But they want to break her. Niles Niemuth (WSWS) reports:
Federal District Judge Anthony Trenga rejected a motion Monday from imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning to reconsider the imposition of daily fines for her principled refusal to testify before a grand jury impaneled to bring frame-up charges against WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange.
Manning has been held in contempt of court for 149 days in the Alexandria City Jail. She now owes $40,000 in fines and is being assessed $1,000 for every day she refuses to testify, up from $500 per day assessed in her second month of confinement.
Manning expects to spend approximately 400 more days in jail if the grand jury does not conclude before its 18-month term is up. This means she would face a total of $441,000 in fines.
The 31-year-old former Army intelligence analyst is being vindictively pursued by the Trump administration for her role in exposing US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. She leaked to WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of military war logs, diplomatic cables and the infamous Collateral Murder video, which showed an Apache helicopter airstrike in Baghdad that killed at least a dozen civilians, including two Reuters journalists.
Manning was already convicted in 2013 on a number of charges, including under the Espionage Act. She served seven years in military detention, including one year in solitary confinement, before her 35-year sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017 as part of a cynical effort to burnish his record just before leaving office.
Assange is currently being imprisoned at Belmarsh Prison in England after being illegally snatched by police from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had been granted asylum. He was quickly convicted on a bogus bail-jumping charge and is awaiting an extradition hearing February 25 on his rendition to the United States.
Assange currently faces 18 charges, including 17 under the Espionage Act, and up to 175 years in prison for publishing the information which he received from Manning in 2010.
Last month, federal district judge John Koeltl dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee which attempted to smear WikiLeaks and Assange as assets of the Russian government for publishing leaked DNC emails during the 2016 election. The ruling was a vindication of WikiLeaks’s rights as a publisher and exposed the ongoing effort to prosecute Assange over the publication of the documents provided by Manning.
The fact that Manning is still being detained in an effort to compel her testimony indicates that further charges are being considered which would be unsealed once Assange is firmly in Washington’s grips—even though current British and US law does not allow for further charges to be unsealed after a formal extradition request.
We should all be demanding "Hands off Chelsea Manning!" and "Free Chelsea Manning!"
Chelsea is a hero.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
The Trump administration deported 41-year-old Detroit man Jimmy Aldaoud to Iraq — he'd never been to Iraq, spoke no Arabic, and couldn't access his insulin. He died on Tuesday.
No, the Trump administration didn't deport him. The US deported him. Use it as a reason to vote Donald Trump out, fine. But don't kid yourself that this rests only on Donald Trump. Don't be a liar, like Shaun King.
Trump murdered Jimmy Aldaoud when he deported him to Iraq.
He was born in Greece.
Is a Christian.
Doesn’t speak Arabic.
Lived in the USA since he was 6 months old.
Died on the streets of Iraq because he was diabetic and couldn’t find insulin.
Shaun King is a liar. He knows better but he pretends the whole thing is Donald Trump.
The courts failed Jimmy and the Congress failed Jimmy. We the American people failed Jimmy. We all allowed a system in place to continue to exist. Donald didn't invent deportations. They existed as part of the system. He's not gamed the system, he's done what is allowed.
It's outrageous what we allow.
Shame on anyone who needs to lie or whore to pretend that the problem is Donald Trump. That lie may let you sleep safe at night but it's not the truth and it doesn't help immigrants.
Barack Obama deported more immigrants than any other US president. And some of those died after being deported as well. The press existed to oooh and aaaah over every move of Barack's. He was their preening baby boy. And they ignored all that he did wrong.
There are no perfect human beings who become presidents in our modern age. They all have huge egos and they all lie a lot. That includes Barack. And these people who are trying to once again deify him are mental midgets who are incapable of any thought or any action. They lie to themselves because they're cowardly jerks who won't do the work required.
If you are truly offended about what happened to Jimmy, you should take your part of the blame -- a blame all of us -- me included -- in the United States share -- and demand changes to the system.
You should also grasp that there are worse places Jimmy could have gone than Iraq. Unlike the US, Iraq has universal health care. After the US government destroyed Iraq, when it was time to redraw rights, they were happy -- the US government -- to strip the rights of women and any other attacks they could get away with. They would have liked to have turned Iraq over to private insurance but they knew they couldn't get away with that.
So at some point, when you're done shrieking at Donald Trump, you also need to find out how, in Iraq, Jimmy fell through the cracks. He was a diabetic before he left the US. He was on insulin before he made it to Iraq. Was this not properly conveyed during the deportation? If so, another failure of the United States. If it was conveyed, did the Iraqi government not do what they needed to do to ensure that the newly arrived Jimmy received insulin.
I'm not shocked that so many refuse to admit our guilt in what happened to Jimmy. I am stunned that Shaun King -- who always plays more-woke-than-thou -- wants to pretend this is all Donald Trump's fault.
