Bradley Manning and the Citizens Medal

[Cascade]

The White House recently sent out an email asking for nominations for the 2013 Citizens Medal. I felt inspired to suggest Bradley Manning, the young soldier who provided much useful information to Wikileaks (since the New York Times and other papers didn't want to publish it). For information about Bradley Manning, see the Bradley Manning Support Network at:

https://www.bradleymanning.org/

So I'm submitting my nomination for him to receive the citizens medal with the following statement:

"He revealed atrocities being committed by the army. He is a whistleblower who deserves praise for revealing things that should not be secret, but instead should be published, discussed, and often punished. He risked his personal freedom to defend our freedom - we can't have freedom and democracy when our government is acting against our laws and again international law and fomenting hatred and terrorism by its acts.

"The long term problem he addressed is that of secrecy, of the impunity of acts of terror performed by our soldiers, of deceit by our government officials.

"We can only hope that in the long run his actions will provide inspiration for other whistleblowers. He is the Daniel Ellsberg of our times, and is a hero."

I urge others to do the same - this is one way to let the White House know that we are against the government persecution of Bradley Manning. The link to do this is:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/citizensm...t-a-nomination