Friday, April 29, 2011

Lets send Manning Letters of Support

Rough translation from an interview today in Icelandic webzine run by the left green party in Iceland. I will follow the request up Monday - hope to get positive feedback.

Birgitta Jonsdottir encourages heads of state in Iceland to write a support letter to Manning
I hope that individual ministers, such as for example the Jóhanna, PM, Steingrímur, finance minister or Ögmundur, interior minister feel moved to send Bradley Manning a person letter of support, says Birgitta Jonsdottir MP for the Movement. Manning is the soldier that is in prison because of suspicion of having leaked a massive quantity of classified documents to WikiLeaks. He has been in solitary confinement for nearly a year. There has been a slight improvement in his conditions recently. He has been moved to another prison and is now allowed to receive mail and be among other inmates for up to three hours a day.
I would be deeply moved if many people would feel inspired to write this young man a letter of support, says Birgitta and makes a point that such support might be an important moral support for Manning. It is important for everyone to understand that the treatment of him it absolutely unacceptable. He has been barred from staying in physical form, has been kept in a tiny cell in isolation for nearly a year and been kept on suicide watch for a long time, that means the guards have to wake him up every few minutes to see if he is ok. David House is the only person apart from Manning's lawyer that has been allowed to pay visit to Manning. House has stated that he can see a steady decline with every visit in Manning's physical and mental health. Birgitta underlines that Manning is gradually having a physical and mental breakdown.
Birgitta also points out that newly leaked documents out of Guantánamo Bay prove how highly developed the torture techniques of the military have become and worries that the interrogation of Manning is conducted by similar methods as in Guantánamo Bay. Even if Manning has been moved into improved conditions that might be a more dangerous scenario for him because many of his fellow inmates might consider him the perfect traitor and lets not forget how gays have been treated in the military. His situations as an individual is difficult and that is why it is so critical that many people from all walks of life show him visible support and one of the best ways of showing it, is to send him support letters.
Those interested in supporting Manning can send letters to the following address:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
U.S.A

2 comments:

Buck Moody said...

the guards have to wake him up every few minutes to see if he is ok.

I imagine that this would be enough to drive anybody to a breakdown!

America is very sick.

Gabriel said...

Excuse me Birgitta, you did write on twitter today, "I dont have any news yet - will post news about this on twitter as soon as i have some results", What news are you referring to? I've following on and off, for sometime already what has been going on in Iceland concerning financial and echonomy issues. I was quite shocked in the beginning, I hardly could believe that Iceland could go bankrupt.

Following also matter concerning justice, balance and truth in this world, whatever that this may be