Feb. 23 marked 1,000 days in prison for 24-year-old Bradley Manning. Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, has been indefinitely imprisoned for exposing war crimes. He is accused of releasing a video that shows the killing of unarmed citizens and two journalists in Iraq by a U.S. Apache helicopter crew as well as sharing U.S. diplomatic cables which were published by WikiLeaks. Imprisoned without a hearing for over a year, he was placed in solitary confinement with sleep deprivation (if used for prolonged periods of time, sleep deprivation can be considered a form of torture and is considered in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights).
Presidents Bush and Obama have both detained citizens without a hearing and without trial under the National Defense Authorization Act.
On Feb. 21 there was a hearing in Olympia regarding a new bill brought forth to protect citizens from indefinite detention in Washington state. Thank you Rep. Jason Overstreet for bringing forth this bill. The committee has not yet voted on the bill so there is time for everyone to contact their representatives and ask that they support protecting citizens from unconstitutional indefinite detention.
Bradley Manning is currently a Nobel peace prize nominee. To follow his story go to bradleymanning.org. Exposing war crimes should not be a crime.
Christy Nieto
Bellingham
