NYC: Rally for SPC Bradley Manning - Mon, Aug 16 Times Square Recruiting Station 5:30 to 7:00 pm

Solidarity Rally in Support of Bradley Manning

Monday, August 16, 5:30 to 7:00 pm
Rally at Times Square Recruiting Station,
7th Avenue & 44th Street
SIGN the Petition for Bradley Manning at:
www.iacenter.org/iraq/ freebradleymanning/

Free SPC Bradley Manning NOW!
Arrested for Exposing U.S. War Crimes in Iraq & Afghanistan
On Monday, August 16th Solidarity Rally for Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused by the U.S. military of leaking the video called "Collateral Murder" to the website WikiLeaks. The footage, made public in April 2010, shows US Army Bravo Company 2-16 killing civilians in Bagdad in July 2007.

Manning, originally from Crescent, Oklahoma, is being held in the brig at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia after being charged in June with being the source of the leak. A 22-year-old intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, he is accused of disclosing a classified video depicting American troops in Iraq shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in 2007. Twelve people were killed, including two Reuters employees, and two children were critically injured. No charges have been filed against the soldiers who did the killing.

The action is being organized locally by World Can't Wait, Veterans for Peace, Code Pink and the International Action Center at the Times Square Recruiting Center.

Full text of IAC Petition for PFC Bradley Manning

To: President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Dana K. Chipman, Congressional leaders, U.N. Secretary General Ban, members of the U.N. Security Council and U.N. member states

cc: Major media representatives, International Red Cross

Free Bradley Manning!! End the Wars and Occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan! Bring the Troops Home Now! Bring to Justice the U.S. Perpetrators of War Crimes, including the Pentagon


I am writing to demand that Bradley Manning, a courageous soldier deployed in Iraq, be immediately released from custody, and that any and all charges against him be immediately dropped and that any administrative or military sanctions against him be suspended.

Bradley Manning is suspected of being responsible for the leak of thousands of documents including a classified video filmed by the U.S. military, which shows in graphic detail the massacre of civilians by a U.S. helicopter gunship in Iraq in 2007.

Far from being punished, Bradley Manning should be commended. In fact, the Geneva Conventions of 1950, the Nuremberg war crimes trials of 1946, and even the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, not only permit, but require that violations of international law and the rules of engagement be reported. Silence equals consent!

U.S. and NATO troops who are sent to fight and occupy other countries are placed in an impossible situation. They are forced to fight and die in unjustified wars and inevitably many come to regard the entire population as their enemy.

I therefore further demand that the United States stop its aggressive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring the troops home immediately.

I also demand that a commission independent of the U.S. government or its allies be established to thoroughly and publicly investigate the events portrayed by the video allegedly leaked by Bradley Manning.

Sign the Petition:

www.iacenter.org/iraq/ freebradleymanning/