Educate! Bankers, Campaign Finance, Chelsea Manning, Corporate crime, Edward Snowden, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Freedom of the Press, Julian Assange, Marijuana, Media, Medical Marijuana, Militarized police, NSA, Occupy, Occupy Movement, Police abuse, police brutality, police murder, spying, Torture, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism, Whistleblowing, Wikileaks By Kevin Zeese, greenshadowcabinet.us September 25th, 2014<\/p>\n
We urge President Obama to replace Holder with a public interest not a corporate lawyer; that will put the rule of law before corporate power. This appointment is an opportunity to shut the revolving door between big business and government. We also hope the next attorney general will put rule of law ahead of the security state, prosecute torture and other war crimes, protect privacy from US intelligence agencies and protect Freedom of Speech, Assembly and Press. Finally, we hope to see an attorney general that will confront the war culture that has allowed the president to ignore the constitutional requirement that Congress is responsible for deciding when the US goes to war, not the president; and one who respects international law and requires UN approval before the US attacks another nation. <\/p>\n
Chelsea Manning on Tuesday sued Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the Pentagon in federal court for access to hormone therapy, warning that her mental condition is rapidly deteriorating in the face of more than a year of military officials delays. In August 2013, the WikiLeaks source formerly known as Bradley Manning began serving a 35-year sentence at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for leaking government documents. But despite the Armys acknowledgment that Manning suffers from gender dysphoria, the prison has so far denied her access to hormones or the opportunity to dress as a woman. It has now been more than four years since I was first diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition that I have struggled with my entire life, Manning wrote in a legal filing. <\/p>\n
Chelsea Manning, the US army soldier who worked as an intelligence analyst in Iraq before being arrested for passing state secrets to WikiLeaks, says the only way to defeat Isis is to allow the group to set up its own contained failed state where over time its fire would die out on its own. Writing in the Guardian, Manning says her experience as an all-source analyst near Baghdad in 2009-10 leads her to doubt the strategy being followed by the Obama administration. She warns that the US-led mission to destroy the extremist group is destined to fail because it will merely feed a cycle of outrage, recruitment, organizing and even more fighting that goes back decades. Even with the support of non-western forces, attacking Isis directly from the air or with special forces on the ground risks mission creep and the repeat of past errors. I believe that Isis strategically feeds off the mistakes and vulnerabilities of the very democratic western states they decry, she writes. <\/p>\n
Exactly one year after Chelsea Manning was convicted of leaking classified government material, Amnesty International is renewing its call on the US authorities to grant her clemency, release her immediately, and to urgently investigate the potential human rights violations exposed by the leaks. Chelsea Manning has spent the last year as a convicted criminal after exposing information which included evidence of potential human rights violations and breaches of international law. By disseminating classified information via Wikileaks she revealed to the world abuses perpetrated by the US army, military contractors and Iraqi and Afghan troops operating alongside US forces. It is an absolute outrage that Chelsea Manning is currently languishing behind bars whilst those she helped to expose, who are potentially guilty of human rights violations, enjoy impunity, said Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director Amnesty International. The US government must grant Chelsea Manning clemency, order her immediate release, and implement a thorough and impartial investigation into the crimes she uncovered. <\/p>\n
The Bureau of Prisons has rejected the Armys request to accept the transfer of national security leaker Pvt. Chelsea Manning from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to a civilian facility where she could get better treatment for her gender-identity condition. The military will instead begin the initial treatment for her. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved the Armys recommendation to keep Manning in military custody and start a rudimentary level of gender treatment, a defense official said Thursday. The initial gender treatments could include allowing Manning to wear some female undergarments and also possibly provide some hormone treatments. The decision raises a number of questions about what level of treatment Manning will be able to get and at what point the private would have to be transferred from the all-male prison to a female facility. Manning has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the sense of being a woman in a mans body. Civilian prisons can provide treatment, and the Defense Department has argued repeatedly that it doesnt have the medical expertise needed. As a result, the Army tried to work out a plan to transfer Manning to a federal prison. Officials said Thursday that federal authorities refused the proposal. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly by name. Mannings lawyer, David Coombs, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was encouraged that the Army will begin medical treatment. <\/p>\n
If you were following the news during the March 2010 elections in Iraq, you might remember that the American press was flooded with stories declaring the elections a success, complete with upbeat anecdotes and photographs of Iraqi women proudly displaying their ink-stained fingers. The subtext was that United States military operations had succeeded in creating a stable and democratic Iraq. Those of us stationed there were acutely aware of a more complicated reality. Military and diplomatic reports coming across my desk detailed a brutal crackdown against political dissidents by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and federal police, on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. Detainees were often tortured, or even killed. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, June 19 in New York, join OR Books and Chelsea Mannings supporters to mark one year since she went on trial for leaking the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs to WikiLeaks. At TheaterLab (357 W 36th St, 3rd Floor, NYC) journalists, activists and artists who attended the trial will read from a new graphic book by Clark Stoeckley, The United States vs Private Chelsea Manning: A Graphic Account From Inside the Courtroom: http:\/\/www.orbooks.com\/catalog\/manning-trial<\/a> Stoeckleys book features drawings and writings in real time from inside the courtroom, and captures first-hand the trial of Chelsea Manning, one of the most important and secretive trials in American history. <\/p>\n Late last night, May 13, an AP article reported that unidentified Pentagon officials had indicated that the Office of the Secretary of Defense might transfer Chelsea Manning to a civilian prison facility so that she could receive treatment for gender dysphoria. Chelsea responded to the report concerning her potential transfer as follows: I wish to clarify that my request for a treatment plan did not involve any request to be transferred. At the beginning of 2014, the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, KS and the Army Corrections Command were ready to approve and implement a treatment plan that at least conservatively met the standards set forth by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. I was content with this plan. Based on these facts I dont understand why the Office of the Secretary of Defense would feel the need to punt this issue by transferring me. <\/p>\n WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning is gearing up for a historic appeals process and we need you to take action to support her this weekend! As our government cracks down on freedom of information, overclassified millions of documents each year and pursues rampant whistleblower prosecutions using the outdated Espionage Act of 1917, its become increasingly clear that a mass movement is needed to reclaim the democratic principles on which the U.S. was founded. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning did a brave and selfless thing when she showed the public the truth about our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Show support for Chelsea this weekend, May 10-11th, by joining our transgender teach-in and protest in Washington D.C.! <\/p>\n <\/p>\n