That lie does nothing to help immigrants and does nothing to change the system. All that lie does is provide motivation to vote Donald Trump out -- the system remains the same and that means the press goes into darkness on this issue when someone they like is next in the White House.
If Jimmy's life and his death mattered, we all owe it to him to be honest about what happened, how it happened and how we can change it from ever happening again.
It's also amazing how there is no concern for Iraqi refugees who suffer throughout the world, scattered as a result of the US-initiated and US-led Iraq War.
Though the US doesn't discuss it and the US outright ignores it, #SaveIraqiRefugees has been a trending hashtag on Twitter for some time now.
For those how had the luxury of looking away in the past, here are some older Tweets.
we are a family of Iraqi refugees in Turkey. We have young children
We ask you in the name of humanity and all heavenly covenants and international charters to look and find a quick solution to save us. Thank you so much.#StandWithIraqiRefugees #ForMigration #SaveIraqiRefugees
#world #hearUs #HearMeToo
#HumanRights @Refugees
We are Iraqi refugees in Turkey, we face unknown fate becuse of the delay of processing our cases since 2013/2014 till now, We Ask you for an urgent solution
#StandWithIraqiRefugees
#SaveiraqiRefugees
#SaveIraqiRefugeesInTurkey
Can you imagine what does running from death mean?leaving everything behind?living with unknwon fate?losing you children's future?
Waiting for years with no hope?
No one knows but IRAQI REFUGEES IN TURKEY
#SaveIraqiRefugees twitter.com/UNarabic/statu…
We(Iraqi refugees-Turkey)are complaining from delaying the processing of our files since2013/14/15/16till.the unfair is we choosed the legal way but we faced long waiting,by contrast,who went illegally have got resettled even got IDs while we are waiting
#SaveIraqiRefugees
Please,please,will you rescue Iraqi children from losing more years with no education in Turkey because of long waiting for resettlment that lasted 6 years with no hope #StandWithIraqiRefugees #Iraqi_refugees_in_Turkey #ForMigration #SaveIraqiRefugees
And here are some more recent Tweets.
Please,please,will you rescue Iraqi children from losing more years with no education in Turkey because of long waiting for resettlment that lasted 6 years with no hope #StandWithIraqiRefugees #Iraqi_refugees_in_Turkey #ForMigration #SaveIraqiRefugees
I prayed now. Every day I pray. Please @Refugees find a way to help their desperate plight.#SaveIraqiRefugeesInTurkey #SaveIraqiRefugees
Here are some more recent Tweets.
What about the rights of Iraqi refugees in Turkey?They have been waiting resettlment since2013/14/15till now.They lost their gains,homes,children's future and even their families.we want justice,other nationalities came after us and settled before us
#SaveIraqiRefugees InTurkey
We are,the old people,the weak women,the teenagers,the children,and the disabililties people in Turkey,whome the world humanity let them down,because of leaving them wait for resettlment for a long time
#SaveIraqiRefugees
@SponsorRefugee Please,please,will you rescue Iraqi children from losing more years with no education in Turkey because of long waiting for resettlment that lasted 6 years with no hope #StandWithIraqiRefugees #Iraqi_refugees_in_Turkey #ForMigration #SaveIraqiRefugees
Jimmy is dead. That's awful. In life we did nothing as a people to rescue him. If we want to honor him in death, the answer is to address the system and change it. Pretending it's all Donald Trump's fault will not help refugees, will not bring a human response to the immigration issue.
The United States loves to lie to itself which is how they pretended nothing at all was wrong when Barack Obama (and Joe Biden) deported more immigrants than had ever been deported before.
At last week's debates, some activists made their voices heard. Jake Tapper gave a disgusting look to the cameras and ignored them.
Now that might fly with Don Lemon who is nothing but a huckster and has no news background. But Jake came from ABC NEWS and when someone's protesting in a debate that is actual news. If they are not on the microphone and you are part of the news industry, it is your job to tell the audience what they were saying. There's no excuse for ignoring it the way Jake did.
That the issue was immigration makes it all the more appalling because Jake Tapper and others spent eight years of Barack Obama's two terms as president ignoring the reality of what was happening.
I'm sure your fam wasn't harmed by the Obama deportation machine. Mine was. Some of the fams of the ppl who were protesting Biden were. Stupid is running on a pro-immigrant platform, having an entire Democratic gov, not passing any legislation & instead deporting millions of us.
For those saying we have to focus on defeating Trump, all I gotta say is that we can walk & chew gum at the same time. I think we have to. Defeating that racist and replacing him with the RIGHT person is the goal. For that, we have to recognize our mistakes and do better.
Neera Tanden is the ugly girl no guy wanted to f**k in high school or college who had no achievements -- scholastic or otherwise -- to boast of so she sold whatever was left of her soul to defend the system.
Barack is not in the White House. That he managed to go eight years without being held accountable while president goes to how he rigged and gamed the system.
