David SwansonSeventeen Members of European Parliament have written a letter calling
on U.S. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to
free WikiLeaks whistle-blower Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. The MEPs laud Manning for exposing “evidence of human rights abuses and apparent war
crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan” in accordance with international law.
“We hereby urge you to end the persecution of Bradley Manning, a young
gay man who has been imprisoned for over three years, including ten
months in solitary confinement, under conditions that the UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez deemed ‘cruel and abusive.’ Bradley
Manning has already suffered too much, and he should be freed as soon
as humanly possible,” write politicians from Spain, France, Sweden,
Germany, Portugal, Ireland, and Ukraine.
In addition to the abuse Manning suffered, the MEPs specifically
condemn the ‘aiding the enemy’ offense with which Manning is charged,
a capital offense that “would set a terrible precedent.”
“To consider releasing information about war crimes to the public to
be ‘aiding the enemy’ would be a terrible setback for the defense of
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law worldwide,” said
Marisa Matias of Portugal, explaining why she joined 16 other Members
of European Parliament in signing the letter.
Manning faces a potential life sentence for passing hundreds of
thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents to the
transparency website WikiLeaks, to expose U.S. criminality in its wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan and further abuses around the world. Manning
pled guilty to ten lesser offenses that could have put him in prison
for up to 20 years, but the prosecution is seeking a life sentence.
The military judge in his trial is expected to deliver a final verdict
on guilt or innocence tomorrow, July 30. The sentencing phase of the
trial, which is expected to run for several weeks in August, will
begin after that ruling.
Furthermore, “Army prosecutors closed their arguments in the case
without having provided any real evidence that Bradley Manning aided
the enemy, or that he intended to do so.”
The MEPs explain Manning’s motives in providing documents to WikiLeaks.
PFC Manning has said he felt that if the American public had access to
this information, this could ‘spark a domestic debate’ on American
foreign policy ‘as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan’. Far from being
a traitor, Bradley Manning had the best interests of his country in
mind.
Bradley Manning has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three
years in a row. – Eurasia Review
