Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Chelsea Manning demo US Embassy, London

Solidarity Collective | 18.12.2014 21:25 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Terror War | London | Wales | World

Yesterday, 17/12/2014, was the 27th birthday of Chelsea Manning. Several groups conducted a noise demo outside the US Embassy, London to support the call for her release.










The Solidarity Collective, Wise Up Wales and The Black Banner held a noise demo outside the US Embassy last night in support of Welsh-American whistle-blower Chelsea Manning. They were joined by Queer Strike and The Pay Day men's network after their successful vigil outside St Martin-in-the-Fields.

20+ people turned up with placards and many banners. The soundtrack from the Collateral Murder video was played at high volume through a sound system, inter-spliced with audio of Charlie Chaplin's speech from the film The Great Dictator. There were several eloquent and rousing speeches which made clear to those inside the embassy that Chelsea had not been forgotten.

It is common knowledge that Chelsea is serving 35 years in prison for the release of information some of which formed the Afghan War Diaries, the Iraq War logs and the Collateral Murder video which exposed the cruel murder of several civilians, including two Reuters reporters and the shooting of two children. What is often forgotten is that US claims that the released information put lives in danger and caused damage to the US do not stand up to scrutiny.

For a start it has to be remembered that governments all over the world release classified information in the form of leaks to newspapers every week when it suits them. Journalists like Bob Woodward have made careers out of this form of information release.

Secondly, none of the released information was Top Secret or compartmentalized, nor did it discuss current or ongoing military operations.

Some of the information released was classified as secret but this was because it was kept on the Department of Defence's classified Network called SIPRNET; all information kept on SIPRNET is originally classified as secret. In her testimony Manning explained that she believed that the "secret classification" of these files diminished within 48 to 72 hours because the information had been publicly released or concerned units that were no longer on the operations concerned.

The Collateral Murder video was reviewed by a U.S. Central Command as not even being classified at the lowest level.

The Diplomatic files were anything but secret having been released to over a million government workers including private contractors.

The only files that could have caused immediate danger to lives were the Human Intelligence files (HUMINT) which concerned the identity of intelligence sources and intelligence tactics. These were never released by Manning. Consequently there has been no evidence that any one has been killed due to the release of the Wikileaks files.

Finally, several US government damage assessment reviews, including one by the Information Review Task Force, have all found that there has been no damage to the US as a result of these leaks.

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

All of this means that any person of sound mind can only conclude that Manning has been made an example of. She has been imprisoned as a warning to others who may think of daring to the tell the truth. Governments propagate the illusion of an open society with tools such as whistle-blowing laws and processes. Manning tried to use internal reporting processes to alert her superiors to injustices and was told to shut up and put up. The New York Times and Washington Post both ignored her. Wikileaks stepped up to the mark and as a result they have been attacked by governments on and off line, had their funding streams cut and Julian Assange, editor-in-chief, has been trapped in the Ecuadorian Embassy for the past two years in fear for his liberty from the land of the free. Irony exists in reality and in fiction but in the former it is often more unbelievable than in the latter. The US invaded the middle east supposedly to promote democracy, whilst at home it curtails any transparency and accountability so that it can export its 'democratic values' with the barrel of a gun.

Solidarity to Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and all the others that have sacrificed themselves so that we may know the truth.

Collateral Murder:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
Video of speech from last night:  http://youtu.be/0AmW7YVwUqo

Solidarity Collective
- e-mail: solidaritycollective@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://solidaritycollective.wordpress.com/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech