Charles Dickens, who spent months at a time living with the general populations of prisons and mental hospitals throughout America in the 1800's, wrote about solitary confinement: "I believe it to be cruel and wrong"I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body."
It is torture. They are torturing him. We should call it nothing else. Long-term solitary confinement is torture. Research shows previously healthy prisoners have "develop[ed] clinical symptoms usually associated with psychosis or severe affective disorders" including "all types of psychiatric morbidity." Many have committed suicide.
The spokesperson for the State Department, PJ Crowley, put his career on the line to speak with disfavor against the treatment of Manning. He described Manning's confinement as "counterproductive and stupid." Crowley resigned today and it has been reported in the media that Obama administration did not want the division of Manning known to the public. Our pressure forced the president to call the Pentagon about Manning's treatment. Our work getting Manning's message out resulted in PJ Crowley giving up his job as spokesperson for U.S. foreign policy. We are having an impact.
In our Big Brother security state the military says they do it for Manning's own protection. It's a lie that does not pass the straight face test. Once again lies become truth as a compliant press writes it down and reports it as fact. The president re-enforces the lie, telling America he has talked to the Pentagon and they have said it is for his own protection. The president says this with a straight face.
Does anyone believe the president anymore? This is the president that told us -- America doesn't torture. This is the president who said that Raymond Davis was a diplomat who deserved diplomatic immunity. In fact he was a Blackwater mercenary working for the CIA who allegedly killed two Pakistanis. The president's comments to the press were dutifully reported "he is a diplomat who deserves diplomatic immunity" when the press knew he was working for the CIA. The press had been told to lie to us, not tell us the truth and they did as the government demanded until a foreign newspaper told the truth. The president and the press need to lie to us; because the truth is terrifying.
Friends -- we are here today because we know -- we are all Bradley Manning. That a crime against one of us, is a crime against all of us. We need to stand together, to Stand with Brad, because this is much bigger than Bradley Manning.
We are living through a time of revolutionary change. We see it around the world and we see it around the nation. The corporate-government-media does not report the resistance occurring throughout the nation because if Americans knew that their fellow Americans were standing up against corporate-government, real change, shifting power to the people, would be more likely.
And, the corporate media is threatened by what Bradley Manning is accused of. They are losing hold of their monopoly on information as WikiLeaks shows the way to the democratization of the media. We are living through the birth of a new media that will shift the power of information control from the few to the many. Information is a commodity that the corporate-government has sought to control because they know information is power. But in this new media age we can all be reporters, writers, commentators. Through email, blogs, websites and social media each of us can share information. We all can become part of the new media.
And through encryption technology those who work inside corrupt governments including our own and abusive big businesses can provide media outlets -- new and old -- anonymously with information that increases transparency of these powers that control our lives. They are scared of Bradley Manning, scared of WikiLeaks but prosecuting Manning or Assange will not stop this revolution.
If in 1450 Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press were prosecuted, the revolution of printing would have occurred any way. The information revolution has progressed too far to be stopped. Information will flow, transparency will increase and media will be democratized.
And, Bradley Manning is paying a price because the security state is not secure. The people already know too much of the truth and they fear us knowing more. They know control can be lost. The rigged system is falling apart and they are doing all they can to hold power. Bradley Manning must be tortured to force him to testify against Assange. Manning must be made an example of. The revolutionary's must be punished.
The treatment of Bradley Manning is about intimidating all of us. They know, as WikiLeaks says, courage is contagious. By standing together we respond to their intimidation with strength, joy and resolve.
For all these reasons we must Stand with Brad. We are all Bradley Manning.
If what he is accused of is true, Manning has exposed abusive governments throughout the world. The documents published by WikiLeaks worked hand and hand with democracy activists in Tunisia and Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia and so many more. The documents have shown the lie of Swedish claims of neutrality. In fact, Sweden's Minister of Justice participated in the rendition of two innocent men from Sweden to Egypt via the CIA, where that regime tortured them. Sweden later awarded them damages for their torture. The now former Minister of Justice who handed these innocent people to the CIA for torture in Egypt, Thomas Bodstrom, is the law partner of the lawyer representing Assange's accusers.
And, the documents have shown the truth of the largest and most powerful empire in world history -- the American Empire. They have confirmed so much that we already suspected or knew is in fact true -- the U.S. is a rogue superpower that bullies, threatens and blackmails to get its way. That works with dictators and security state regimes -- many of whom are now being deposed by their people. That supports coup d'Ã ©tat's of democratically elected governments then tries to hide it. It shows the most powerful military in world history, a military that has failed to win a major war since World War II, kills civilians wantonly and then covers it up, that arrests people without cause and violates the law by using torture. And, it shows a State Department whose diplomats are required by the order of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to illegally spy on other diplomats. No wonder, just before the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables were published Secretary Clinton said she would never run for office again. The threat of democratized information -- the transparency of truth -- is occurring at a time when the empire is faltering and behind its bluster, the empire is afraid.
If what Bradley is accused of is true, he was trying to start a debate on the abusive U.S. foreign policy and create a more perfect union. That is in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution that we seek to form a "more perfect union" and Bradley is being tortured for doing what the Constitution demands of us.
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