Protest for Manning and for truth

On Sunday, August 8^th, a group of Americans gathered to protest the jailing of Pfc. Bradley Manning.  He is reportedly the one behind the WikiLeaks video released earlier this year, that shows what really happened on day in Baghdad in 2007.  The US troops had fired on a group of Iraqi men, two of whom worked for Reuters, because they thought the men were insurgents.  They killed one man who was only trying to help the wounded.  They seriously wounded two children of the man who tried to help.   It is speculated that he was behind the release of the 90,000+ documents about the occupation of Afghanistan.

Neither the video or the documents were news to me, because I have been paying attention to what was happening.  But the documents and video were news to lots of Americans.  Because I believe in transparency and honesty, I support the release of information about what is happening in our wars and occupations.  I wish I could have been there for the protest in support of Bradley Manning.

Photo:  Demonstrators in Quantico, Va., expressed their support for Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is accused of leaking government secrets and is being held there. Astrid Riecken/European Pressphoto Agency