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COURAGE TO RESIST Supporting the troops who refuse to fight! www.couragetoresist.org 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610 510-488-3559 October 2016 National Newsletter facebook.com/couragetoresist Chelsea Manning again thrown in solitary By the Chelsea Manning Support mistreated by the US government since year, they threatened her with solitary Network and Fight for the Future. she was first taken into custody in 2010, confinement for minor “infractions” September 23, 2016 including long stretches of extreme including possession of LGBTQ reading After years of inhumane treatment, solitary confinement even before she materials and an expired tube of and having been held in conditions that had ever been convicted. toothpaste. Only after we delivered the UN considers to be torture, Chelsea This is not the first time the 100,000 petitions did they back off. Manning, the Guardian columnist and government has harassed Chelsea with For the most current news, please whistleblower who has been in prison outrageous charges while in prison. Last visit chelseamanning.org for years serving a 35-year sentence for exposing some of the US government’s worst abuses, attempted to take her own life July 5, 2016. After a 5-day hunger strike this month, the US Army finally agreed to provide her with gender reassignment surgery and the health care that she needs. Chelsea’s hunger strike is a historic victory for human rights. However, today, a prison disciplinary board decided to Do not extend draft registration to women. punish Chelsea with 14 days of solitary End war registration for everyone! confinement (with 7 days suspended) for charges related to her suicide attempt, and possession of an unmarked book in her cell. Drone technician Cian Westmoreland “If I get in trouble in the next six If it failed, we were told that months, those seven days will come people on our side would back,” Chelsea noted. potentially die. But I knew It was the government’s refusal to that if it stayed up, people on grant Chelsea access to needed health care that led to her suicide attempt in the Afghan side would die. the first place. And she forgot to write By Bob Meola, Courage to Resist. her name and inmate number in a copy September 21, 2016 of Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, by Cian Westmoreland is a former Gabriella Coleman. drone program technician who has These bizarre administrative spoken out against the US drone offenses will also be used against her wars. He was one of a group of four as she attempts to be reclassified as a drone whistleblowers who spoke out Cian Westmoreland. Photo: NBC News “minimum security” prisoner, or qualify in 2015. Cian joined the Air Force in for parole, in the years to come. April 2006. His reasons for joining were talked to the recruiter to see what they Reacting to today’s decision, multidimensional. But a reason he joined had to offer—Army, Navy, Marines. I Chelsea shared, “I am feeling hurt. I am was that his father was in the Air Force. chose the Air Force. feeling lonely. I am embarrassed by the The following is some of what Cian told “Basic training was in San Antonio. decision. I don’t know how to explain it. me. My technical school was at Keesler Air I am touched by your warm messages of “I felt stuck and wanted to get out Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi. My First love and support. This comforts me in of town. 40% of the houses in town were duty station was Osan Air Base in South my time of need.” condemned. Korea, then Spangdahlem Air Base in Chelsea has been systematically “I looked at military options and continued on inside Drone technician Cian Westmoreland continued Germany, and then Kandahar Airfield in “The day the boss gathered us with the journalist Chris Woods and I Afghanistan in 2009. around the equipment and said, ‘We’re wasn’t sure if I’d be able to come back “I deployed with my unit. We killing bad guys here, boys.’, it felt like I into the US. Woods wrote the book, established the site for the 73rd had something around my throat. I felt a Sudden Justice. I had just pointed him expeditionary Air Control Squadron. My lump in my throat like I couldn’t breathe. to resources to do his own investigative job shifted to RF Transmission Systems. “One of the reasons I joined the work, but this was in a similar timeframe Then Satcom Satellite Communications Air Force was of Edward and Wide Band. to develop a Snowden’s leaks, “Our job was to build the site relationship with and I was unclear if that would basically relay all the my dad. I didn’t what I had provided communications over the 240,000 square know how to. On would constitute miles in Afghanistan to the CAOC— 9/11, he was in government actions Combined Air operation Center—at Al Kuwait, working against me. Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and Ramstein Air at a headquarters “I was Base in Germany. there, when it depressed and I was “It was a point, a single point of happened. He had going to disappear failure, at that time. If it failed, we were to order all of the and not come told that people on our side would initial missile parts back. I decided to potentially die. But I knew that if it to be deployed in come back for my stayed up, people on the Afghan side Afghanistan. He sister’s wedding in would die. told me that the leadership there wanted summer, 2014. Now I’m here [in the US]. “I had plans to stay in and become to put cameras on the heads of the “All my [credit and debit] cards a Staff Sgt., until I went to Afghanistan. I missiles so they could watch the impact. were blocked for a few days. I couldn’t even received an early promotion. “He said every time a missile get cash or make purchases right after “When this mortar exploded about impacted it would show on a screen and talking to The Intercept this past fall 100 feet away from me, I started to think everybody would cheer. He said, ‘After [2015] in NYC. It was fixed soon, but about my own life and what I was doing they hit their targets, they would still [Attorney] Jesselynn Radack said other there and what I felt in that moment. I have missiles left over, so they would go clients of hers have had problems as well. tried to imagine what the children were looking for targets and at the time of the “We didn’t do what Snowden or going through who stood at the fence bombings, the targets were considered Manning did. We didn’t leak anything. and begged for water every day, while anybody who was wearing white.’ We didn’t give information. But we are I stood there unable to do anything for “I knew the culture of the people speaking out. They could try to construe them, despite the fact that just behind directing the strikes was not very that we are aiding the enemy by giving me we had a Taco Bell, McDonalds, and a discriminatory about who they bombed. info about certain events and what might Tim Hortons. They were not really concerned with have happened. international law and the killing of “Brandon [former AF drone pilot civilians. Brandon Bryant] and I both agreed that “After my father told me those we would be willing to stand trial at the things and when he came back from International Criminal Court for what we Kuwait, he became more quiet and participated in, because we believe it was distant. I wanted to understand things an illegal war. I know myself to be a war that he went through for the military. His criminal by international standards. We story was one I thought a lot about while participated in what would constitute in Afghanistan, and I understood the war crimes if any other soldier from any heaviness he must have felt. other nation perpetrated it. The US “Everyone knew there was signing of the Nuremberg Principles after collateral damage. Most of the data from WWII set the norm that ‘just following aircraft was coming through our unit. orders’ is not a valid excuse for human “I only had about seven months rights violations. Our work, in the Global left. Rather than trying to be a CO War on Terror, killed civilians in ways [conscientious objector], I just stayed that were massively disproportionate to until it was over and then hitchhiked the threat most targets on the ground from my base in Germany to Beijing on a actually posed. We excessively used journey of self-discovery. airpower when it wasn’t needed. We “Then a friend was followed had no formal declaration of war or any around and harassed and his computer business being in this region militarily. Award-winning “Drone” documentary now was hacked...I felt like it might have But despite knowing that my equipment widely available. been related to me sharing information continued opposite page War resisters in Canada continued came to power in Canada, intent on cracking down on the hundreds of Iraq war resisters in Canada. A government order branded them as criminals, leaving some to be deported to face up to 24 months in jail while those who stayed in Canada were denied permanent residency. Others voluntarily returned to the United States. As he campaigned to be prime minister, Trudeau hinted he would do things differently.