Chelsea Manning Supporters Raise A Quarter Million Dollars In Two Days

Chelsea Manning Supporters Raise A Quarter Million Dollars In Two Days 

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/03/15/chelsea-manning-supporters-raise-a-quarter-million-dollars-in-two-days/

In the likely event that you need some news to give you a bit of faith in humanity today, you should know that supporters of whistleblower Chelsea Manning have raised over a quarter million dollars to pay the cruel, draconian fine that was heaped upon her for her principled stand against testifying at corrupt secret grand jury proceedings.

In just two days after Manning was released from prison, more than six thousand donors banded together to pay off the $258,000 fine assigned at a thousand dollars a day by a federal judge on top of imprisonment to coerce her to testify. Fundraising was so enthusiastic that it had overshot the goal and reached $267,002 before the GoFundMe was closed.

Those of us who support Manning have been looking at this more as a fine on us than on her, because of course we were never going to let a heroic whistleblower spend the rest of her life under crushing debt. The fact that the money came together so quickly and easily, though, says a lot about the beauty of humans in my opinion.

Kelly Wright@anarchakelly

 · Mar 14, 2020

WE MET OUR GOAL! Thank you everyone we raised enough to cover @xychelsea's fines!! Seriously this was such a community effort and we are so grateful!

Kelly Wright@anarchakelly

Now we are shifting to raise funds so @xychelsea can get back on her feet and thrive. This means paying for the storage for all her belongings this past year, and raising funds for rent and utilities. You can find this fundraiser here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Help-Fund-Chelseas-Living-Expenses …

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Help Fund Chelsea Manning's Living Expenses organized by Kelly Wright

*Note: This is the official campaign raising funds for Chelsea Manning's livi… Kelly Wright needs your support for Help Fund Chelsea Manning's Living Expenses

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Now we are shifting to raise funds so @xychelsea can get back on her feet and thrive. This means paying for the storage for all her belongings this past year, and raising funds for rent and utilities. You can find this fundraiser here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Help-Fund-Chelseas-Living-Expenses …

Please Share!

Now there’s a much humbler task of raising funds for Manning’s living expenses, which is a GoFundMe for a trust of $30,000. This fundraiser is just hours old and as of this writing it’s at $6,870, so we should have her set up with that in no time.

I am so in awe of all the wonderful people who’ve helped protect this legendary figure, both with their donations and with their efforts to draw attention to the fundraisers, from the stress and financial burden that this vicious regime tried to heap upon her. In times like this it’s very comforting to see the higher nature of human beings prevailing over sociopathy and authoritarianism.

So there’s your money, you disgusting imperialist pigs. You brutalized a heroic whistleblower, you tortured her, you tried to snuff her out, and now you get to steal a quarter million dollars from her as well. Whatever. We don’t care. It’s done now. She’s free, and she’s under our protection now. Our higher nature prevailed, and now she doesn’t have to worry about any of that anymore.

Now you leave her alone. Forever.

 Chelsea Manning RELEASED from jail after suicide attempt, still must pay $256k fine – Judge 

12 Mar, 2020 21:31

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Whistleblower Chelsea Manning, jailed for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks before a grand jury, has been released – but is still on the hook for over a quarter of a million dollars in fines for contempt of court.

Noam Chomsky: O maior desafio ao poder estatal

Mundo

Noam Chomsky: O maior desafio ao poder estatal

04.12.2019

 

por Plataforma 9

Os governos do Reino Unido e dos EUA estão usando o tratamento horrendo de whistleblowers como Chelsea Manning e editores como Julian Assange, como exemplo. O tratamento de Julian Assange é um dos casos mais extremos disso. Independentemente de suas opiniões pessoais sobre as decisões dele como editor, é preciso entender que esse caso é simbólico de até que ponto o Estado irá para esmagar a dissidência. A saúde e o bem-estar do fundador do WikiLeaks estão sendo destruídos, descaradamente e à vista do público, por ousar revelar a verdade sobre o governo dos EUA e seus inúmeros crimes de guerra no Iraque, Afeganistão e em todo o mundo. É responsabilidade de jornalistas, e das pessoas que se preocupam com a verdade e que expõem os abusos do poder estatal e corporativo, defender Assange e qualquer pessoa que coloque suas vidas e liberdade em risco. Se já houve um tempo para falar a verdade ao poder, é agora.

Sem whistleblowers e jornalismo investigativo, governos são livres para abusar de seu poder e manter a população no escuro sobre as atrocidades que cometem, não apenas aos outros, mas também às pessoas que supostamente representam. Estamos testemunhando as duras consequências de desafiar o poder do Estado com o editor do WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, enfrentando uma audiência de extradição em fevereiro, e whistleblowers como Chelsea Manning cumprindo pena por repetidamente se recusar a testemunhar perante um grande júri contra Assange. Se houvesse alguma ilusão sobre qual é o preço de responsabilizar os sistemas de poder por seus crimes, esses dois casos em particular deveriam dissipar essas noções indefinidamente.

