Bradley Manning Verdict: With friends like Ann Clwyd...

Ann Clwyd was a strong supporter of the illegal 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. On 18 March 2003, the day before the Iraq debate in the Commons, as questions were being asked about the 'dodgy dossier' and when Tony Blair remained under intense pressure not to lend British support to the US-led war, Clwyd helpfully intervened with a fabricated story in the Times under the headline 'See men shredded, then say you don't back war' about an industrial machine used by Saddam Hussein and his son to mince their opponents into fish food. Pro-war journalists, politicians and others around the world picked up on this wholly uncorroborated story, using it to bolster support for military action in Iraq.

 http://archive.lewrockwell.com/spectator/spec239.html &  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/feb/04/ann-cwlyd-saddam-shredder-iraq-inquiry

Six years later, Bradley Manning found himself in Baghdad surveying the horrific results of this misadventure on his computer screen. He cared enough about what he saw to risk his life and liberty to share some of it with us.

What Ann Clwyd can be blamed for helping to start, Bradley Manning can be credited with helping to finish. Obama wanted to keep US troops in Iraq after a previously agreed 2011 deadline, but demanded that they be granted legal immunity from prosecution for their actions. Having read the diplomatic cables released by Bradley and published by WikiLeaks, the Iraq government refused to grant such immunity and the troops were withdrawn.

 http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/june-1-thank-bradley-manning-for-helping-end-the-iraq-war

Iraq's fate could have been quite different had we all been spared Ann Clwyd's bloodlust and fiction, in which case Bradley Manning may never have been sent there at all.

Ann Clwyd has also strongly supported the disastrous war in Afghanistan.