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Letter from Birgitta Jónsdóttir MP (Iceland) to Parliamentarians April 2012
Dear fellow parliamentarians,
Whistleblowers are under siege across our world. The incredible story of Private Bradley Manning's historic deeds of courage – to inform and transform the world with such a simple thing as the truth – inspired us to nominate him for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Many parliamentarians are not aware of the fact they are on the short list of eligible nominators for the Nobel Peace Prize. The 2012 nomination deadline has passed, but we felt it would be a powerful statement to collect the names of parliamentarians who wish to support the nomination. Please read the letter we sent to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and consider adding your name to it in support of the nomination.
On February 1st 2012, the entire parliamentary delegation of The Movement in the Icelandic Parliament nominated Private Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. Below is the letter we sent to the committee explaining why we felt compelled to nominate Manning in recognition of his individual effort, at great personal sacrifice, to further the cause of peace in our world.
Our letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee:
We have the great honor of nominating Private First Class Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Manning is a soldier in the United States Army who stands accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The leaked documents point to a long history of corruption, war crimes and imperialism by the United States government in its international dealings. These revelations have fueled democratic uprisings around the world, including a democratic revolution in Tunisia. According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on our foreign policies and, most recently, contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all U.S. troops from the occupation in Iraq.
Bradley Manning has been incarcerated for nearly two years by the U.S. Government, without a trial. He spent over ten months of that time in solitary confinement, under conditions which experts worldwide have criticized as torturous. Juan Mendez, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has repeatedly requested and been denied a private meeting with Manning to assess his conditions.
The documents made public by WikiLeaks should never have been kept from public scrutiny. These revelations – including video documentation of an incident in which American soldiers in Baghdad gunned down eleven or twelve people, including two Reuters journalists and one clearly innocent passerby – have helped fuel worldwide discussion about America’s overseas engagements, civilian casualties of war, imperialistic manipulations and military rules of engagement.
The people of Earth owe a great debt to the WikiLeaks whistleblower for shedding light on these issues, and so we urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize to accused whistleblower Bradley Manning.
Sincerely yours, Birgitta Jónsdóttir Margrét Tryggvadóttir Þór Saari Members of the Icelandic Parliament for The Movement
Michael Parenti Mike Gogulski Members of the Bradley Manning Support Network
I hereby declare that I support the nomination of Private Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize initiated by The Movement in Iceland. Sign and send to postmaster@nobel.no
Með björtum kveðjum
Birgitta Jonsdottir
http:/immi.is - http://this.is/birgitta - http://joyb.blogspot.com - http://www.facebook.com/birgitta.jonsdottir - twitter @birgittaj - skype: birgittajoy |