Na transcrição da minha entrevista com o dissidente político de renome mundial Noam Chomsky, apresentada abaixo, examinamos o estado atual e a trajetória do império Estadunidense dentro do escopo da história recente. Destacamos o suposto "recuo" da presença militar dos EUA no nordeste da Síria como uma indicação de qual é a influência geopolítica dos EUA na região atualmente. A partir daí, falamos da responsabilidade que os jornalistas têm, especialmente neste momento de ataques cada vez mais hostis do governo Trump contra whistleblowers, jornalistas e editores, de falar a verdade ao poder.

Para examinar esse último ponto, focamos a situação atual de Julian Assange, detido na prisão de alta segurança de Belmarsh, em Londres. Ele aguarda uma audiência de extradição marcada para fevereiro, depois que seu asilo na Embaixada do Equador em Londres foi revogado e ter sido entregue às autoridades britânicas em abril. "Assange basicamente está sendo assassinado pelo governo britânico", afirma o professor Chomsky, pois a saúde de Assange continua a deteriorar rapidamente desde o tempo que passou na embaixada do Equador e, mais recentemente, por seu tratamento sob as autoridades britânicas na prisão de Belmarsh.

John W. Whitehead -- A New Kind of Tyranny: The Global State’s War on Those Who Speak Truth to Power

A New Kind of Tyranny: The Global State’s War on Those Who Speak Truth to Power

By John W. Whitehead

November 05, 2019

“What happens to Julian Assange and to Chelsea Manning is meant to intimidate us, to frighten us into silence. By defending Julian Assange, we defend our most sacred rights. Speak up now or wake up one morning to the silence of a new kind of tyranny. The choice is ours.” 

—John Pilger, investigative journalist

All of us are in danger.

In an age of prosecutions for thought crimes, pre-crime deterrence programs, and government agencies that operate like organized crime syndicates, there is a new kind of tyranny being imposed on those who dare to expose the crimes of the Deep State, whose reach has gone global.

The Deep State has embarked on a ruthless, take-no-prisoners, all-out assault on truth-tellers.

Activists, journalists and whistleblowers alike are being terrorized, traumatized, tortured and subjected to the fear-inducing, mind-altering, soul-destroying, smash-your-face-in tactics employed by the superpowers-that-be.

Take Julian Assange, for example.

Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks—a website that published secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources—was arrested on April 11, 2019, on charges of helping U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning access and leak more than 700,000 classified military documents that portray the U.S. government and its military as reckless, irresponsible and responsible for thousands of civilian deaths.

Included among the leaked Manning material were the Collateral Murder video (April 2010), the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), a quarter of a million diplomatic cables (November 2010), and the Guantánamo files (April 2011).

The Collateral Murder leak included gunsight video footage from two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters engaged in a series of air-to-ground attacks while air crew laughed at some of the casualties. Among the casualties were two Reuters correspondents who were gunned down after their cameras were mistaken for weapons and a driver who stopped to help one of the journalists. The driver’s two children, who happened to be in the van at the time it was fired upon by U.S. forces, suffered serious injuries.

This is morally wrong.

America’s Respectable War Criminals by REV. WILLIAM ALBERTS

JUNE 21, 2019

America’s Respectable War Criminals

by REV. WILLIAM ALBERTS

Photograph Source: BasilioC – Public Domain

A Boston Globe story highlights Wellesley College alumnae Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton’s return to the College for their 60th and 50th respective reunions. The story states that “their early days at Wellesley College were marked by uncertainty and feeling out of place.” But they “overcame their trepidation and went on to illustrious careers including serving as the country’s top foreign diplomat under different presidents.” Wellesley College president Paula A. Johnson asked them questions for over an hour, with the audience giving “Albright and Clinton an enthusiastic reception, including three standing ovations.” What created the enthusiastic response? Albright and Clinton “urged the audience to speak up and take action to protect democracy from the threat of fascism under President Trump.” (“At Wellesley, Madeleine and Hillary Clinton encourage protest, political action.,” By Laura Crimaldi, June 9, 2019)

“Speak up and take action to protect democracy.” Okay. The country certainly needs to be protected from “the threat of fascism under President Trump.” But such honoring of Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton’s “illustrious careers” is quite a commentary on The Boston Globe and Wellesley College and the selective morality of many Americans. Trump can serve to distract attention from war crimes committed by other, respectable, U.S. political leaders, among them Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton.

