Ciaron O'Reilly on Julian Assange - as a victim of a politically driven bail decision. Solidarity with Bradley Manning, nonviolent resistance to the war and building a culture of solidaritiy to sustai the resistance.

In August 2006, the Pitstop Ploughshares/ "Shannon 5" were unanimously acquitted at Dublin's historic Four Courts of
$2.5 million criminal damage to a U.S. war
plane: damage which was inflicted by the anti-war activists on 3rd
February 2003 when the plane was at Shannon Airport Ireland, en route to
the invasion of Iraq. American fury at this acquittal along with Irish
government sycophancy, is the basis of the cable communications:
 http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Ireland_and_WikiLeaks,_Secr..._Eyes

O'Reilly
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciaron_O%27Reilly
previously served 13 months in U.S. jails and prisons for his
participation in the New Year's Day ANZUS Plowshares
 http://www.craftech.com/~dcpledge/brandywine/plow/webpa...S.htm

disabling of a B52 Bomber at Griffiss Air Force Base, upstate
New York.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciaron_O%27Reilly

At the conclusion of his sentence June 15th. 1993 , O'Reilly, like
Assange, was the victim of a politically driven bail decision. He was
rearrested immediately by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) on release from the custody of Bureau of Prisons (BOP). He was
immediately returned to his cell in Oakdale Federal Prison.
 http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/oax/index.jsp

At a Federal court bail hearing, held within the prison complex AND
where O'Reilly was represented over the telephone by an immigration
lawyer in Washington DC, $50,000 bail was placed on him for the minor
charge of overstaying a tourist visa and "being guilty of a crime of
moral turpitude". The second charge was in connection to his original
plowshares action which involved, some may say, an "abusive
non-consensual relationship" with a B52 Bomber that was older than he was!

The moral turpitude charge was later dropped by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). A conviction means you are pretty much banned for life from entering
the United States. This is how they banned Charlie Chaplin
 http://www.americanheritage.com/entertainment/articles/...shtml

This inflated bail sum was, for example, the same amount placed on Sid
Vicious when accused of killing Nancy Spungen and
was 5-10 times higher than bail sums placed on many of O'Reilly's
fellow prisoners in the Oakdale Prison, who had served more jail time
for drug and gun related offences. O'Reilly was released 6 weeks later
after $50,000 bail was paid.

O'Reilly was later to be rearrested by INS and returned to Oakdale. He
was arrested by an INS agent, during an interview he had voluntarily
returned for, when he refused to answer questions about the Berrigan
brothers.

At a second bail hearing, held before a new Federal Judge later that
week, a reduced bail of $10,000 was placed on O'Reilly. This bail
decision was then appealed by the INS, extending O'Reilly's period in
custody. The appeal failed and he was released again. Following a
deportation hearing in 1993, O'Reilly was deported from the U.S.
(something he often refers to as "the more traditional punishment of
transportation to Australia!") .

O'Reilly is convinced that Julian Assange is now also the victim of a politically
driven bail decision, albeit in the context of a different war 20 years on.]

O'Reilly has served close to 2 years in prison over a 30+ history of
nonviolent anti-war activism. He is very proactive in trying to generate
solidarity for both military and civilian anti-war prisoners.
 http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/oax/index.jsp

O'Reilly believes that if 1% of the people who marched against the war
on Feb 15th 2003 had been willing to go to prison as consequence of
nonviolent resistance AND
the other 99% who marched on that day had taken on proactive solidarity
with the jailed resisters (fed the cat, dealt with the hysterical
parents, wrote letters to the prisoners, spread the word, celebrated -
not undermined as happened - the resistance, we could have stopped the
war AND we would still have a buoyant anti-war movement. This movement would have spread quickly from civil society to within th emiltary as id di during the Vietnam War period (see the documentary Sir, No Sir  http://www.sirnosir.com/ )

Instead, 10 years into this war, we have no popular support for the war
and little visible opposition to it - we have merely an anti-war
remnant. O'Reilly believes that without a developing broader culture of
solidarity there can be no sustained nonviolent anti-war resistance.

In recent months, O'Reilly has been running a solo campaign
in England and Ireland to generate support for Welsh/American Bradley
Manning
 http://www.bradleymanning.org/
 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/98346?search_text=ciaro...75854
 http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6719
presently entering his 204th day of military detention (Iraq, Kuwait and
now Quantico) accused of being the WikiLeaks source on U.S. war crimes
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Letters and postcards to:

Bradley Manning
c/o Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave #41
Oakland CA 94610
USA

*Letters will be opened, "contraband" discarded and then mailed weekly
to Bradley via someone on his approved correspondence list