February 1st 2013 the entire parliamentary group of The Movement in the Icelandic Parliament, the Pirates of the EU; representatives from the Swedish Pirate Party, the former Secretary of State in Tunisia for Sport & Youthnominated Private Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. Following is the reasoning we sent to the committee explaining why we felt compelled to nominate Private Bradley Manning for this important recognition of an individual effort to have an impact for peace in our world. The lengthy personal statement to the pre-trial hearing February 28th by Bradley Manning in his own words validate that his motives were for the greater good of humankind.
Read his full statement
Our letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee
Reykjavík,
Iceland 1st of February 2013
Dear
Norwegian Nobel Committee,
We
have the great honour of nominating Private First Class Bradley
Manning for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
Manning
is a soldier in the United States army who stands accused of
releasing hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistleblower
website WikiLeaks. The leaked documents pointed to a long history of
corruption, war crimes, and a lack of respect for the sovereignty of
other democratic nations by the United States government in
international dealings.
These
revelations have fueled democratic uprisings around the world,
including a democratic revolution in Tunisia. According to
journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab
Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on the
foreign and domestic policies of European nations, and most recently
contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all
U.S.troops from the occupation in Iraq.
Bradley
Manning has been incarcerated for more then 1000 days by the U.S.
Government. He spent over ten months of that time period in solitary
confinement, conditions which expert worldwide have criticized as
torturous. Juan Mendez, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on
Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has
repeatedly requested and been denied a private meeting with Manning
to assess his conditions.
The
documents made public by WikiLeaks should never have been kept from
public scrutiny. The revelations - including video documentation of
an incident in which American soldiers gunned down Reuters
journalists in Iraq - have helped to fuel a worldwide discussion
about the overseas engagements of the United States, civilian
casualties of war and rules of engagement. Citizens worldwide owe a
great debt to the WikiLeaks whistleblower for shedding light on these
issues, and so we urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize
to accused whistleblower Bradley Manning.
We
can already be reasonably certain that Bradley Manning will not have
a fair trial as the head of State, the USA President Mr. Barack
Obama, stated over a year ago on record that Manning is guilty.
Sincerely,
Birgitta
Jónsdóttir, Member of Parliament for the Movement, Iceland
Christian
Engström, Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party,
Sweden
Amelia
Andersdottir, Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party,
Sweden
Margrét
Tryggvadóttir, Member of Parliament for the Movement, Iceland
Þór
Saari, Member of Parliament for the Movement, Iceland
Slim
Amamou, former Secretary of State for Sport &
Youth (2011), Tunisia
