I very rarely allow somebody else to speak my heart, as I feel I am best qualified to do so. However, on this topic I bow out. Bradley Manning’s trial is starting on a sinister note. About the denial of access to press and public, please see Center for Constitutional Rights

Even more disheartening is the pusillanimity of both the press and leading human rights organisations. Nobody who is anybody (yours truly being, frankly, only a pelshval, after all) has the guts to  denounce the biggest and greatest of bullies, the so-called democracy  US of A. Is there, for instance, any country that has a larger number of  Nobel Peace Prize laureates? (Oh, I blush for shame!) While the rest of us fawn upon the chauvinist Cyclops, little Bradley Manning’s trial is starting with hardly a murmur of dissent from the press.

And here is where I leave the stage to Julian Assange, whose words copied in below I found somewhere on the Internet — on a site I had never even heard of , and I did not take note of  the source; I merely copied the text. I found it important and very, very disheartening!

QUOTE

What are other ways people can help Bradley Manning’s case?

People could put pressure on Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. These groups briefly protested the horrible conditions under which Bradley was detained when he was held in Quantico, but not the fact that he’s being charged with crimes that could put him in prison for life.

It’s embarrassing that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch—Amnesty International headquartered in London and Human Rights Watch headquartered in New York—have refused to refer to Bradley Manning as a political prisoner or a prisoner of conscience.

To name someone a political prisoner means that the case is political in nature. It can be that the prisoner committed a political act or was politically motivated or there was a politization of the legal investigation or the trial.

Any one of these is sufficient, according to Amnesty’s own definition, to name someone a political prisoner. But Bradley Manning’s case fulfills all of these criteria. Despite this, Amnesty International has said that it’s not going to make a decision until after the sentence. But what good is that?

UNQUOTE

For shame, Amnesty Internationl!

For shame, Human Rights Watch!

Julian Assange adds: “I find their position grotesque. Bradley Manning is the most famous political prisoner the United States has. He has been detained without trial for over 1,000 days. Not even the US government denies his alleged acts were political.”

For my part, all I can do is sigh. Much help that will do!