Bradley Manning's Show Trial

Dear Mr. President,

Bradley Manning will spend his third birthday in a military prison next week, accused but neither tried nor convicted of a crime. Held by the military under conditions of torture for more than a year, first in Kuwait and then in Quantico, this past week in his pre-trial hearing he was allowed to speak out on his own behalf for the first time. He was articulate, intelligent and nothing like the person depicted by the government. His military court-martial will begin in March, almost 3 years after his arrest. So much for a fair and speedy trial. So much for a jury of his peers. So much for constitutional protections and so much for American justice. Bradley Manning is a young man of conscience, someone who believes that truth and an informed public are essential to democracy. He is just the kind of citizen every democracy needs and just the kind of person every tyrant fears. Manning is a political prisoner, guilty of exposing war crimes committed by the U.S. military and the hypocrisy and double-dealing of the government. Revealing this was an affront to those in power and his trial will be a Show Trial like those in Russia in the 1930s, the outcome a foregone conclusion and an example to others to keep their mouths shut. In today’s America, secrecy and suppression are the rule and those who believe in transparency and truth, people like Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, are a threat. (It strikes me, Mr. President, that the two most dangerous people in the world are now silenced, one in a military prison awaiting trial, the other trapped in Ecuador’s Embassy in London, unable to leave while your operatives in Alexandria, Virginia, build a case against him that will silence him permanently.) Meanwhile, the real criminals, the Banksters and corporate fraudsters of Wall Street, and war criminals like Bush, Cheney and yourself all remain at large, living in luxury, honored with medals and Nobel Peace prizes. Secrecy and suppression, lies and obfuscation are the hallmark of tyrannies and dictatorships, the hallmark of your administration. That is why the Bradley Mannings and Julian Assanges and all the other whistle-blowers and anti-secrecy advocates are such a threat to you, why your Injustice Department is fighting so hard to silence them. Manning’s supporters in court this week all wore black T-shirts with the word ‘Truth’ in white letters across the front. It is the one word that politicians and tyrants, people of your ilk, fear the most.