The Two Freedoms 1: The Release Of Chelsea Manning

From The Desk Of Jakob Musıck: Secretary-General of Nothing
May 27 2017 (Dorsland Trek Begins)
7 Prairial an 225 de la Révolution
Year Juche 106

The Two Freedoms:

On The Release Of Chelsea Manning

Well, well. Where to begin? So much is going on in the world. We are living in interesting times, as they (always) say. I still have not given a full tribute to the two advocates of government transparency and the people’s right-to-know -- Julian Assange and the maltreated Chelsea Manning -- who have received at least some of their freedom back after years of repression in democracies. They are the two freedoms. Blooming, blossoming, free. Chelsea can now not only speak for herself, but enjoy bodily integrity and try to live as much of a normal life as she can, after what she has been through, and what she done. Deciding to committ a world-historic act, one of rebellion, one of revolutionary consequences can easily rob the subject of their 'normal' social life. Let us hope she can live the way she wants to, as the people not deigned for death because of her disclosure do. If the United States even commits one less terror-inciting drone assassination per day, humanity will have won.

Manning, who originally was known as Bradley when he was detained for leaking video of American armed forces gruesomely murdering several journalists and civilians in Iraq, including those trying to bring children to safety after being targeted for assassination by the United States. Their crime? One of the men was holding a camera. If that is not poetic and indicative, I am sure what is. That video, which will go down as one of the most influential clips of all time, did not come without a price. Chelsea was suffered -- much like an Arab adult man would be if they so ‘lucky’ as to be plucked out of their home to face ‘extraordinary rendition’ (United States forces operating in Middle Eastern countries count all men from about 18 to middle age to be potential combatants irregardless.) Speaking to Amnesty International, the same group that aroused the ire of American authorities for releasing information relating to their ‘loss of several billion dollars worth of weapons that’ that often-times find their way into the hands of Islamic radicals like Islamic State, Manning said that the video and material he released tries to cut through the de-personalized way of killing people through drone that the United States has pioneered and terrorized millions with. Chelsea was arrested in 2010 and sent to a prison in the monarchy of Kuwait.  She was charged under the 1910’s Espionage Act, used several times by the Obama Administration to target information distribution. Chelsea, by releasing the famous Iraq video, and another in which the United States killed up to 134 Afghan civilians, was considered to be ‘Aiding the Enemy’ (as in Islamic Fundamentalists.) The argument went that the internet is accessible to The Enemy, and Manning knew this, thus ‘Aiding the Enemy.’ She was moved to Virginia, in the United States, and placed in maximum custody detention, meaning checks by guards every 5 minutes, and always being seen by American military personnel. No privacy. No way out. Manning was said to have wanted to kill herself, but the United States of America, the land of the free, had not extracted its pound of suffering yet. Her cell was 6 ft x 12 ft. The many murderers we have incarcerated in this country are given more space, not to mention time outside and ‘privileges.’ Things could have been worse, at least in 2010. Manning had access to Television, one book, and one magazine, as well as rights to walk and speak to her defense attorneys, and the US government was (oddly enough) still paying her salary as a military personnel. In 2011, the situation fundamentally changed. Guards started harassing her arbitrarily, made her remove her clothing and glasses, and she began to be detained in the cell 24 hours a day. It was at this point, that the United States military’s behaviour with regard to their most famous political prisoner began to arouse international indignation. The United Nations Special Rapporteur On Torture said that the treatment of Manning was “cruel, unusual, and degrading.” He was incorrect. This was totally usual in America’s War Of Terror. Had the Rapporteur been awake during the publicity of Abu-Gharib? Had he bothered to even cursorarily search the word "Guantanamo," synonymous with 'the usual' in American torture. Even within the Washington regime, people’s consciousnesses started to get the better of them. State Department Spokesperson Phillip Crowley resigned after criticizing the treatment of the political prisoner. After being embarrassed by world and domestic reaction, Manning was transferred to a rather humane (if prison can ever be described a such) cell in Kansas. Late in 2011, Manning was taken to the American state of Maryland to face military trial. As of 2013, some elements of the American state at least understand that what they are doing is wrong from a humanitarian point of view. They started to waver. That year, Manning’s sentence was reduced because of the harsh treatment she had received (having to go about naked etc…) She was acquitted of ‘Aiding The Enemy.’ Psychologists in the US Military stated that Manning was diseased, both with fetal alcohol syndrome and the no-longer existing Asperger's Syndrome, and that by releasing the information to Wikileaks, she was “enacting a grandiose ideation.” Another psychological professional in the trial expressed what, quite clearly, was the case: Manning released the tapes and information with the intent to show Americans what ‘their’ wars were reaping upon the civilians of the Middle East. Their victims. To put human faces and images to the abstract ‘enemy’ and ‘insurgents,’ de-humanizing gobbledegook that the United States government and news media had perpetrated for years. Manning’s dream was that the United States public would awake with sympathy to the plight of their brothers and sisters in Afghanistan and Iraq, that they would rise up with compassion and indignantly oppose this war and all wars. That no war ‘was worth it.’ If that is ‘Aiding The Enemy,’ than the ‘enemy’ you speak of is murderous imperialism.

