Twenty anti-war and solidarity activists gathered outside the U.S. embassy in London on Tuesday in solidarity with Bradley Manning. Those gathered included veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former anti-war prisoners, members of Veterans for Peace, Catholic Worker, London Guantanamo Campaign, Pay Day Mens Network. Nationalities of the solidarity activists included Australian, Canadian, Chilean, Colombian, English, Irish, Italian, Latvian and U.S.
As the group stood in silence and the rain confronitng the U.S. embassy the soundtrack of the www.collateralmurder.com footage was amplified.[ photos | Video 1 | Video 2 ]
Manning faces a week long pre-trial hearing at Ft. Meade Maryland USA, in which he will speak publicly for the first time since his arrests 2 1/2 years ago. Manning faces 22 charges accused of releasing footage and cables of U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere to WikiLeaks in 2010. He was exposed to long months of torture at Quantico marine base in the hopes he would crack and implicate Julian Assange. Manning has refused to speak to investigators.