Yesterday Truthdig and today Dandelion Salad published an article by Christopher Hedges, who was present at Ft Meade during the hearing in which Bradley Manning delivered his first public statement. Journalist Alexa O’Brien has transcribed Manning’s statement which is also published at Dandelion Salad. Below is Hedges’ entry We Are Bradley Manning:
I was in a military courtroom at Fort Meade in Maryland on Thursday as Pfc. Bradley Manning admitted giving classified government documents to WikiLeaks. The hundreds of thousands of leaked documents exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as government misconduct. A statement that Manning made to the court was a powerful and moving treatise on the importance of placing conscience above personal safety, the necessity of sacrificing careers and liberty for the public good, and the moral imperative of carrying out acts of defiance. Manning will surely pay with many years—perhaps his entire life—in prison. But we too will pay. The war against Bradley Manning is a war against us all.
This trial is not simply the prosecution of a 25-year-old soldier who had the temerity to report to the outside world the indiscriminate slaughter, war crimes, torture and abuse that are carried out by our government and our occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a concerted effort by the security and surveillance state to extinguish what is left of a free press, one that has the constitutional right to expose crimes by those in power. The lonely individuals who take personal risks so that the public can know the truth—the Daniel Ellsbergs, the Ron Ridenhours, the Deep Throats and the Bradley Mannings—are from now on to be charged with “aiding the enemy.” All those within the system who publicly reveal facts that challenge the official narrative will be imprisoned, as was John Kiriakou, the former CIA analyst who for exposing the U.S. government’s use of torture began serving a 30-month prison term the day Manning read his statement. There is a word for states that create these kinds of information vacuums: totalitarian. (more…)
Following the publication of Aqua Keene Parking Force, another video featuring similar graphic design has appeared on the Fr33manTVraw youtube channel. In this episode, Slavoj Žižek and Charlie Rose discuss the monstrosity of the Stalin regime in historical context. Zizek analyzes the suicidal nature of Stalinism and the implosion of the top-heavy, bureaucratic Central Committee.
The Fr33manTVraw channel recently received one of its largest uploads to date. The 82 minute video is the first third of a compilation of raw footage from our group’s first day on the ground for the NATO summit protests. The videos have been released first to the raw channel, and then to Free Concord’s youtube channel as they are edited and narrated to give the footage context. For those looking for the entire journey of the camera, the raw footage includes practically everything filmed. The previous day’s release, Day Zero, is just over nine minutes edited and just under ten raw. Within the coming weeks, a shortened, finished product will publish from the following day. In the meantime, the raw first segment of Day One: Boots on the Ground is live:
Yesterday truth-out.com posted an update on the NATO 3 case in Illinois, where three travelling protesters still remain caged on state-level charges of domestic terrorism after their apartment was raided by police days before the historic protest weekend.
This video set from the New Hampshire Liberty Forum details what may become the most significant technological and economic innovation for advancing human liberty. Bitcoin, a crypto-currency that has multiplied in value over the last year, seems to be replacing silver and other precious metals as the best investment and inflation hedge. With a fixed rate of production, there is no counterfeiting concern, from either third parties or the issuing authority. The digital platform allows for any quantity of payment to be distributed to anywhere that can connect to the internet, almost instantly. Bitcoin eclipses modern financial institutions in terms of transaction processing abilities, and the decentralized design of the program provides multiple layers of security to meet the user’s custom needs. Hosting the panel on the revolutionary alternative to fiat currency are Erik Vorhees, Roger Ver, and Charlie Shrem. Since being uploaded three days ago to the Fr33manTVraw channel, the first of eight videos from the presentation has over 1500 views.
Today’s 2013 NH Liberty Forum presentation video is none other than footage from the screening of the unreleased documentary Vote Jesus: The Chronicles of Ken Stevenson. Presidential hopeful Vermin Supreme went undercover as Ken Stevenson in 2008 to make the film, remaining in character while engaging with numerous figures from America’s christian right. In the post-screening Q&A, Vermin discusses the history of the project and the potential for a release of some version of the film in the future. You may recognize the self-declared Emperor of the New Millenium as featured in previous Free Concord content: Election summary The Most Least Important Primary, Capitol Center debate arrest coverage, On the Campaign Trail with Vermin Supreme, Arrested on Election Eve: Why not to talk to police, Tough Questions on Oral Hygiene interview, and presidential endorsement Why You Should Consider Vermin Supreme in 2012.
I’d like to thank you all for enjoying my playing, and having fun with pretend, and coming up with these outrageous things, and running with them, and letting the people at large, and the media think that it’s something real. You people are a force multiplier for this sort of absurdity, this sort of surrealism, this sort of critique of American politics, and I think the more people that get involved and take this sort of tact, the better.
Following yesterday’s video of a presentation by Pete Eyre, today Free Concord presents footage from the premiere of the director’s cut of Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree. The director’s cut is the street legal version of the film which appears on the recently released DVD, available through Amazon. While a theatrical release of the original cut of the film screened at Keene Cinemas in September, the February 22 screening at the Liberty Forum was the first public showing of the newer version. DVDs were also on hand for sale, which feature hours of bonus footage from related Shire activism. After the film, Derrick fielded questions from the audience.
Yesterday Truthdig and today Dandelion Salad published an article by Christopher Hedges, who was present at Ft Meade during the hearing in which Bradley Manning delivered his first public statement. Journalist Alexa O’Brien has transcribed Manning’s statement which is also published at Dandelion Salad. Below is Hedges’ entry We Are Bradley Manning:
