IF YOU MISSED HEARING CHASE SPEAK, GET THE BOOK!

 

CHASE MADAR OVER HERE 6TH – 15TH MAY

Chase Madar is a man who is very well informed about Bradley Manning. Amongst other things.

GIVING CONTEXT 

Like the context of the story.

The backdrop against which that breathtakingly simple, yet courageous and far reaching action of resistance which we celebrate, took place.

Against which all that information which ‘wanted to be free’ was gifted to us, the public, through the work of WikiLeaks and that key ‘reader of our times’; Julian Assange, at a point in history when the excessive secrecy of the state facilitates, and has facilitated, serious abuse and human rights violations, and poses a present threat to us all. 

OK, WHO IS CHASE MADAR?

Chase Madar is a NY based human rights lawyer, previously best known to us perhaps as someone who  contributes to The London Review of Books and who writes for TomDispatch and The American Conservative.

But what concerns us here is that he has written a book called The Passion of Bradley Manning which tells us a great deal that we need to know about the significance of Brad’s act (and that of the existence of WikiLeaks).

This is a vid of Chase Madar appearing on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story to discuss the case with Jessalyn Radack and Joe Glenton in March. The discussion begins at 7.30 on the video (but the whole video is interesting).

THE PASSION OF BRADLEY MANNING

The official publication date of The Passion of Bradley Manning is Thursday 9th March and Chase will be over on a book tour from Monday 6th May to Wednesday 15th May.

*Events* are planned. Edinburgh, London, Cardiff, London again x 2, and Bristol. So far.

Chase will be able to tell us more about why and how Bradley Manning came to be at the centre of a case which is groundbreaking in so many ways. A case which really matters, because, apart from what happens to Bradley Manning himself, it has massive implications for our future…

OURS?

Yes, ours too, because we live in a global world which the US dominates. And our government are pretty cool with it, seemingly.

And we don’t pay enough attention to that.

And because we of all peoples have that *special relationship*.

SECRET COURTS SPRINGING FROM THE WAR OF TERROR

As, shamefully, the recent passing of the watershed Justice and Security Bill has demonstrated once again, with the British government apparently taking their cue from USG in favouring secret courts to keep their mutual tortures, renditions, and indefinite detentions from public scrutiny, to mutual satisfaction.

This is a bill which Liberty has said will

make drastic changes to our system of justice and fair trials

because

the Bill will not only overturn centuries of common law fair trial protections for those seeking to challenge the actions of the State, but also undermine the vital constitutional principle that no one is above the law, including the Government.

And if this case is about anything it’s undoubtedly about unwarranted state secrecy.

GUANTANAMO AND SHAKER AAMER

And further, as the disgraceful and obscene mutual shilly shallying about bringing home our own Shaker Aamer, the last British resident at Guantanamo, held without charge or trial for 11 years in that hell hole, where he has been tortured and visciously abused, also amply demonstrates.

In the Observer today, Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal charity Reprieve, is quoted as saying:

It seems highly probable that the British security services are in bed with the Americans on trying to keep Shaker from coming back to the UK, since Shaker is such an important witness against them for their complicity in torture.

And the Daily Mail today goes into more detail about what Shaker might have been a witness to, suggesting that he may have been present at the torture of a detainee who gave false information under that torture, false information later cited by President Bush and then Colin Powell in support of their intended invasion of Iraq. And that this is why there is so much obstruction.

Let’s see what happens when MPs, in response to an e-petition which garnered the requisite 100,000 signatures, closing on 117,371, are forced to debate this disgusting delay on  Weds (24th April) at 9.40 in Westminster Hall.

Hassle your MP to attend! And tell them it’s long past time to save Shaker Aamer and bring relief to his suffering family.

EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS (COMMONLY KNOWN AS MURDER)

More of the same hand in glove vile mutuality viz-a-viz ethnic minorities (you’ll not be surprised that this means Moslems) is reported in today’s Independent, which features an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism about British citizens being covertly stripped of their citizenship (so that they become stateless) while they are out of the country.

Mr Sakr’s former UK solicitor said there appeared to be a link between the Home Secretary removing citizenships and subsequent US actions.

“It appears that the process of deprivation of citizenship made it easier for the US to then designate Mr Sakr as an enemy combatant, to whom the UK owes no responsibility whatsoever,” Saghir Hussain said.

[note: HE WAS KILLED BY A DRONE]

Mr Macdonald (Ian McDonald QC) added that depriving people of their citizenship

means that the British government can completely wash their hands if the security services give information to the Americans who use their drones to track someone and kill them.

Hmm – Nice – as an Apache helicopter crew member once said….

JULIAN ASSANGE

And then again, as the continued refusal to allow Julian Assange to set foot outside the Ecuadorian Embassy lest he be arrested still demonstrates to those who have eyes to see what is under their noses. Price tag for the police guard? For Sweden? Just sayin…

WALES – BRAD’S MATERNAL HOME

And of course it concerns us on another level – Brad’s maternal home is Wales, and he was still at school there not so very long ago, right here in Haverfordwest, Pembs:

Where a noble graffitist memorialised the gates in his honour on the day he had been in captivity for 1000 days – February 23rd this year – demonstrating that the cause of Bradley Manning is alive and well in Wales.

BRINGING US UP TO DATE 

As someone who has paid close attention to the case as it proceeds oh-so-slowly through the Military Justice System, Chase will be able to answer our questions about what has been going on in those interminable hearings since the Court Martial process began over a year ago. And tell us where things are at with all that.

CLARIFYING THE PAST

And he will be able to answer all those questions you always wanted to ask an actual person in the know about Bradley’s experience in prison before the hearings began.

And show why the media narrative (much less touted, we note, since Bradley himself appeared in court to testify and gobsmacked all and sundry…) which implies that Brad was just a messed up kid who..blah blah blah &c…,

….is NOT actually borne out by a proper scrutiny of the record. And how his motives could not really be clearer.

And how it all fits together.

BRING YR FRIENDS AND RELATIONS

And for anyone who is not already a supporter of Brad, but wants to know what all the fuss is about, Chase Madar will surely be providing them with an overwhelming case for becoming one.

Watch this space for details of events. And then come and listen to, ask questions of, and talk with Chase Madar; an expert in this matter which has so engaged all who have caught even a glimpse of the extraordinary and unprecedented nature of the situation and its remarkable protagonist…

Bradley reading his historic statement in court

Oh yes! This is gonna be a real Bradfest – don’t miss it peoples!

MORE INFORMATION

CHASE MADAR is a civil rights attorney in New York who writes for The London Review of Books, Le Monde diplomatique, TomDispatch,CounterPunch, The Nation, The American Conservative (where he is a contributing editor), and the National Interest. 

Chase Madar’s book – The Passion of Bradley Manning is published by Verso Books on 9th May. Chase is available for media interviews etc. Please see this PRESS RELEASE for more information.