Ft. Meade --
Saturday, December 17th was Bradley Manning’s 24th birthday, and at
least 300 supporters gathered outside Fort Meade, Maryland, where the
military was in its second day of a preliminary hearing process that’s
expected to take about a week. Manning worked in military intelligence
and is alleged to have released military secrets to WikiLeaks, which
released the material publicly.
After collecting at
the main gate, Manning supporters set off for a two-mile march to a
gate nearer the military hearing site. The group was quite spirited and,
despite Anne Arundel County Police efforts to keep marchers on the
sidewalk, insisted on taking up a lane of the street. The police wisely
did not attempt to stop them and there were no problems.
A friend and I had
driven down from Philadelphia and arrived early for the gathering. At
the local Dunkin Donut we found ourselves in line behind two Anne
Arundel County officers there to pick up their daily allotment of
donuts. The men were friendly and we chatted about being there for the
Manning demonstration. They proudly told us the department had provided
two porta-potties for the convenience of demonstrators. They told us to
be safe and stay on the sidewalk.
A witness to
Friday's opening day of the hearing said, despite nasty and shameful
treatment by the military early in his captivity, Manning looked healthy
and chatted easily with his attorneys. He notably made no eye-contact
and in no way acknowledged the many sympathizers in the courtroom -- a
prudent decision, no doubt, made by his attorneys, given the Kafkaesque
reality of being a prisoner of the US military circa 2011.
Manning's attorneys
made a number of motions, all or most of which were rejected; I was
told only two of 38 requested witnesses for Manning were allowed by the
military judges. When the Friday hearing was over and people were filing
out, Veterans For Peace Board Member Nate Goldshlag hollered "Bradley
Manning is a hero!" This was too much for military authorities, and
Goldshlag was told never to return to the hearings. (Anyone can attend
the hearings; those interested should be at the Fort Meade gate by 7AM
and ask where to go from there. No electronics allowed, and of course
silence is the rule.)
Following the
spirited march, a number of veteran and activist speakers addressed the
crowd, speaking of Manning’s individual courage and the absurdities of
the secrecy-obsessed National Security State system in whose clutches he
resides. After the final speaker singer-songwriter Dave Rovics led the
group in singing Happy Birthday to Manning...
For the rest of
this article by JOHN GRANT, plus his incredible photographs of the
support demonstration, in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new Project Censored
Award-winning independent online alternative newspaper, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.
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