Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Online, whistleblower gets feted as 'war hero'- Dec 1, 2010,

Online, whistleblower gets feted as 'war hero'

Shreya Roy Chowdhury, TNN, Dec 1, 2010, 02.20am IST

For one set, no punishment is severe enough for Bradley Manning; for another, he's a real "war hero." Accused of leaking the infamous "Collateral Murder" video of Americal soldiers gunning down civilians in Baghdad in 2007 as well as a giant cache of secret papers to WikiLeaks, the 23-year-old private was arrested in May 2010.

WikiLeaks, of course, hasn't confirmed that Manning's the whistleblower. Editor-in-chief Julian Assange has maintained in interviews that WikiLeaks rarely ever knows the identity of its own sources. But the private from Oklahoma who was an intelligence analyst is being hailed as a hero by many.

Manning's got a website dedicated to him that is trying to rally in support from various organizations and individuals and collect funds to pay for defense. It lists among a host of peace and anti-war organizations, Noam Chomsky, as supporter.

Chomsky has also provided a comment. He writes, "It is a privilege to join the campaign to support Bradley Manning for his courage and integrity in serving his country by helping make the government accountable to its citizens, and to inform the world of what its people should know."

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