"Welcome Home" Bradley Manning!
Tampa International Airport, Aug. 17 , 2013 - WMNF: "Peace activists 'Welcome Home' Bradley Manning"
In anticipation of the sentencing of Bradley
Manning, St. Pete for Peace and others went to the Tampa International
Airport to "welcome home" Bradley Manning.
BUT BRADLEY MANNING ISN'T COMING HOME, AND HIS HOMETOWN ISN'T TAMPA, SO WHY DO THIS?
This was a symbolic gathering,
similar to the "I am Bradley Manning" campaign, and a way to show
support for Bradley Manning and to raise awareness. If we lived
in a just and sane society, Bradley Manning would be coming home, and whether his home were Tampa or anywhere else, people would be welcoming him home for being a hero.
WHAT KIND OF REACTION DID WE GET FROM PEOPLE AT THE AIRPORT AND THE AIRPORT OFFICIALS?
Our message reached a large number of people. Most people didn't
seem to know who Bradley Manning was, which is unfortunate but was one
of the reasons for being there. Only a couple people blurted out
a negative response, and a handful of people were supportive.  At
the end of our gathering, an airport police officer harassed us, saying
the airport is privately owned (it's not, it's owned by the
Hillsborough County Aviation Authority), he claimed that military
personnel who saw our banner would be offended, and after (wrongly)
saying we couldn't photograph the police he said that we were being
photographed. Typical cop harassment.
SOME CLAIM THAT BRADLEY MANNING'S LEAKS HAVE LED TO SOURCES BEING JAILED AND KILLED
Those
people can't offer any proof, because there is none. What Bradley
Manning did is historic and will go down as one of the most important
revelations of our time. If the Obama administration insists on using
our tax dollars to drop bombs around the world, it is our right to know
all the facts related to U.S. foreign policy. The government doesn't
want us to know these facts because it would expose them for being the
violent imperialists that they are. This is why they have so
aggressively gone after Bradley Manning, and this is why we support
Bradley Manning.
BUT BRADLEY MANNING APOLOGIZED FOR WHAT HE DID, SAYING HE HURT AMERICA...
We were disappointed to hear the apology because what he did in no way
hurt America, it helped this country. But we are in no position
to question Bradley Manning or his defense team, particularly because
the brutal, unjust military court system, which has already imprisoned
him for 3 years, and tortured him, is threatening to put him in prison
for up to 90 years. The most important thing is to focus on what
Bradley Manning exposed:
- That most prisoners held at Guantanamo are innocent.
- The Collateral Murder video that showed the U.S.
military killing innocent civilians, including two Reuters reporters.
That same video allowed the world to see the cavalier attitude
of American military members who commit war crimes and laugh about it.
- That U.S. contractor DynCorp was complicit in child
trafficking by throwing a party for Afghan security recruits that
featured boys purchased by child traffickers for entertainment.
- And much more.
So, regardless of what is said
in court, it will never change the facts of what Bradley Manning
unselfishly exposed. If there is one person who never needs to
apologize it is Bradley Manning.
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E-mail: info@stpeteforpeace.org
