Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Pardon Bradley Manning

35 years is practically a life sentence. I thought he was going to get life; an activist friend, a lawyer, kept saying, no, 20 years. I kept saying no way. There are appeals and clemency hearings and all kinds of stuff in the works. Including a petition for pardon to Obama. Yeah, that’ll work.
Press conference was great. Coombs is fantastic. So eloquent. And Manning’s public statement — oh my god. Profound. Profound. There was tons of press there. I’m hoping the public statement will be widely disseminated and on-line shortly.
Here’s where you can sign the pardon petition. Yes, I know it won’t work. We all know Obama doesn’t give a shit. In fact, Mr. Constitutional Law Scholar already said, publicly, while the trial was still going on, that Manning “broke the law.” (Don’t know if that will be grounds for an appeal.) But this is for Bradley. This is to show we support him. That’s all; it’s a show of support. So it’s important for that reason. Here’s the link: http://pardon.bradleymanning.org
Coombs said he's represented hundreds of people, including for murder and child molestation. And he said he's never seen a sentence this severe.
I know I'm stating the obvious, but as Orwell taught us, the obvious needs to be stated, again and again. This 35-year sentence is a message to whistleblowers: mess with us, and we'll fuck you up.
That goes for the press, too. Wonder when they'll wake up.