Coleen Rowley: Obama is not listening

On April 12, FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley visited Duluth to rally support for Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist accused of leaking evidence of US war crimes to Wikileaks. Representatives of NAWC and Veterans for Peace joined Rowley for a noon press conference at the Duluth Civic Center, which was covered by local television stations and KUWS radio. 

“Disclosing fraud, waste, abuse, a risk to public safety or an illegal act is heroic."

Coleen Rowley

Tom Palumbo, a 12-year veteran of the US Army and registered nurse, told members of the media that the conditions of Manning's pre-trial confinement - including sleep deprivation and extreme isolation - were unethical and could lead to long-term physical and mental health problems for the 23-year-old private. 

Rowley spoke about her experience exposing both the failure of US intelligence agencies to follow leads on the planned 9/11 attack and the increased risk of terrorism that would result from an invasion of Iraq. She said that after 24 years in the FBI she is convinced that transparency is vital to democracy and national security. “Disclosing fraud, waste, abuse, a risk to public safety or an illegal act is heroic," she said, but added that "it’s very difficult to do,” especially for members of the military who have "no ability to speak up." Unfortunately, whistle-blower protection laws have little chance of clearing Congress, she said, and Obama appears more eager than Bush to prosecute people who expose wrong-doing, as evidenced by Manning's case.

Check out local coverage of the press conference here:

• WDIO: FBI Whistleblower speaks in Duluth
• Business North/KUWS: FBI 9/11 whistle blower in Duluth

Later that evening, Rowley delivered the final lecture in the Terrorism and Human Rights series at the College of St Scholastica. If you missed it, here's the full lecture. You can watch other speakers in the series at St Scholastica's YouTube channel.

Iraq war logs: torture, "body counts" and what our government knew but refused to tell

Photo: Fallujah, 2003, by Christan Peacemaker Teams

Last week, the whistleblower website Wikileaks released nearly 400,000 previously secret US military field reports from Iraq, dated from 2004 to early 2010. Reporters at the UK-based Guardian and the German Der Spiegel are only beginning to sift through the mountainous files, but already a disturbing picture has emerged of torture, deception and a much larger civilian death toll than the US government previously admitted.

Some of the chilling details:

• ** US commanders ordered troops to ignore reports of torture by Iraqi security forces, and knowingly turned captives over to torture squads;
• ** Despite Gen. Tommy Franks' insistence that "we don't do body counts," the Pentagon in fact cataloged at least 100,000 violent deaths of Iraqis between 2004 and 2009, including 66,000 civilians;
• ** Apache helicopter pilots killed insurgents they knew were trying to surrender;
• ** Frightened and trigger-happy US troops routinely gunned down civilians at checkpoints, and deaths and injury by "friendly fire" were far more common than reported.
  

This information comes as little surprise to anti-war activists, but provides concrete evidence of torture and lies by US and Iraqi forces. The leaks have sent shock waves across the world, and both UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and the UN's chief investigator on torture have called for investigations of possible war crimes.

But the US media have been largely quiet about the details of the documents, preferring to regurgitate the Pentagon's Orwellian claim that Wikileaks, and not the US military, has "blood on its hands." The Obama Administration, led by a man who once campaigned on an anti-war and transparency platform, has likewise attacked the messenger, calling for prosecution not of US war criminals but of Wikileaks volunteers and brave whistleblowers within the military. Already in May of this year, military police arrested 23-year old Private Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking secret military data. Commanders who okayed torture walk freely, but Pvt. Manning faces 52 years in prison for exposing their crimes.

What you can do:

1. Read the war logs. You can check out wikileaks.org or read synopses as they become available at the Guardian or Der Spiegel.
2. Support Bradley Manning. Sign the online petition and make a donation to his legal defense at bradleymanning.org.
3. Get organizing! The times demand a people's movement for accountability and an end to the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. NAWC's next monthly meeting is November 7, 2pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Duluth (835 W College). All are welcome.