Consider Madeleine Albright. The U.N. imposed draconian sanctions on Iraq, pushed by the U.S. and Britain after it invaded Kuwait. Before that, in 1989 Iraq was reported to have “one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, as well as universal, free healthcare and education.” (“Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq,”johnpilger.com, 1-15-05) Iraq’s remarkable health was due to President Saddam Hussein nationalizing the country’s vast oil resources, and investing certain of its revenue in the Iraqi people. This policy did not set well with Western oil corporations, which saw Iraq’s bountiful oil reserves as a gold mine to be controlled and tapped.

The sanctions prevented Iraq from importing supplies of food and medicine and other necessities. A survey by two scientists, Drs. Mary Smith Fawzi and Sarah Zaidi, found that “as many as 576,000 Iraqi children may have died since the end of the Persian Gulf war because of economic sanctions imposed by the Security Council.” (“Iraqi Sanctions, Kill Children, U.N. Reports,” By Barbara Crossette, The NewYork Times, Dec. 1, 1995)

Only the people can save Assange and Manning

Only the people can save Assange and Manning

MAY 25, 2019

• Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning, together revealed to the world, the reality of the Iraq and Afghan wars.

Submitted by Eresh Omar Jamal, via The Daily Star…

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Stefania Maurizi is an investigative journalist working for the Italian daily La Repubblica. She has worked on all WikiLeaks releases of secret documents and partnered with Glenn Greenwald to expose the Snowden Files about Italy. She has authored two books—Dossier WikiLeaks: Segreti Italiani and Una Bomba, Dieci Storie. In an exclusive (electronic) interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, Maurizi talks about the arrests of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who together revealed to the world, the reality of the Iraq and Afghan wars.

On April 11, the UK police arrested Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy. How significant was his arrest and the manner in which it happened for global press freedom and the right of people to seek political asylum?

His arrest is a real tragedy, for him, in the first place, because lets not forget that behind Mr WikiLeaks there is a human being: Julian Assange. I think this needs to be clarified, and I’m not saying this lightly, I am serious: if you’ve read the press reports over the last six years and ten months, while Assange has been confined in the tiny building of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without even one hour a day outdoors, you will have observed a complete lack of empathy or interest on the media’s part in his condition and the widespread reports that his health was seriously declining due to his confinement.

But in addition to being a tragedy for him personally, it is also a tragedy for press freedom and human rights, because he is now at extremely serious risk of being extradited to the US for his journalistic work and this is not my opinion, this is what the US extradition request is about. The US extradition request concerns the 2010 WikiLeaks publications made possible by Chelsea Manning. They are among the most significant revelations in the history of journalism.

These publications are so important that almost 10 years after their release they are still being used by journalists, activists and scholars. Look at the legal case of the Chagos islanders: they used the WikiLeaks cables. So, it’s a tragedy that a journalist, an editor, a publisher—call Assange what you will—is at extremely serious risk of ending up in jail in the US for the rest of his life for having had the guts to publish this information.

While he was being dragged out of the embassy, Assange was holding onto a book you gave him. What can you tell us about that book?

I gave Julian Assange that book of interviews with Gore Vidal by the editor of the Real News Network, Paul Jay, “History of the National Security State” back in 2016, a few weeks after the 2016 US elections. It’s an important book, because Gore Vidal’s analysis of how the US ended up having the most powerful military-intelligence-complex in the world is so brilliant. I was sure that Julian would have appreciated that analysis, because it provides perspective on many years of WikiLeaks’ work on millions of documents regarding the US military-intelligence complex. What has always intrigued me about the WikiLeaks founder is the fact that he does understand technology, but he also understands power, while not all geeks understand it.

Judging U.S. War Crimes

by KATHY KELLY

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Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair

Chelsea Manning, who bravely exposed atrocities committed by the U.S. military, is again imprisoned in a U.S. jail. On International Women’s Day, March 8, 2019, she was incarcerated in the Alexandria, VA federal detention center for refusing to testify in front of a secretive Grand Jury. Her imprisonment can extend through the term of the Grand Jury, possibly 18 months, and the U.S. courts could allow formation of future Grand Juries, potentially jailing her again.

Chelsea Manning has already paid an extraordinarily high price for educating the U.S. public about atrocities committed in the wars of choice the U.S. waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chelsea Manning was a U.S. Army soldier and former U.S. intelligence analyst. She already testified, in court, how she downloaded and disseminated government documents revealing classified information she believed represented possible war crimes. In 2013, she was convicted by court martial and sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking government documents to Wikileaks. On January 17, 2017, President Obama commuted her sentence. In May of 2017, she was released from military prison having served seven years.