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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFinally: hear Bradley Manning in his own voice (recording of his statement released)
Finally: hear Bradley Manning in his own voiceA full audio recording of the whistleblower is released today despite a court prohibition on such recordings
Glenn Greenwald
Guardian UK
The court-martial proceeding of Bradley Manning has, rather ironically, been shrouded in extreme secrecy, often exceeding even that which prevails at Guantanamo military commissions. This secrecy prompted the Center for Constitutional Rights to commence formal legal action on behalf of several journalists and activists, including myself, to compel greater transparency. One particularly oppressive rule governing the Manning trial has barred not only all video or audio recordings of the proceedings, but also any photographs being taken of Manning or even transcripts made of what is said in court. Combined with the prohibition on all press interviews with him, this extraordinary secrecy regime has meant that, in the two-and-a-half years since his arrest, the world has been prevented, literally, from hearing Manning's voice. That changes today.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), the group I recently helped found and on whose board I sit, has received a full, unedited audio recording of the one-hour statement Manning made in court two weeks ago, and this morning has published that recording in full. In that statement, Manning details at length what he did and, more important, the reasons he chose to do it. I'm personally unaware of who made the recording and am not aware of how it was made, but its authenticity has been verified. Last week, the superb independent journalist Alexa O'Brien, who has covered the proceedings from start to finish, created the best transcript she could of Manning's statement, which was published, among other places, in the Guardian. But this audio recording provides the first opportunity to hear Manning, in his own voice, explain his actions; that, presumably, is why whoever recorded Manning's statement risked violating the court-martial rules to do so.
Earlier this morning, the FPF, along with the full audio, published a statement of why it chose to publish this along with some brief analysis. I'm posting below some of the most significant excerpts of Manning's statement. The first excerpt is in the form of a 5-minute video produced by the documentarian and FPF Board Member Laura Poitras, highlighting Manning's explanation of how he reacted when he first saw the video of the Apache helicopter gunning down Reuters journalists in Baghdad and then those who showed up to rescue the wounded, including a van with children in it.
The US government and its military has carefully ensured that people hear about Manning from the government, but do not hear from Manning himself. It is way past time for Manning's voice to be heard...
The rest: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/12/bradley-manning-tapes-own-words
Audio recording of statement: https://www.pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/03/fpf-publishes-leaked-audio-of-bradley-mannings-statement
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Finally: hear Bradley Manning in his own voice (recording of his statement released) (Original Post)
WilliamPitt
Mar 2013
OP
Without him we wouldn't know about the torture prisons in Iraq. Thank you, Bradley.
idwiyo
Mar 2013
#3
Manning, WikiLeaks, Ellsberg, et al are object lessons in why whistleblowers are essential.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#7
An excellent 5-minute documentary with Bradley Manning's own words describing Collateral Murder
Luminous Animal
Mar 2013
#10
hlthe2b
(102,357 posts)1. No matter how misguided some may feel he was, will he receive any mercy?
It seems our government just loves to make an example...
John Walker Lindh comes to mind... sigh....
WillyT
(72,631 posts)2. Thank You For That !!! - K & R !!!
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)3. Without him we wouldn't know about the torture prisons in Iraq. Thank you, Bradley.
niyad
(113,550 posts)4. k and r
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)5. K&R let's try to keep this thread visible
KoKo
(84,711 posts)6. K&R.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)7. Manning, WikiLeaks, Ellsberg, et al are object lessons in why whistleblowers are essential.
And, that "transparency in Government" should be more than a convenient political slogan.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)8. Daniel Ellsberg today in the HuffPo
Today, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an organization that I co-founded and of which I'm on the board, has published an audio recording of Bradley Manning's speech to a military court from two weeks ago, in which he gives his reasons and motivations behind leaking over 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks.
Whoever made this recording, and I don't know who the person is, has done the American public a great service. This marks the first time the American public can hear Bradley Manning, in his own voice explain what he did and how he did it.
After listening to this recording and reading his testimony, I believe Bradley Manning is the personification of the word whistleblower.
Whoever made this recording, and I don't know who the person is, has done the American public a great service. This marks the first time the American public can hear Bradley Manning, in his own voice explain what he did and how he did it.
After listening to this recording and reading his testimony, I believe Bradley Manning is the personification of the word whistleblower.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-ellsberg/bradley-manning-military-court-speech_b_2859353.html
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)9. Ellsberg's Democracy Now interview...
As for the picture of Bradley Manning, what weve heard are people like The New York Times who have consistently slandered him, such as in the false statement on Sunday that he was vague and couldnt think of specific instances that had led him to inform the American people of injustices. The American people can now, for the first time, hear Bradley in his own words, emotionally and in the greatest specific detail, tell what it was that he felt that needed revelation, and which the Times had not felt. So, in fact, the idea that he was just a boy who was indiscriminately dumping out everything he could, when in fact he personally had access to material higher than top secret, higher than Bill Keller has ever seen, in a war which Bill Keller has never served in, which revealed to him that informationpeople should have that information. He chose not to put out the top secret or communications intelligence to which he clearly had access, as stated in hishe put out only material that he felt would be embarrassing and which, three years later, we can say was only embarrassing, only important enough and newsworthy enough to topple two dictators in the Middle Eastmore effectively, I would say, than I managed to do. I helped topple one would-be dictator with minimal help from The New York Times, who covered my trial as, quote, "a happening" rather than the legal issues, which their reporter at the time never did grasp any more than Bill Keller did.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/12/daniel_ellsberg_in_hearing_bradley_manning
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)10. An excellent 5-minute documentary with Bradley Manning's own words describing Collateral Murder
by Laura Poitras and Jenny Perlin
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)11. Kick.