Saturday, June 29, 2013

Canada Day - A Time of Mourning for First Nations Across the Land - Wear Black Arm Bands

The following is a Note copied from The Four Elements of Change Facebook page.

For all who support the #IDLENOMORE movement as I do, this is a beautiful idea.


Let us unbind ourselves.

Let us unbind ourselves and turn to the world around us in a DAY OF MOURNING ON CANADA DAY.

This is an easy suggestion for all in Canada - All people supporting Idle No More. Lets wear a black arm band on Canada Day - in public. A big one, hanging down our arms. If anyone asks - educate them by saying they are celebrating "their country's National holiday" on the backs of First Nations. Canada Day in a country that has destroyed hundred of smaller Nations to call themselves Canada - is truly a day of Mourning - BLACK.


Remember the churches schools and the humiliation of racism - shame is a powerful tool when it speaks to the truth. Use it in an educational way as they are human beings and will feel their own shame - maybe enough to inform themselves what is truly happening inside First Nations. This also helps us to walk toward our true collective healing - which we are all going to have to do anyhow!

 When Canada celebrates a day that represents the loss of Sovereign rights for First Nations, it is truly a day of mourning for First Nations. Lets see how well our networking is and get this to go viral across the country. Buddy up with someone, bring your drum and invite people to sit with you and share why you wear black. Every immigrant to these lands will know what black means. This is our Summer of Sovereignty and what a fitting way to start - up front and in public. No more hiding! We will see who is an Ally then.


Saturday, June 22, 2013

Rise Up!

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
John Lennon




"Rise Up! Rise Up Canada! Rise Up! Rise Up! Why do we have to put up with this? Rise Up! Rise Up! Rise Up! This goes beyond Partisan Politics. This goes beyond the Liberal Party, this is about our Country, this is about our democracy! Rise Up! Rise Up! We have got to fight here! We have got to stand and fight! This is not about me, this is not about the Liberal Party, this is about the kind of democracy we hand to this child to this child. We gotta Rise Up! We got to stand! We gotta fight and we gotta win, this is not about the Liberal Party of Canada, this is about the country you love, so Rise Up Canada! " --Michael Ignatieff (Rise Up Speech - Full text)

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world."  --Jack Layton (Open Letter to Canadians two days before he died in office as NDP Leader of the Official Opposition)

 I ♥ my country and want to see it became a better place for all of us not one that is at the mercies of the wealthy elites of the world. If we don't take a stand now and start fighting to protect and expand our democracy and restrain the wealthy elites and the general systemic corruption that exists, I fear for the future of our world.


Sunday, June 09, 2013

Stalking As An Addiction

The following is an article by an online friend of mine known as Medawar, and author of the blog, Medawar's Cornflakes.

Republished post from November 23, 2011.

Once upon a time, Medawar described the whole nasty business of stalking and organized harassment to a psychiatrist, and asked him what might need to be wrong with someone before they would spend most of their time plotting to destroy an innocent person's happiness, freedom, livelihood, freedom, health, relationships and ultimately drive them out of life. The answer was startlingly immediate, crisp and precise: "they only need to enjoy doing it."

This doesn't deny or contradict any of the conspiracies behind stalking groups, gangs and cults. It just explains that participants in those groups, can both be more simple and more twisted than the group itself. The group may be motivated, controlled and manipulated in all sorts of directions, by all kinds of powerful people and forces. But never forget that a proportion of the "perps" are stalking and destroying people, because it gives them a fierce pleasure to so do.

This, in turn, gives anyone controlling or manipulating a stalking group another lever to pull, because they can use the most tempting victims as a way of recruiting stalkers. It can be an incentive: "drive this strong man to suicide, and I've got a single mother you can do what you like with." Of course, some sadists may have a more obscure definition of an ideal victim, but those in charge are presumably experienced and know what this might be. Still, many sadists are very, very attracted to the mother-child bond and the ways it can be used to inflict agony both ways.

Anything that a psychopathic personality enjoys, can easily prove addictive. And it's also worth noting that the worst sadists are usually also pathological liars.

So, amongst all the "perps" who are in the stalking group for gain, out of fear or because they have been lied to and manipulated by the pathological liars, will be the sadists and pathological liars themselves. And they will be enjoying every minute of every victim's despair and destruction. Though they may present themselves as ardent believers in and practitioners of whatever the group's ideology is supposed to be (and they may have invented much of it!) in reality they will care only about the process and not the cause.

And because that process of destroying people is addictive to them, they will join more than one stalking group in the course of their careers. Indeed, even if they start out by joining one group after another, sooner or later they will be in two groups at once, then three or four.

Now, if they are addicted to the sadistic process, these individuals may also have favourite victims. What happens when a sadist, addicted to the stalking process and a particular victim, compelled also to forcing people to accept impossible lies, moves from one stalking group to another?

Well, after they have inserted themselves into that group and become its most apparently reliable and conforming member, they will insert their favourite victim into that group's target list, along with a legend making that victim an ideal target within the group's ideology. And the group that sadist has left (assuming that they have indeed severed ties with their old group: not always the case) won't necessarily stop stalking that victim either.

It is not only possible that some stalking targets will end up being stalked by two, four, six or more different groups, for quite different ostensible reasons: given the nature of stalking and some of its most determined and remorseless participants, it's actually the most likely thing to happen to anyone who manages to survive being stalked for any length of time.

Don't be surprised, either, if the ostensible reasons for stalking of a single individual or household by different groups actually contradict each other. This, too, is the most likely state of affairs if the individuals driving the process are pathological liars, because they delight in tying people in contradictions. There is even an element of mental sadism in what is done to non-sadistic participants in stalking gangs, because invariably what is actually happening, will be the opposite of what they think is happening or what they want to happen.

A stalking gang is a subtle form of Hell let loose upon the Earth and the distinction between "perp" and "target" can easily blur,when someone in the group enjoys making his colleagues achieve the opposite of what they hope to achieve.

The stalking gang "SHAC" which was set up in 1999 with the aim of using stalking and direct violence to drive a company called "Huntingdon Life Sciences" out of business, has recently collapsed, whilst HLS (on the verge of closure in 1999) is a thriving company, going from strength to strength. Aggrieved former members of SHAC see this as a conspiracy by "Big Pharma", and while it's true that SHAC's heavy use of direct violence, arson, blackmail and grave-robbery (in Switzerland, Sweden, France Germany, the USA and Austria as well as the UK) prompted infiltration of the group by three undercover policemen of dubious reliability and competence, the fact that SHAC achieved the precise opposite of what its loyal supporters wanted, probably reflects that at some point, someone came to control SHAC who secretly took a perverse delight in making this happen.

It may have taken twelve years for SHAC to hit the Arctic Ocean, but the group and nearly all of its supporters were rushing over a cliff from the very beginning. Not because of government and business reaction to SHAC's campaign, but because the group contained at least one pathological liar who delighted in spending a decade manipulating SHAC's supporters into destroying their own dream.

A few years before SHAC was founded, the Dunblane massacre was immediately followed by the appearance of an anti-gun charity called "SAGE" which was run from Chelmsford, in Essex, which is hundreds of miles from Dunblane and not at all accessible to any of the parents of murdered children who were invited to act as figureheads for SAGE. Newspaper editors were bullied into giving SAGE free advertising space for fund-raising advertisements, and millions of pounds and dollars started to flow in, from all over the world.

SAGE was the invention of one man, whose real identity is still unknown, who had been released from Norwich jail two weeks before the charity appeared, having completed a sentence for fraud. SAGE was supposed to be a Swiss-based anti-gun charity, which is as likely as a Dutch campaign to ban pipes and clogs. Still, millions believed this contradiction in terms and sent their money. The charity's founder received a phone call from Chelmsford CID, politely asking him to be present at the SAGE office the next day so that detectives could ask him about the charitable registration and the handling of the charity's finances. By the next day, he wasn't there, and neither was any of the money. Amount unknown, but believed to be rather more than four million pounds.

By the time the hue and cry about SAGE had died away, SHAC was born. Had the detectives not taken an interest, SAGE might have started to persecute stalk gun-clubs and sporting shooters the way that SHAC stalked medical researchers: who can tell? But the adverts and the tone of all its material was headed in that direction from day one.

Medawar is struck by the equivalence of the twists and contra-logic, which supporters of both SAGE and SHAC were made to swallow.

Psychopaths destroy any enterprise in which they become engaged. They can build companies, but those companies collapse with unsecured debts and missing funds in all directions. They gain high political office: wars and economic collapse commence. They start a cause-stalking group, or take it over: its members spend years of their lives achieving the precise opposite of what they hoped for.

And they always walk away from the rubble and do the same thing again.

Kitty Hundal. June 9, 2013: It's standard practice for stalkers and organized stalking rings to falsely accuse their targets of stalking. This is actually part of the Profile of a Stalker. 

How does one tell the difference? 

Find out who initiated the campaign. That person is the stalker. However, keep in mind that stalkers are often psychopaths or sociopathic in nature which means that they go to great lengths to create false impressions including attempting to create the false impression that the target initiated the crime. 

In order to be certain one has to dig deep and verify everything. The liar is always the stalker. 

Most stalking victims either try to ignore the stalking (a huge mistake) or will respond with the truth (best approach).

Stalkers are also cowards as a result they hate to act alone and are constantly attempting to recruit support for their bullying campaigns of lies. This is usually not difficult to do since there are almost always ignoramuses available, who, for reasons of their own, love to jump into the trolling fray.

Or, in the case of wealthy stalkers are greedy and will do almost anything to avoid working as well as make some easy money.

Adults who condone and support this activity amongst teenagers are contributing to the delinquency of a minor and there are many who do including those who should know better (mothers and teachers).

Whether the stalker is some sleazeball, garden variety, criminal, a sleazeball, wealthy stalker with an organized stalking ring at his disposal, or a state-organized stalking ring, the strategies and tactics employed are always the same. The organized stalking ring just has more high level resources at their disposal.

The best overall strategy to fight back is: the more they persist, the more the target should stand up with the truth. This approach will eventually end or become a deterrent to these bullies who currently act with impunity because no-one, including the target, will stand up to them. 

Not standing up to them empowers, encourages and enables them.

Standing up to them and not backing down exposes them to everyone, reveals their true character,  protects others from getting caught up in their webs of deceit, and acts as a deterrent.

Yes they enjoy stalking, abusing and bullying others but they also hate being exposed as stalkers, abusers, and bullies. They hate having their mask of sanity ripped off and their real selves revealed to the world. 

And they always recognize themselves ;-D.

Who the following person is, isn't important (except in his own paranoid, narcissistic mind) but I'm not surprised that he recognized himself in that post despite the fact that post wasn't about him. It was written in 2007. Since he made his presence known on the Internet, as far as I can tell, he has done nothing but engage in cyberstalking and harassment and appears to take great pleasure in it.





Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Psychopaths In The Shadows Of Our Lives

Republished April, 2007 blog post.
 “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.” – John Lennon, before his murder by Mark David Chapman
He appears to be gregarious and outgoing, full of confidence, strong, and knowledgeable.

Male or female, he makes you feel like you're the center of his universe.

On the job, in romance it seems that he will do anything for you. He will do anything you ask, and tells you everything you want to hear.


His apparent caring and concern for yours and others well-being knows no bounds. He seems to be the kindest man you have ever met.


He tells you in great detail how he has suffered, and risen above his suffering, struggled to get on with his life despite his past victimization by evil people, and how he dealt with those people. He brags about the terrible things he has had to do to defend and protect his honor, his integrity, his family and friends, and how he had no choice. They deserved what he did to them, they were evil.


He's the epitome of the bad boy doing good.


You're heart goes out to him and you want to help him ... poor soul.


His perfect wife stands by her man. She is quieter, let's him have the floor, but on a one to one, she is aggressive, almost hysterical in her defense of him. She idealizes him, idolizes him.


At work, if you're below him on the food chain, he helps you rise up the ladder, and covers your butt, and will expect you to cover his in return. If you're above him on the food chain, he keeps you informed of everything that's going on, offers suggestions and advice, and appears to contribute to the business. You cover for him because he's such a good guy.


He appears to be invincible ... he can do no wrong ... .


He tells you how important truth, morality, and ethics is to him ... he emphasizes this asset repeatedly. "What you see is what you get!" is his catch phrase. He wins prizes and awards for Honesty and Integrity.


His perfection knows no bounds, despite his apparent humility.


How did you get so lucky as to have this man in your life? He seems almost too good to be true.
 
That's because he IS too good to be true ... he's a Psychopath.

He has a strange almost piercing stare.

He misinterprets everything as an attack. He assumes that everyone is out to get him and he has to get them first.


He takes other peoples ideas and presents them as his own because he is incapable of imagination and creativity.


He constantly makes contradictory statements. He lies about everything and everyone. He wins people's trust then manipulates and plays them against each other.

His patrons and puppets are constantly covering for him.
He's just not that good at his job.

He's involved with several different women, all of whom seem to choose to be unaware of his other relationships. He is incapable of human emotions such as love or affection.


All relationships whether they be charitable, personal, professional and organizational exist solely for the purpose of being exploited and to establish an otherwise undeserved positive reputation. He extends favors and "helps" people for this purpose alone and expects the favor to be returned 10-fold, on demand, and whether it involves criminal acts or not.


All people in his circle must be malleable and under his control. He will not allow relationships to develop among them unless the relationships benefit him. When they no longer benefit him he moves in to destroy them.


Everything is about appearance, and deception. Creating the appearance that he is an emotional, caring man by mimicking those who are not psychopaths. Creating the appearance that he is competent and making a contribution by stealing other people's ideas. Scratch the surface, and it's all a carefully crafted illusion.


Everything that goes wrong is his Targets' fault. He will accuse his Targets of doing the very things that he is doing to them. He is incapable of showing maturity and taking responsibility for his actions.


Those who cannot be manipulated, exploited ... that is, those who see through his shady exterior, are, in his mind, enemies, and therefore his Targets.


Those who stand in the way of him accomplishing some task (he is incapable of looking to the future and establishing long term goals) are his enemies, and therefore his Targets.


Actions, that he interprets as harmful to him (innocent or not) result in his Retribution.


He will go to extreme and unimaginable (for the normal human being) lengths to destroy his Targets and anyone who defends them.

He lives to see the Target suffer and takes sadistic pleasure in watching the suffering. He is incapable of feeling empathy and compassion, of putting himself in someone else's shoes.


He 
will never act alone because he is a coward. He will manipulate and recruit his social circle on the basis of lies and his alleged victimhood. He needs others so that he can hide behind them and have them engage his targets on his behalf. 

If he is wealthy, he will bribe the corrupt, mentally ill and greedy to participate. If he isn't wealthy he'll recruit the mentally ill, unethical or corrupt amongst his social circle.

If he's exposed, he'll shift the blame to his recruits.

All problems are resolved by destroying the Target, in short, he is a predator and the Target is his prey. He is incapable of negotiating solutions.


If all else fails, those who are his Targets, who see his real face, understand who and what he is, will be accused of being mentally unstable.

Welcome to my world, one with psychopaths in the shadows of my life, and one's who have been targeting me since I was a 16 year old teenager.

Do you have a Psychopath in your life?
 
Internet References:The Psychopath Next Door


The following are excerpts from: www.cassiopaea.com
 
"He does this to create a false empathy with his victim. The psychopath will try to make you believe he has normal emotions by spinning some sad tale or professing profound, moving experiences; the truth is, most psychopaths go through life as in an incubator, touched by few and having no real compassion for others; but they will lie to convince you that they have normal emotions. The pity factor is one reason why victims often fall for these "poor" people."

"Lying, deceiving, and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths...When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they are seldom perplexed or embarrassed -- they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the lie. The results are a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener." [Hare]. 

"The psychopath is primarily distracted and impressed by his own grandiose self-representation, which often leads to him unwittingly telling people things that lead to his detection. They often forget the lies they told and tell contradicting tales, which often makes the listener wonder if either the psychopath is crazy, although in this case the psychopath isn't really crazy -- he's just forgotten what lies he's told."

"The most amazing thing, however, is their selective memory. A psychopath might not remember the promises he made to you yesterday, but he will remember something from the past if it suits his purposes in some way. They often do this whenever they're confronted or caught in a lie."

"Most psychopaths are very arrogant and cocky. However, when charming a potential victim, they say all the "right" things and make you believe they are kind-hearted souls; not always, but often enough. The truth is, psychopaths are not altruistic and do not really care about friendships or ties."

"In general, most psychopaths will brag endlessly about their exploits and "bad" things they've done (often called a warning sign, which will ward off careful souls), but more often than not, the woman who is fascinated by him will not listen to reason, even if she is warned by others who know him about his past behaviors.
 
Why? Once again, because the psychopath makes her feel so "special."

"...Histrionic...women are particularly attracted and vulnerable to psychopathic males. The hysteric-personality-disordered female is likely to be enamored of the psychopath...She is able...to reciprocate in this projective-introjective cycle by predominately idealizing the psychopathic character. Her need for attachment and dependency complements his desire for detachment and autonomy; she perceives others as all-giving and benevolent, and he perceives others as all-taking and malevolent. 
 
The hysterical woman is immune to developing a healthy suspicion when details or circumstances don't fit (also relating to the illogicity of his thoughts/behavior) or do not corroborate the psychopath's oral version of his history." [From "The Psychopathic Mind" -- Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment J. Reil Meloy].

"Tim Field, a noted author and researcher of psychopathy, believes that the psychopath picks out people who can see through him: "A bully's (sociopath) apparent self-esteem and self-confidence is actually arrogance, an unsustainable belief of invulnerability honed from his willingness to act outside the bounds of society to ensure their survival. Targets (or victims) are people who can see through the arrogance to perceive the empty shell behind it - and bullies can sense who can see through them, furthering the target's elimination." [Bully OnLine]. This usually happens in the workplace, and in situations where the psychopath has let his mask drop."

"If you try to deal with psychopaths in an ethical manner, you will be in for a shock. Dr. William Higgins claims that you "can't negotiate or bargain with psychopaths.""
 
"The truth - when twisted by good liars, can always make an innocent person look bad - especially if the innocent person is honest and admits his mistakes. 
 
The basic assumption that the truth lies between the testimony of the two sides always shifts the advantage to the lying side and away from the side telling the truth. Under most circumstances, this shift put together with the fact that the truth is going to also be twisted in such a way as to bring detriment to the innocent person, results in the advantage always resting in the hands of liars - psychopaths. Even the simple act of giving testimony under oath is useless. If a person is a liar, swearing an oath means nothing to that person. However, swearing an oath acts strongly on a serious, truthful witness. Again, the advantage is placed on the side of the liar." [Robert Canup]

"This highlights one of the unique things about the psychopath: their seeming inability to conceive of the abstract idea of "the future".
It has often been noted that psychopaths have a distinct advantage over human beings with conscience and feelings because the psychopath does not have conscience and feelings. What seems to be so is that conscience and feelings are related to the abstract concepts of "future" and "others." It is "spatial-temporal." We can feel fear, sympathy, empathy, sadness, and so on because we can IMAGINE in an abstract way, the future based on our own experiences in the past, or even just "concepts of experiences" in myriad variations. We can "predict" how others will react because we are able to "see ourselves" in them even though they are "out there" and the situation is somewhat different externally, though similar in dynamic. In other words, we can not only identify with others spatially - so to say - but also temporally - in time.

The psychopath does not seem to have this capacity.

They are unable to "imagine" in the sense of being able to really connect to images in a direct "self connecting to another self" sort of way.

In short, the psychopath and the malignant narcissist - is a predator. If we think about the interactions of predators with their prey in the animal kingdom, we can come to some idea of what is behind the "mask of sanity" of the psychopath. Just as an animal predator will adopt all kinds of stealthy functions in order to stalk their prey, cut them out of the herd, get close to them and reduce their resistance, so does the psychopath construct all kinds of elaborate camouflage composed of words and appearances - lies and manipulations - in order to "assimilate" their prey.

This leads us to an important question: what does the psychopath REALLY get from their victims? It's easy to see what they are after when they lie and manipulate for money or material goods or power. But in many instances, such as love relationships or faked friendships, it is not so easy to see what the psychopath is after. Without wandering too far afield into spiritual speculations - a problem Cleckley also faced - we can only say that it seems to be that the psychopath ENJOYS making others suffer. Just as normal humans enjoy seeing other people happy, or doing things that make other people smile, the psychopath enjoys the exact opposite."

Colonel Russell Williams, a man placed in charged of Canada's largest military base and top secret military base in the Middle East. 

Steve Raucci, a man placed in charge of the entire Schenectady, New York, School Board Maintenance Department 

If we are serious about wanting to maintain a corruption free, democratic society, is it really a good idea to put psychopaths like these in charge of anything???? 

 

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Assange Statement on the First Day of Manning Trial from WikiLeaks

copied from WikiLeaks

Monday 3rd June 2013, 22:00 GMT

Statement by Julian Assange

As I type these lines, on June 3, 2013, Private First Class Bradley Edward Manning is being tried in a sequestered room at Fort Meade, Maryland, for the alleged crime of telling the truth. The court martial of the most prominent political prisoner in modern US history has now, finally, begun.

It has been three years. Bradley Manning, then 22 years old, was arrested in Baghdad on May 26, 2010. He was shipped to Kuwait, placed into a cage, and kept in the sweltering heat of Camp Arifjan.

"For me, I stopped keeping track," he told the court last November. "I didn’t know whether night was day or day was night. And my world became very, very small. It became these cages... I remember thinking I’m going to die."

After protests from his lawyers, Bradley Manning was then transferred to a brig at a US Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA, where - infamously - he was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of his captors - a formal finding by the UN. Isolated in a tiny cell for twenty-three out of twenty-four hours a day, he was deprived of his glasses, sleep, blankets and clothes, and prevented from exercising. All of this - it has been determined by a military judge - "punished" him before he had even stood trial.

"Brad’s treatment at Quantico will forever be etched, I believe, in our nation’s history, as a disgraceful moment in time" said his lawyer, David Coombs. "Not only was it stupid and counterproductive, it was criminal."

The United States was, in theory, a nation of laws. But it is no longer a nation of laws for Bradley Manning.

When the abuse of Bradley Manning became a scandal reaching all the way to the President of the United States and Hillary Clinton’s spokesman resigned to register his dissent over Mr. Manning’s treatment, an attempt was made to make the problem less visible. Bradley Manning was transferred to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

He has waited in prison for three years for a trial - 986 days longer than the legal maximum - because for three years the prosecution has dragged its feet and obstructed the court, denied the defense access to evidence and abused official secrecy. This is simply illegal - all defendants are constitutionally entitled to a speedy trial - but the transgression has been acknowledged and then overlooked.

Against all of this, it would be tempting to look on the eventual commencement of his trial as a mercy. But that is hard to do.

We no longer need to comprehend the "Kafkaesque" through the lens of fiction or allegory. It has left the pages and lives among us, stalking our best and brightest. It is fair to call what is happening to Bradley Manning a "show trial". Those invested in what is called the "US military justice system" feel obliged to defend what is going on, but the rest of us are free to describe this travesty for what it is. No serious commentator has any confidence in a benign outcome. The pretrial hearings have comprehensively eliminated any meaningful uncertainty, inflicting pre-emptive bans on every defense argument that had any chance of success.

