From CommonDreams.org

The following is a rush transcript by Common Dreams of the statement made by Pfc. Bradley Manning as read by David Coombs at a press conference on Wednesday following the announcement of his 35-year prison sentence by a military court:

The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war.  We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life.

I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country.  It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing.  It was at this time I realized in our efforts to meet this risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity.  We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan.  When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians.  Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.

Let me make it clear that I appreciate Senator Ron Wyden’s willingness to raise the issues surrounding the US surveillance state, albeit quite obliquely until Edward Snowden risked his life to put the details on the table.

In a fascinating interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Wyden contorts logic in defense of compliance with the classification rules that determine what can and can not be discussed, and pats himself on the back for getting certain things declassified, including statements about an important FISA court ruling (but not the ruling itself). He then goes on to say that while the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has now admitted that the national security apparatus has violated FISA court orders on bulk phone record collection, “I’ll tell your viewers that those violations are significantly more troubling than the government has stated.”

Last week, I wrote about the need to get to the bottom of one critical question, “whether Obama’s statements are intentionally obtuse and misleading, or just an outright lie.” I think the answer of this question will ultimately determine the fate of the Obama Administration, and whether or not he will finish his term. Knowing that Edward Snowden’s application of sunlight to the NSA’s unconstitutional spying apparatus has more revelations to come, it appears to me that the public is beginning to wise up to the “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.” Sadly, as a U.S. Senator, Al Franken — the author of that book and its critique of the right-wing punditocracy — has taken to defending the lies and the lying liars who tell them when they are told by Democrats.

But a spied-upon United States public (not to mention a spied-upon European Union) does not take kindly to liars or their apologists, and the Democrats are alienating both their friends and enemies. The first casualty of this growing scandal will clearly be the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who outright lied to Congress back in March:

It is time for a new public outcry — based on civil liberties and collective rights, beyond left and right, beyond ideology. It is time for all Obama supporters who once passionately stood up against the abuses of the Bush II administration to stand up once again. It is time for those who are afraid to speak out against an overzealous national security apparatus to begin to raise our voices together. In the face of the naked persecution of two prominent whistleblowers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks activist Julian Assange, as well as dozens of other people trying to shine a light on the wrongdoing of unaccountable government forces, it is time to take the security establishment up on its suggestion to SAY SOMETHING upon seeing something.

I believe that President Obama crossed a line on his recent appearance on Charlie Rose, spewing outright lies in an effort to protect his administration from growing criticism:

On behalf of all Americans who seek a new direction, who yearn for a new birth of freedom to build the just society, who see justice as the great work of human beings on Earth, who understand that community and human fulfillment are mutually reinforcing, who respect the urgent necessity to wage peace, to protect the environment, to end poverty and to preserve values of the spirit for future generations, who wish to build a deep democracy by working hard for a regenerative progressive politics, as if people mattered – to all these citizens and the Green vanguard, I welcome and am honored to accept the Green Party nomination for President of the United States.

–Ralph Nader’s acceptance statement, June, 2000

Despite “pwogressive” criticisms from William Kaufman and Mitchel Cohen in CounterPunch, I think the Green Shadow Cabinet launched earlier this year represents the single most-inspired initiative from Greens in the past decade. Running for office is a boilerplate third-party tactic — critical for building a credible and independent political party, but tired, temporary, constricting, and, too often, distracting. And while Ralph Nader made the case for the Green Party as a vehicle for an independent progressive force in American politics for a few years starting in the late nineties, he quickly changed his tune, muddling his message in the process. What vehicle were we left to organize around, for genuine grassroots democracy? His campaign? His non-profits that had been forced to distance themselves from Nader-the-politician? In his 2000 campaign, Nader made the point that politics — and power — isn’t about what happens on election day, but what happens in between elections, what happens in our communities day in and day out.

There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship toward ‘a new birth of freedom.’ – Ralph Nader

by Howard Zinn

Published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe (from the Zinn Reader)

Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.

In 1974, I was invited by Tom Winship, the editor of the Boston Globe, who had been bold enough in 1971 to print part of the top secret Pentagon Papers on the history of the Vietnam War, to write a bi-weekly column for the op-ed page of the newspaper. I did that for about a year and a half. The column below appeared June 2, 1976, in connection with that year’s Memorial Day. After it appeared, my column was canceled.

* * * * *

Memorial Day will be celebrated as usual, by high-speed collisions of automobiles and bodies strewn on highways and the sound of ambulance sirens throughout the land.

It will also be celebrated by the display of flags, the sound of bugles and drums, by parades and speeches and unthinking applause.

It will be celebrated by giant corporations, which make guns, bombs, fighter planes, aircraft carriers and an endless assortment of military junk and which await the $100 billion in contracts to be approved soon by Congress and the President.

BY ROBINSON JEFFERS, 1938

Then what is the answer?-Not to be deluded by dreams.

To know the great civilizations have broken down into violence, and their tyrants come, many times before.

When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose the least ugly faction; these evils are essential.

To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted and not wish for evil; and not be duped

By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will not be fulfilled.

To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand

Is an ugly thing, and man dissevered from the earth and stars and his history…for contemplation or in fact…

Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is

Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe. Love that, not man

Apart from that, or else you will share man’s pitiful confusions, or drown in despair when his days darken.

{ via The Dark Mountain Project }