He is raking in millions each year that no one else is. It's not like he knows a damn thing about creating entertainment content but NETFLIX is paying him millions to do so -- unless they go under first, please let them go under. He's sailing around on Richard Branson's yacht.
He's not doing a damn thing to help anyone. And he never will. He came from a whore mother -- yeah, let's stop being nice, she spread her legs all over Indonesia to spy for the US government, that is why she was there and it's why Barack, immediately after receiving his B.S., went to work for a CIA cut-out. Why is John Pilger the only one who will tell the truth?
The same reason that Amy Goodman put on a CIA whore to cover for Barack's mother. She did. Did Amy know? Amy's basically functionally illiterate so who knows what that piece of trash knows. What I know, what Elaine knows, is that bitch of the 'left' was a CIA agent. We knows that because she was a whore -- an ugly whore, the men she slept with must have been desperate -- and a loud person that we never cared for and when Elaine was dating a member of the British Parliament and we were at a party that creature crashed the party, and Elaine's date slipped and let out that she was working for the CIA. So we know for a fact that she's an old whore for the CIA. All she could do was suck off strangers to get information. She's a dirty whore. That's also what Barack's mother was. Only Stanley wasn't ugly and didn't look like a man. But she did trick people and spy on them and pretend she was there to help while all she was doing was finding out ways to undermine them. She was a whore. Gloria Steinem is as well. She's so mad that she can't escape her CIA past. In the 70s, she would tell friends like me that it was a lie. And we believed her because she was convincing and she was our friend. But as women like Marilyn French, who we respected, refused to let it go, the charge wasn't just something between Gloria and Betty Friedan. Thanks to YOUTUBE, we can now all see Gloria in the sixties bragging about her work for the CIA. She's an ends justifies the means piece of trash. Her dishonesty or the way her spying impacted others (people were killed, Gloria, because of your spying) is not to be dismissed and, fortunately, it's not going to be. She does not get the last word and that reality is tearing her up in side. May it destroy her completely, that's the only justice for her victims.
There are serious questions to ask about the attempt to overthrow the 2016 election and John Brennan and others role in that. It appears to have been a CIA operation. At one point, when the press was a tiny bit more independent, there was concern in 1980 that Poppy Bush was CIA and running for the vice presidency.
There was no such concern over Barack and his ties to the CIA. It appears that Barack and the CIA got a little over confident about what they could get away with it and thought they could get away with running Donald Trump out of office on lies.
This was an assault on our democracy. It had nothing to do with Russia. It is so strange that while the assault was going on, none of our brave press stopped to note how many CIA officials were coming out publicly against Donald Trump. That's not their role. They should have no role, the CIA needs to be shut down. But they went way beyond what had been accepted before and instead of making that point, the press looked the other way.
Yes, some looked the other way because they're on the CIA payroll. Some looked the other way because they thought they were 'helping' the US government. Some looked the other way out of fear. Some looked the other way because they're just too damn stupid to grasp what they see with their own eyes.
But this was a clear assault on the presidency and on democracy.
I can't stand Donald Trump. That goes back years and years.
That has nothing to do with what was done to our presidency and our democracy by the illegal actions of the CIA and members of the Obama administration.
If Donald Trump wants a shot at history in any way, he better be working to expose the liars. They need to be exposed, they need to be put in prison.
If you're a little cry baby who can't grasp how dangerous this was, then you're hurting democracy.
We will always have people elected to be president that we don't like. That's the system we have.
But to allow an administration to weaponize intel against a presidential candidate as was done with Donald Trump is outrageous. And if Donald Trump doesn't have the guts to get to the bottom of this, our democracy doesn't exist. If the people responsible are not punished, this will happen again and, at some point, it's going to happen to a president that you care about.
If you have any ethics at all, you grasp that the situation matters regardless of who is president.
Trump-era "Resistance" media & political culture should be studied for its craven self-interest & political stupidity. Instead of focusing on his actual policies, top Democratic & media figures embraced a moronic conspiracy theory. The result? This:
Donald's now more popular. Great job BUZZFLASH and others. Keep pimping nostalgia for Barack Obama and trying to sell Michelle's bad book. That'll help us get Medicare For All -- no, it won't. I'm so tired of these whores and idiots who appoint themselves as the saviors of the American people and then waste everyone's time ignoring real needs and issues while they attempt to manipulate the electorate.
Want to deal with real issues? Talk about what's being done by the US government to Venezuela.
The Trump admin is trying to overthrow Venezuela's government w/ crippling, murderous sanctions that a leading opposition economist warns could lead to famine. Yet a lot of top progressives have ignored it & even key Democratic leaders support it:
Disgraceful that US coup effort in Venezuela has either been ignored or cheered on by top Dems/pundits. US has just imposed a blockade on top of the murderous sanctions that a leading opposition economist warns could cause famine. (thegrayzone.com/2019/07/23/us-…) Where's the Resistance?
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