These victims were other humans, mostly completely innocent, including children, who just happened to be around, and journalists commendably doing their job in war zones, risking their lives, like Manning, for the sake of information freedom and education. The journalists on the film bravely discharged their duties, plus attempting to harbour the children, under the banner of Reuters News Agency.

The United States initially wanted the rest of Manning’s conceivable lifetime behind bars (90 years.) By some sort of miraculous occurrence, she ‘only’ received 35 years in prison and was discharged from the United States Armed Forces. Manning’s lawyers foolishly asked President Obama (whom under all of the above happened) for a presidential pardon, and attached Amnesty International’s pleas for human rights, as if that material would make up anything more significant than the lining of a bird-cage. As many revolutionary figures, including the torture-expert Kim Il-Sung (who I happen to be reading several works of at-the-moment) wrote, you don’t ask imperialist powers for anything: As long as they are standing, every act they commit, whether speech or action, will further imperialist interests. The encounter between the individual and the Empire is not one of two equal individuals, though Empire is made up of many people (some who valiantly showed their support for Manning within the government.) You must have no illusions when dealing with this kind of mestastisized state. Only when Imperial regimes are de-throned and an authentic nation or state emerges from the ashes, will any sort of humanitarian response be possible. This is how one should view the various moves to aid the conditions of Manning during her imprisonment-- Imperialism was not capitulating, was not admitting it did anything wrong, was not choosing to forego any of its mission or methods-- it was simply evidence of what Empire has to yoke itself on the back of-- individuals. As rapper Immortal Technique spoke of high Military Officials, “A machine cannot speak for man.” But there are many men in the machine, and their small acts of kindness and solidarity with their fellow American made themselves known here. There is a nuclei within the United States government that already is resigning the Imperial Project to the dustbin. These forces will be vital when Empire is either renounced or forced down low.

 

So, to bring this back to our hero, how did Manning end up free? It has not been 3 decades, but just a few years have passed! Sometimes foolishness pays off. As the twilight of the Obama Administration was upon us, and the prospect of the Reality Star upon a horrified world, another miraculous event occurred. History made a mistake. Perhaps worried of his tarnished legacy of Health Care Reform efforts that would be repealed, record of adding destruction and death to the nations of Libya, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and indirectly several others including Mali (by destabilizing Libya), serving up the perfect atmosphere for the forming of the lethal Islamic State Caliphate (probably the most nefarious human force of our times), not just pardoning but rewarding bankers and hucksters of the elite class that caused untold suffering in the economic collapse of the late 2000's with the "bail-out" (the largest transfer of wealth up-ward in American history) ,and pursuing prosecution of more journalists and whistleblowers than the leaders before him, perhaps President Obama stopped and thought he would perhaps look bad. Perhaps he faltered in that minute, wondering if what he had enacted, the interests he had served, were really ‘right’ in the end. He did not pardon Chelsea Manning, but commuted her sentence to 4 months after that day, in the light of more than 10,000 Americans speaking out for her freedom via lawful petition. This was nothing short of a miracle. Bourgeois freedoms are the difference between mature Liberal Democracies, like the United States, and ‘other’ Democracies, such as the Socialist 2nd world-bloc. In the Soviet Union at its Stalinist prime, Manning would have been summarily killed, or used for slave labour until her death. That is why, though distorted and completely de-based by imperialist aims and actions, there is something very special in the maligned ‘Western world.’ And the unlikely source of the United States Head of State allowed that to happen before giving up the ghost of his presidency.

It will be many years before the full implication of the knowledge we now have of American activities abroad sinks in. If this information was available in previous times, American intervention in Korea and Viet Nam may have been either impossible or shortened considerably. When an ‘enemy’ becomes a human with a face, with a family, with a will, with a voice, they cease to be ‘enemy’ as man knows his family, that is, his brothers and sisters from around the world. One race. One species. One humanity. One international project we all are responsible for. Chelsea Manning did The Impossible and received The Impossible. Currently the highest levels of American power are teetering over claims of traitorism and enemy-collaboration, but once this calms down, the factions desist, and normality regains itself, we may find a harshened environ. A Chelsea Manning may not be possible again. But then again, who would have believed the Stasi archives of the DDR (East Germany) would have ever been opened? Only a fool. And it is only the fool who will believe that American Empire will allow anyone to come out of this alive, ever again. But once in awhile, the fool is right.

Long Live Information!

Long Live The Internet!

Long Live The People’s Right To Know!

Long Live Wikileaks!

Long Live The Endurance of The Honourable Middle Eastern People!

Long Live Whistleblowers!

Long Live Chelsea Manning!

Long Live Compassion!

I dedicate this humble post to the bravery, incredible strength, and endurance of Chelsea Manning, who became a national hero while fighting mental illness and coming out as transgender. You are our model for the hero of the future.

 

Long Live!