© AP
Bradley Manning (right) pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges facing him
Bradley Manning (right) pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges facing him
It is interesting to observe how the US government and major media are staying silent on the case of Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old private first-class in the Army who leaked a vast collection of classified documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Those of us who consider him a true American hero for what he did can finally heave a sigh of relief now that the word "accused" need no longer be affixed to his whistleblower status.
On February 28, before a military judge, Manning acknowledged responsibility for releasing the information and pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges facing him. This partial plea could mean a 20-year sentence, but the prosecution hopes to put him away for life for "aiding the enemy" - the most serious of the 12 charges to which he pleaded not guilty.
In his statement at the pre-trial hearing, Manning stated:
I interpret the word "enemy" in his "aiding the enemy" charge to mean "truth". If you ask the hundreds of thousands of surviving Iraqis and Afghanis facing a volatile and uncertain future, they are likely to look you in the eye and tell you that Bradley did aid the truth, by revealing it to the world. A banner at a recent rally held in support of Manning in Afghanistan read:"I believe that the public release of these cables would not damage the United States, however, I did believe that the cables might be embarrassing, since they represented very honest opinions and statements behind the backs of other nations and organisations."
"BRADLEY MANNING, YOU ARE A HERO OF SUFFERING AFGHANS."You see, truth has become a dirty word in the mainstream lexicon. Truth is the embarrassing enemy here. So, maybe it is no wonder that the government is being so secretive about one of the most, if not the most important criminal case in American military history, and is afraid of having anything said in that courtroom be made public.
Comment: It is still not clear how G4S guards will "protect" the banks. Will they prevent people from going to take out their money? So far all Cypriot protests have been civil and peaceful and there's no indication that the people will turn against the bank tellers, so hiring these guards seems pointless and might be dangerous, considering their resume:
"G4S is present in the occupied Palestinian territories - manning checkpoints and managing prison security for Israel and is thus can be considered as complicit in Israel's illegal settlement policy and the torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
G4S supplies security equipment and services for use at Israeli prisons, checkpoints and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. It also helps to maintain and profit from Israel's prison system. In 2007, the Israeli subsidiary of G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Authority to provide security systems for major Israeli prisons. [...]
In February 2011, The Guardian reported that G4S guards in the United Kingdom had been repeatedly warned about the use of potentially lethal force on detainees and asylum seekers. Confidential informants and several employees released the information to reporters after G4S's practices allegedly led to the death of Jimmy Mubenga. An internal document urged management to "meet this problem head on before the worst happens" and that G4S was "playing Russian roulette with detainees' lives."The following autumn, the company once again faced allegations of abuse. G4S guards were accused of verbally harassing and intimidating detainees with offensive and racist language."