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In the early days of 2011, an Egyptian woman posted a video online urging people to go to Tahrir Square to register dissatisfaction with the Mubarak regime. That video helped spark a revolution.
Today, a video was posted at YouTube by a young American calling on activists to pool their knowledge, resources and skills to join Bradley Manning supporters on April 5, 2013 in public protest against the US Government’s war on whistleblowers.
Why April 5, you ask?
That is the day that Icelandic Parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir will arrive in the US to begin a photo exhibit of still shots taken from Collateral Murder, the video evidence of US war crimes in Iraq released by Wikileaks. Jonsdottir plans to bring the exhibit nationwide to draw attention to the upcoming trial of Bradley Manning, who leaked the video and a cache of US Government diplomatic cables to Julian Assange. Manning’s trial is scheduled to begin in June.
Jonsdottir’s arrival in the United States is particularly important because she could be arrested upon landing. The US government has indicated an interest in staff of Wikileaks generally and in Jonsdottir specifically. As a volunteer for Wikileaks, Jonsdottir helped produce the Collateral Murder video that brought the wrath of the US Government on Julian Assange. Since the release of Collateral Murder, the US Government has subpoenad Twitter for account information relating to Jonsdottir, and fear of prosecution by the US has led her to join a lawsuit against NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) that allows for indefinite detention of persons, possibly including journalists, who the United States believes provide support to terrorists.
Although according the YouTube video the FBI claims that it will not act on her arrival, the government of Iceland has warned Jonsdottir that any such guarantee should not be trusted.
Will this video National Call to Action help draw activists from Occupy, Anonymous, the Pirate Party, and supporters of whistleblowers like Manning, Drake, Kirakou and others together on April 5? I don’t know. But I hope that it does.
5 Comments
As do I, yellowsnapdragon. Here’s to keeping our fingers crossed in hope. Thanks for letting us know about Jonsdottir’s mission.
Coming to the US where she could be arrested and treated like Manning is a brave act. Hopefully there will be some activists watching he back when she arrives.
Awesome courage, thanks for the info, ysd.
X2
Thanks, ysd. Wish she would bring some of Iceland’s banking execs, in stripes, as well.
Just tried to find more in the bing cache, and I guess I failed. Hopefully more groups will become aware…and rally. Might be a good idea if some of the big civil rights attorneys were on hand, of course.