accused wikileaks hero bradley manning needs our help

Today, August 8, people of peace and conscience will gather in Quantico, Virginia, standing in solidarity with Bradley Manning. The military town of Quantico tried to stop the rally, but the town's mayor and the ACLU successfully intervened.

Manning, 22 years old, is the intelligence analyst accused of passing videos and documents to WikiLeaks, resulting in the now-famous "Collateral Murder" video, plus 260,000 pages of classified US documents about, among other things, an airstrike in Afghanistan that killed 97 civilians last year. The military moved him from jail in Kuwait to Quantico, Virginia.

Manning faces up to 50 years in prison. One Congressperson, Mike Rogers, has called for the death penalty.

Complicating matters for some, Manning is gay, so homophobia abounds.

There can be no doubt that Bradley Manning is a hero for peace and justice. He took the ultimate risk, putting his very life on the line in order to expose the horror of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Manning gave us hard evidence of the US's murderous policies in both countries, and the US military will make an example of him to discourage other soldiers from similarly coming forward. We need to show Manning and other potential whistleblowers that they are not alone.

Courage To Resist has information on how we can help Manning, and you can stay up to date by subscribing to the Bradley Manning Support Network. Manning needs money for legal defense, and he needs to know he is not alone. You can write to Manning at this address:

Bradley Manning
3247 Elrod Avenue
Quantico, VA 22134
USA

An FAQ from about this effort is here.