreign policy that routinely hides abuse from public scrutiny. “If
convicted of all charges, Manning would face a maximum punishment… of
confinement for life” the U.S. Army reports. If he is the source of the
WikiLeaks revelations, he is the most significant whistle-blower in a
generation. According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate
the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate
influence on our foreign policies of the sort #OccupyWallStreet opposes,
and most recently contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to
withdraw all U.S.troops from the failed occupation in Iraq.

http://bradleymanning.org