A comment came to my attention, with a link to a open letter asking for Pfc. Manning’s release.

https://sites.google.com/site/pfcmanning/

The letter was signed by David Jaris; and outlined some very interesting quotes stated by Obama himself.

“We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk… Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal.”

~ Senator Barack Obama, 2008

Mirrored in text form:

Dave Jarvis

Email: (withheld)

President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

Transparency and Open Government

Pfc. Bradley Manning

Dear Mr. President,

I request the immediate release of Pfc. Bradley Manning from pre-trial confinement and call for a nolle prosequi.

I envy neither your job, Mr. President, nor the difficult decisions before you. Presidency demands both keeping and weighing information that you may not, or dare not share; I strongly believe that every choice you have made has been for the protection, freedom, and prosperity of your governed. Clearly, creating the position of Chief Technology Officer demonstrates a positive vision, a forward-looking directive that acknowledges the necessity for the United States to remain technologically competitive – a vanguard of future discourse and commerce. We are making history in unprecedented, unpredictable ways; every time we talk, every word we write, everything that we see can be digitized, archived, and subsequently searched:

“A fundamental principle of our legal system, indeed of our society, is that every citizen should be guaranteed due process without regard to personal means.”

~ Senator Barack Obama, February 6, 20061

1 http://davidjarvis.ca/letters/capital-punishment-reply.pdf

December 27, 2010

“I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I’m not exempt from that. I’m certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too.”

~ Senator Barack Obama, July 3, 20082

“We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk… Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal.”

~ Senator Barack Obama, 20083

“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”

~ President Barack Obama, January 21, 20094

The question is not whether Manning’s alleged actions are legal under whistleblower laws. The question is whether whistleblowers are actually protected from retaliation; whether officials and offices of legal channels themselves obey the law. If the answer is no, then whistleblowers have no viable recourse to voice their discoveries.

On December 1st, 2010 the Government Accountability Project released a report document- ing a dozen whistleblowers subjected to illegal, malfeasant, retaliatory actions – all of whom were vilified or threatened, yet ultimately vindicated.5 On March 18th, 2008 the U.S. Army’s Department of Defense Intelligence Analysis Program allegedly wrote the following:6

The identification, exposure, or termination of employment of or legal actions against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others from using Wikileaks.org to make such information public.

~ Michael Hovath, March 18, 2008

2 http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rospars/gGxsZF 3 http://socialistworker.org/2010/12/16/solidarity-with-the-whistleblowers 4 http://www.whitehouse.gov/open 5 http://www.whistleblower.org/storage/documents/WWHfinal.pdf 6 http://mirror.wikileaks.info/leak/us-intel-wikileaks.pdf

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My trust in your government has been irreparably shattered, for the answer is no. No: we cannot trust government officials not to retaliate. No: we cannot trust that remedial actions will ensue. No: we cannot trust that supporters, embracing their Constitutional right to opine, will not be harassed.7

Any military officer witnessing unflagged illegal activities faces Morton’s Fork: forget them or report them. To forget them would break an oath to defend the Constitution from domestic enemies. To report them would bring forth certain reprisal.

Mr. President, I ask that you be held accountable for the maltreatment of Pfc. Bradley Man- ning, who has been in pre-trial confinement for over 200 days: a duration that ignores the law’s mandate for expediency – the “due process” that your letter to me championed. His imprisonment without significant exercise, without sufficient human contact, is a monotonously bleak regimen that embraces punitive Kafka-Orwellian measures by using isolation as torture.8 His extended detention is further evidence that even suspected whistleblowers will be subject to unwarranted repercussions.

In this information era where people can cast a virtual vote in the time that it takes to click, one popular social website tallies over a million voices of implicit support for Julian Assange. Over one million minds like the promise of WikiLeaks, like the idea of transparency, and like the persuasion of open governments. Over one million people want change that they can believe in!

Show the world that the United States will no longer tolerate corruption. Show the world that the dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the aspirations of John F. Kennedy, have not been assassinated. Show the world that America is a place where all things are possible.

Return honour and decency to your government: release Pfc. Bradley Manning. Sincerely yours,

Dave Jarvis

7 http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/09/manning 8 http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande

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