Bradley Manning may not give evidence as to his stated intent (exposing war crimes and their context), nor may he present any witness or document that shows that no harm resulted from his actions. Imagine you were put on trial for murder. In Bradley Manning’s court, you would be banned from showing that it was a matter of self-defence, because any argument or evidence as to intent is banned. You would not be able to show that the ’victim’ is, in fact, still alive, because that would be evidence as to the lack of harm.

But of course. Did you forget whose show it is?

The government has prepared for a good show. The trial is to proceed for twelve straight weeks: a fully choreographed extravaganza, with a 141-strong cast of prosecution witnesses. The defense was denied permission to call all but a handful of witnesses. Three weeks ago, in closed session, the court actually held a rehearsal. Even experts on military law have called this unprecedented.

Bradley Manning’s conviction is already written into the script. The commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces, Barack Obama, spoiled the plot for all of us when he pronounced Bradley Manning guilty two years ago. "He broke the law," President Obama stated, when asked on camera at a fundraiser about his position on Mr. Manning. In a civilized society, such a prejudicial statement alone would have resulted in a mistrial.

To convict Bradley Manning, it will be necessary for the US government to conceal crucial parts of his trial. Key portions of the trial are to be conducted in secrecy: 24 prosecution witnesses will give secret testimony in closed session, permitting the judge to claim that secret evidence justifies her decision. But closed justice is no justice at all.

What cannot be shrouded in secrecy will be hidden through obfuscation. The remote situation of the courtroom, the arbitrary and discretionary restrictions on access for journalists, and the deliberate complexity and scale of the case are all designed to drive fact-hungry reporters into the arms of official military PR men, who mill around the Fort Meade press room like over-eager sales assistants. The management of Bradley Manning’s case will not stop at the limits of the courtroom. It has already been revealed that the Pentagon is closely monitoring press coverage and social media discussions on the case.

This is not justice; never could this be justice. The verdict was ordained long ago. Its function is not to determine questions such as guilt or innocence, or truth or falsehood. It is a public relations exercise, designed to provide the government with an alibi for posterity. It is a show of wasteful vengeance; a theatrical warning to people of conscience.

The alleged act in respect of which Bradley Manning is charged is an act of great conscience - the single most important disclosure of subjugated history, ever. There is not a political system anywhere on the earth that has not seen light as a result. In court, in February, Bradley Manning said that he wanted to expose injustice, and to provoke worldwide debate and reform. Bradley Manning is accused of being a whistleblower, a good man, who cared for others and who followed higher orders. Bradley Manning is effectively accused of conspiracy to commit journalism.

But this is not the language the prosecution uses. The most serious charge against Bradley Manning is that he "aided the enemy" - a capital offence that should require the greatest gravity, but here the US government laughs at the world, to breathe life into a phantom. The government argues that Bradley Manning communicated with a media organisation, WikiLeaks, who communicated to the public. It also argues that al-Qaeda (who else) is a member of the public. Hence, it argues that Bradley Manning communicated "indirectly" with al-Qaeda, a formally declared US "enemy", and therefore that Bradley Manning communicated with "the enemy".

But what about "aiding" in that most serious charge, "aiding the enemy"? Don’t forget that this is a show trial. The court has banned any evidence of intent. The court has banned any evidence of the outcome, the lack of harm, the lack of any victim. It has ruled that the government doesn’t need to show that any "aiding" occurred and the prosecution doesn’t claim it did. The judge has stated that it is enough for the prosecution to show that al-Qaeda, like the rest of the world, reads WikiLeaks.

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people," wrote John Adams, "who have a right and a desire to know.”

When communicating with the press is "aiding the enemy" it is the "general knowledge among the people" itself which has become criminal. Just as Bradley Manning is condemned, so too is that spirit of liberty in which America was founded.

In the end it is not Bradley Manning who is on trial. His trial ended long ago. The defendent now, and for the next 12 weeks, is the United States. A runaway military, whose misdeeds have been laid bare, and a secretive government at war with the public. They sit in the docks. We are called to serve as jurists. We must not turn away.

Free Bradley Manning.


No copyright has been asserted for this document. Julian Assange has entered it into the public domain.